A. ‘Diamonds and Pearls’ began its existence somewhere around 1998 in a garden full of Astilbe chinensis. It was from here that Harrie Verduin collected seeds to sew, beginning years of selection work.

From the thousands of seedlings produced in the chinensis garden that year, just 100 were selected to be grown in the second year. That number was further whittled down over the next 7 years as plants either proved their worth or not, until only a few remained.

The plants were judged on such criteria as flower colour, number of flowering stems, foliage colour, shape of flower plumes and overall plant strength.

A. 'Diamonds and Pearls' puts in an impressive performance at the Keukenhof exhibition in April 2006

The plant which finally made its way into the world as A.‘Diamonds and Pearls’ sported many, many stems of long, upright plumes adorned with flowers formed of large, bright-white petals. In contrast, the foliage is dark-green. The plant is formed with noticeably thick and hairy stems, a hallmark of A. chinensis.

Harrie together with A. 'Diamonds and Pearls' at an industry exhibition

In true A. chinensis style, A. ‘Diamonds and Pearls’ grows slower than other species, but there lies its strength, as these plants store nutrients and energy rather than using them immediately for growing. This is what makes them more resilient to hot conditions and times when there isn't enough water.

The flowers of Astilbe chinensis typically open over a period if time from the bottom of each spike on the plume upwards. This means they are in bloom for a longer period than other species where the flowers all open at pretty much the same time.

A. 'Milk & Honey' (left) compared to A. 'Diamonds & Pearls' (right)  You can see the different shades of white clearly.

Remarkably from a crop of the normally pink-hued A. chinensis seedlings, not one, but 2 plants had white flowers. The other, named as A.‘Milk and Honey’, however has a pink tinge so isn’t a pure white. It’s also an attractive plant, though with quite a different character from A.‘Diamonds and Pearls’, having shorter plumes of smaller-petalled flowers on thinner stems over bright-green foliage. Although these two varieties were produced from the same garden, they come from different mother plants.

So why a white A. chinensis now?

Harrie Verduin took up this discussion with British Astilbe guru and holder of what is considered to be the world’s most complete Astilbe collection, Henry Noblett. According to Henry, the original Astilbes were white, so this throwback shouldn’t be such of a surprise. The chances are that we’ve been so busy looking to breed plants with strong pink colours that paler seedlings were always discarded!