Heptacodium miconioides Seeds | Seven Son Flower
LATIN NAME: Heptacodium miconioides
COMMON NAME: Seven Son Flower
Plant Profile
Known to gardeners as Seven Son Flower, Heptacodium miconioides is an upright, deciduous shrub in the honeysuckle family. Seven son flower saves its best for end of the season. Shrub is one of fine, late-flowering plants of garden, and peeling, tan bark adds its own interest through the winter. It is a shrub of open, sunny, well-drained ground. These traits together are what have kept the plant in gardens for so long.
Science & Biotechnology
Botanists studying the honeysuckle family regularly include Heptacodium miconioides in comparative work, and the species also appears in horticultural trials aimed at gardeners and growers. Seven son flower is a latecomer to garden world but a steady subject of studies of small, white, fragrant flowers and red-purple calyces. In practice, its long garden history means the grower inherits a plant of known and dependable habits.
Uses & Benefits
In the garden, Seven Son Flower earns its place in borders, containers and mixed plantings, and it also rewards growers who raise plants for cutting, drying or kitchen use. Seven son flower is a fine, late gift of autumn garden. Clusters of small, white, fragrant flowers open in late summer, and red-purple calyces that follow hold their colour for weeks, carrying shrub deep into autumn when rest of border fades. Shrub is a fine, easy, generous choice for sunny border and wilder garden, and peeling bark adds its own quiet interest through the winter. After the first season it asks for very little beyond a place that suits it.
The seven-son flower is a rare Chinese ornamental tree treasured for late-summer fragrant bloom and autumn calyx color.
Growing from Seed
Seven Son Flower grows readily from seed. Sow thinly on the surface of a loose, well-drained seed compost, cover lightly, water in gently and keep the tray in a sunny spot with even moisture. Transplant the sturdiest seedlings to their permanent spots and let them develop without disturbance.
Our Take
Seven Son Flower has real presence in the garden without demanding much in return. Once the young plants are away, there is little left to do but watch them grow.
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