{"id":5916,"date":"2020-12-23T18:22:35","date_gmt":"2020-12-23T18:22:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/herbarium\/?p=5916"},"modified":"2020-12-23T18:24:34","modified_gmt":"2020-12-23T18:24:34","slug":"adventbotany-2020-day-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/herbarium\/2020\/12\/23\/adventbotany-2020-day-23\/","title":{"rendered":"#AdventBotany 2020 Day 23, Hope rekindled and gardening with Cassowaries"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alastair Culham<\/a><\/h2>\n

This year I planned to upcycle existing blogs in the spirit of making the best from what you have during the COVID-19 pandemic but I just couldn’t resist mentioning a plant that has flooded the supermarkets this year as a new Christmas flower.\u00a0 That new plant is Guzmania<\/em> Hope (=’Durahop’), a hybrid cultivar that was awarded the RHS Award of Garden Merit (AGM) in 2015<\/a> for its ‘long-lasting inflorescence with good colour’.\u00a0 As is so often the case, tracking the origin of this plant down was not simple.\u00a0 For a start the plant is sold as Guzmania<\/em> Hope but it was registered for Plant Breeder’s Rights under the name ‘Durahop’ in 2011<\/a>. Why is a tropical bromeliad suitable as a Christmas houseplant?\u00a0 One glance at the white tipped bracts on the holly-berry red flower stalk and you can see.<\/p>\n