M. 'Alaska'
Cultivar of garden origin. A seed-raised hybrid fairly closely related to M. betonicifolia but with M. baileyi in its makeup. It is a very elegant, slender and airy plant with a stoloniferous habit.
Raised by: G.C. Hill, 2011. First flowered by: G.C. Hill, 2012.
Introduced by: G.C. Hill, 2012. Named by: E. Stevens, 2015.
Registered by: E. Stevens, 2015.
Flowering: May to June with many pale sky-blue flowers on long pedicels. The flowers are initially nodding and saucer-shaped but as they mature they become more open, flatter and lateral facing. Petals elliptic-ovate with frilled margins.
Emerging foliage: The young leaves are firm, erect and densely covered with short hairs. Their blades are triangular with a truncated or slightly cordate base.
Mature foliage: The basal leaves develop long narrow petioles and spread. Their blades are paddle shaped or triangular-ovate with a truncate or cordate base and a sub-obtuse apex. The leaf margins are incised with several crenate dentate teeth. The young flower stems are initially red-brown in colour.
Fruit capsule: Oblong-ellipsoid, densely covered with ginger bristles and capped with a long style. This cultivar is essentially sterile but a few viable seeds may be produced. Plants raised from this seed do not usually come true to type tending to be larger and more robust with more densely clothed stems and less resemblance to M. betonicifolia.
Etymology: M. ‘Alaska’ was raised from seed obtained from an Alaskan nursery in which plants of M. betonicifolia were grown alongside M. baileyi and M. ‘Lingholm’. Hand pollinated seed was sent to us from plants that were thought to be true M. betonicifolia but all of the plants raised from this seed proved to be hybrids and lacked the glabrous capsules which are characteristic of M. betonicifolia.