Surrey Homes | SH109 | February 2024 | Education Supplement inside

Heptacodium miconioides
Garden
istockphoto.com/Michel VIARD / Photoenthusiast82 / Alex Manders / zhuclear
and its dark red flowers are similar to
those of the Hamamelis or witch hazel,
flowering as they do from bare stems.
A particularly eye-catching form is
‘Vanessa’, which not only has great
autumn colour (red, orange and
plum purple) but glossy red shoots
and young leaves. Interestingly, P.
persica ‘Vanessa’ was named after a
genus of butterflies which includes
the Red Admiral, Vanessa atlanta, and
the Painted Lady, Vanessa cardui.
Heptacodium miconioides, also known
at the Seven Son Flower of Zhejiang is,
as the name implies, a Chinese shrub
which was introduced to the Hillier
Gardens and Arboretum in the early
1980s. I first saw a smallish specimen
in a private garden up above Wye
and fell for its name, its form and the
elderly gentleman whose garden we
were visiting. That was a long time
ago but I’m reminded of it every time
I see the fabulous mature specimen in
a garden in Benenden which opens for
the NGS. Each glossy leaf has three
particularly prominent veins and a habit
of curling under the branch – the whole
resembling tubes. Clusters of seven
lightly scented white flowers appear
in late summer and are particularly
appealing to butterflies and foraging
insects. In a good warm autumn the
calyces enlarge and then turn bright red.
Like the parrotia, the grey bark peels as
the shrub matures with the new bark
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