In my front garden I have a paper bush, Edgeworthia chrysantha, that my sister gave me several years ago. It’s a remarkable plant for several reasons, not the least of which is that it is all budded up and ready to bloom RIGHT NOW!
While most everything else is still heavy with winter sleep, this baby looks ready to party. The blossoms will fully open sometime during the next month and look something like those of Daphne. Fortunately, the paper bush is much easier to grow than it’s look-alike cousin Daphne.
Interestingly enough, both of these shrubs have been used historically to make paper. The inner bark is harvested, beaten to a pulp and spread on screens to make paper.
Both shrubs are native to China and the Himalayas where they grow at elevations between 6500 and 9500 feet. Villages in Nepal are particularly well known for making lokta paper from the shrub Daphne papyracea. The paper was used extensively in Tibetan monasteries for writing sacred texts. The oldest text written on lokta paper is a sacred Buddhist text written between 1000 and 1900 years ago. Because it is of such high quality, lokta paper is still used today in Nepal for recording government documents.
Since I only have ONE Edgeworthia shrub and no Daphne, (and no sacred nor governmental texts to write) I decided not to go into the paper making business and to just enjoy the mid-winter gift of flowers.
And thank you for sharing with your readers; I have neither. I have tried daphne, both in CT and in GA. I have found it to be a short lived shrub with a mind of its own as to which direction it will grow!
The Cobb Count 4-H is selling these at their annual plant sale and I ordered two! All proceeds go to benefit the 4-H youth.
https://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/cobbcounty.org.if-us-west-2/prod/2020-02/4_H_Plant_Sale_Brochure_2020%20%282%29.pdf
Excellent information , Sue, Thanks for including the link for the Cobb County 4H.
These are really pretty early attention getters. Thanks for sharing. I still have a red sasanqua as my only last remaining flower that I have been covering up and trying to care for on nights of frost. Does frost bother your paper bush?
Thanks for asking, David. A light frost won’t do any damage. A heavy frost or really cold temperature might kill the blossoms but do no lasting harm to the plant itself.