Seven Sons Flower - Heptacodium miconoides is native to the province of Hubei in western China. It is very hard to find in the wild these days, due to development pressure and environmental degradation. It was ‘discovered’ by E.H. ‘Chinese’ Wilson (1876-1930). He was born in Gloucestershire, and spent his early years ensconced in botanical academia at Birmingham Botanical Gardens, a technical school and the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. He hired on as a plant collector for a private seed and nursery firm, to travel to China and send back specimens from that newly-opened-to-Western-Imperialists floristic region. On the way, he stopped by the Arnold Arboretum, where he met Charles Sprague Sargent, and also learned the techniques of packing and shipping seeds and plants for trans-oceanic voyage. He traveled by train across our continent, caught a ride over the briny and collected plants for years, often not seeing what we would call civilization for months (of course, many Chinese would dispute that we know anything about civilization being somewhat new to the concept as compared to them). His intrepid and indomitable spirit made him legendary in the plant-collecting world, and to this day, he is revered by botanists, plant collectors and gardeners who like to read.
So he was sending plants back to England, but also, as per an agreement probably cemented with brandy and a cigar, to the Arnold Arboretum, where many of his plants were introduced to our country through that august institution. Lest we think that our entire planet has been explored, mapped, photographed and ‘friended,’ there is still room for plant exploration. Michael Donoghue, the Sterling Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology here at Yale took a trip to Borneo this summer. He returned with seeds from a plant that was last seen by a botanist in 1931, at which time cuttings and seeds were brought back for herbarium display. These were not catalogued or named until 1951. The plant had not been seen in flower by the original folks, but Michael and his cohorts were able to find this small population of Viburnum, which is the only one of its species to be dioecious, meaning the male and female reproductive organs are borne on separate individuals of the same species, like Cannabis, Ilex and many others. This makes this species of Viburnum a very interesting subject for those in the evolutionary sciences, as it represents an early branch of the genus tree. We have started the seeds that were brought back, and we hope that we can produce a few plants of this very rare tropical species for Michael and his research, and also for our display here. But that is a future plant of the week.
Back to our plant: from early September through the first frost, Heptacodium will send out clusters of white fragrant blooms that attract butterflies, bees and other pollinators. After the flower petals drop, the real show begins, with bright to deep red calyxes remaining on the plant through October and into November. This long display of flower and calyx make Seven-Sons shrub a great fall focal point. Add in the fact that the bark on older specimens has a nice flaking (what we refer to as ‘exfoliating’) appearance, which is a nice winter aspect, and you have a great two- or three-season plant.
Heptacodium grows to nine or ten meters high, about thirty to thirty-six feet, with a spread of about a third of that. The shape is generally upright and vase-like. It prefers full sun to partial shade, any well-drained moderately fertile soil and very little care. It will tend to start out as a multi-stemmed shrub, so if you want a tree form, some judicious pruning of the stems coming out of the ground would be good, but otherwise no pruning is generally necessary. There are no insect or disease problems to worry about with this plant, so once you find it at the better nurseries, or by mail order, you will have a wonderful specimen in a few short years.
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