Those familiar with the books and British TV series ‘Inspector Morse’ may feel themselves somewhat drawn to this plant’s name. And with good reason, as Chris Ghyselen’s own Brunnera macrophylla ‘Inspector Morse’ was a parent of this unique variety.

To start at the beginning, sometime in the early 2000’s, before the days of Brunnera ‘Jack Frost’, Chris was experimenting with self-crossings of B. ‘Langtrees’ to see if he could get a plant with all-white foliage. A few selections later he had achieved his goal, in the form of a plant barely distinguishable from B. ‘Jack Frost’ by having a little more green in its foliage.

Brunnera macrophylla 'Inspector Morse'

A fan of the fictional detective, Chris named his plant ‘Inspector Morse’ as a reference to his grey hair colour being a likeness to his plant’s leaves – not taking into consideration the green parts!

Chris really liked B. ‘Inspector Morse’ and kept it to use in his garden designs. But because his discovery coincided with the launch of B. ‘Jack Frost’ it was never offered for general sale.

Having bred this plant with apparent ease, Chris got curious to see if he could breed the world’s first Brunnera to combine silver foliage and white flowers. In his eyes the equation was simple – cross his silver-leaved ‘Inspector Morse’ with the white-flowered B. ‘Betty Bowring’. Generally these theories don’t work quite so smoothly in practice, but Chris’s case proved to be the exception, as the plant he was hoping for emerged during the first set of crossings he made. ‘Mr Morse’ was borne!

Despite this obvious talent for plant breeding, Chris was still only doing it for his own satisfaction and hadn’t considered the possibility of introducing ‘Mr Morse’ as a variety for the whole world to grow for themselves.

Brunnera macrophylla 'Mr Morse'

Here, the connections in the worldwide horticulture industry came into play at just the right time, involving a cast of characters already featured on this website.

Already friends with another Darwin PlantSpotters breeder, Frenchman Thierry Delabroye, Chris had shown him Brunnera ‘Mr Morse’. Thierry was in regular contact with intrepid Dutch plant hunter Luc Klinkhamer, who, upon being told about this breakthrough variety wasted no time in getting to know Chris and setting up the arrangements to introduce B. ‘Mr Morse’ to the world.

With Brunnera macrophylla ‘Mr Morse’ due for its worldwide launch in 2008, there is more history in the making as having become acquainted with Chris Ghyselen and his breeding skills, Luc and others are working to introduce many more of his plants over the next few years.