Heptacodium miconioides 12Ltr pot

Heptacodium miconioides – Seven Son Flower – 12 Litre Pot

Just as most flowering shrubs are winding down for the year, the Seven Son Flower steps into the spotlight. From late summer into autumn it is smothered in clusters of small, creamy-white, sweetly fragrant flowers, much loved by bees and butterflies. As the blooms fade, their calyces remain and deepen to rosy pink and purplish-red, extending the display well into the autumn. Even in winter it earns its place, with pale, peeling bark that flakes away to give the stems real character once the leaves have fallen.

A holder of the RHS Award of Garden Merit, Heptacodium is a bushy, upright shrub that can be grown as a large multi-stemmed specimen or lifted into a small tree by gradually removing the lower branches to reveal the bark. It is exceptionally hardy (RHS H7) and unfussy about soil, growing in chalk, clay, loam or sand of any pH, provided drainage is good. Give it full sun or light dappled shade in a sheltered spot, away from cold, drying winds. It is well suited to cottage gardens, city courtyards and coastal gardens, and is generally free from pests and diseases.

Plant in autumn or spring and water well through its first summer while the roots establish. Little pruning is needed beyond shaping in late winter or early spring. In time it will reach 4–8m in height with a spread of 2.5–4m.

Each plant is hand-selected before dispatch.