Dave Epstein: Hi! I’m Dave Epstein. Looks like we have pink clouds over us, but in actuality this is the heptacodium. It’s October, into the second week of October, and we have amazing color. I’m here with Wayne Mezitt of Weston Nursery Inc. Wayne, this is actually not the flowers that we are looking at are they.
Wayne Mezitt: This is the under part of the flower, it’s called the sepal, they are white flower, fragrant flowers. They finished about two weeks ago, they lasted a week, week and half. Nice display on their own, but these is even more spectacular because this color gets darker and darker as the weeks go on, and it last for many weeks beyond the flowers. It’s almost like a second flowering.
Dave Epstein: So Wayne, this is maybe a plant that people aren’t familiar with. It’s fairly under utilize in a lot of landscape, isn’t it.
Wayne Mezitt: You’re right David, this plant was only introduced less than 25 years ago. It came from China, and it’s under utilize because it just wasn’t available. Now that it has been available at the market, it’s turning out to be a fantastic plant. Not just this time of year, but even in the winter time and it has that wonderful bark that peels off and very colorful.
Dave Epstein: What really neat about this is how it almost looks like a birch tree.
Wayne Mezitt: It’s got that exfoliating bark, which means it peels off and shows different colors underneath it. Its tan and its grey and it is silvery color, almost orange, in certain times of the year. It’s low branching as well, so you get the effect of many stems coming out of the ground.
Dave Epstein: How tall will these guys get? Is this going to get a 50-foot tree?
Wayne Mezitt: I think 25 to 30 feet is the about the size you can expect in this area. The other thing David is, this is a recipient of the Cary Award, which is the award of the western county horticultural society here in Massachusetts. It recognizes the plant that is underutilize in the landscape that has multi season appeal, and is easily available in the market.
Dave Epstein: And this can grow in terms of zones, across the country.
Wayne Mezitt: So far, we’ve experience it in zone 5, and it seems to be perfectly hardy.
Dave Epstein: And this will do well even in western states, and southern states.
Wayne Mezitt: As far as we know, it would. It grows in different types of soils, it likes full sun. it doesn’t like to be planted in the shade, it will grow in the shade, but it doesn’t color up as well.
Dave Epstein: So heptacodium, seven-sun flower, maybe folks haven’t heard of it, but now you have. Certainly something you want to put in your yard, because its great color is not only in the fall but with that great bark, this is a four season plant. Come back every week for all our tips and helps at GrowingWisdom.com.