Where has Godstone gone?

No, we don’t mean the village of Godstone, or even the Godstone Gardening Club! This tabloid headline refers to a plant – Aubretia Godstone.

You may recall from an earlier post that Margaret had asked how Daphne Bholua Limpsfield came to get its name. That set me thinking (never a good idea as I spend a lot of time thinking and very little time actually doing) and I turned to the good old RHS Plant Finder to look up other local names. Needless to say, there was no Hurst Green listed, or Oxted, Crockham, Titsey, Tandridge, etc, but there was an Aubretia Godstone. Result! I clicked on the information to discover that it has not been listed since 2002. 

Aubrieta (or Aubretia depending on how you feel) - this
photograph is not Godstone!

I therefore Googled it, confident that I must be able to find a supplier in the UK, but came up with nothing. It has completely disappeared. Yet back in 1950 none other than the gardening goddess Vita Sackville West describes Aubretia Godstone thus, “Aubretia has certainly been overdone, but I still maintain that this Rock-cress can be used with tact and advantage … a grey wall or a whitewashed wall, or grey paving stones, all make a good background, especially if you avoid the insipid old pale mauve and choose only the best strains, such as Cambria, red; Crimson Queen; Godstone, deep purple; Kelmscott Beauty, a double red; Vindictive, violet-red.” (Extract from In Your Garden.) I have checked plant finder for all these others as well; Kelmscott Beauty is not listed, the others are listed but again there are no suppliers.

So why has it disappeared? Plants do appear, flourish briefly, and then disappear out of garden centres, catalogues and stockists, but Aubrieta Godstone has been around a long time. I realise that Aubretia is considered old fashioned at the moment – when was the last time you saw it used at Chelsea? – and certainly when we visited the RHS inaugural Alpine plant fair earlier this year there was precious little aubretia for sale. I also don’t think it helps that it has slightly changed its name! It is now more commonly known as aubrieta, not aubretia, which I find incredibly confusing.

I have of course asked the ever-helpful Sylvia from Godstone Gardening Club for assistance (this reference also gives us a good opportunity to marvel at a lovely picture of Sylvia when Godstone produced a show garden at Chelsea in 2000 - good for them! - p.s. click on the link to read it) . She has suggested putting out a general note in the Godstone newsletter appealing for any information (this plant is beginning to sound like a lost cat!) and preferably a cutting. If any of our members knows anyone with Aubretia Godstone, please let us know. It would be lovely to be able to plant it next to Limpsfield, and ideally to propagate it and spread it back around the locality.