Seven Sun Flower

Baltimore, MD(Zone 7a)

Heptacodium miconiodes with calyx turning red. This is a great small tree with multi season interest.

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Illinois, IL(Zone 5b)

Sort of like the hated Bradford pear, it's very difficult to make into a decent tree unless you are very persistent with your pruner. It likes to send up vertical sprouts from the trunk and grows much like some of the more unkempt honeysuckles. But once you get it past its rebelious juvenile stage it's great, and worth the effort. They vary, and I think the most spectacular one I've seen is at the Olbrich Botanic Garden in Madison Wisconsin.

If you don't have the patience or skill with pruning to make a good tree of it, you still can grow it as a shrub and whack the old stems and unwanted suckers back to the ground occasionally.

Guy S.

Baltimore, MD(Zone 7a)

Thanks for the information..I got this as a tiny thing about 10 or 12 years ago and it is now about 20 feet tall or so. You are right in that it sends up these shoots but I do try and keep it pruned. They eventually bend over..it is actually too tall for me to prune the top now so it will definitely not be a shrub. P.S. I hope it is not as bad as the Bradford Pear!

This message was edited Oct 23, 2005 2:43 PM

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