Download October October....... `Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.` John

October
October.......
‘Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.’ John Keats .
Heptacodium miconioides.
The name is a bit of a mouthful but don’t let that put you off a gorgeous shrub. Its common name is Seven Sons Flower
Tree apparently, although I have never heard anyone call it that. The name, probably arose because in Chinese it is
called ‘Seven Son Flower from Zhejiang’. Heptacodium means seven-part flower head. It is a member of the
Caprifoliaceae family which is closely related to the honeysuckle. It comes from the Hubei Province of China. It was
introduced like so many fabulous Chinese plants by E.H. Wilson. He was collecting for the Arnold Arboretum. It was not
widely available until an expedition to China procured more seeds for the Arnold Arboretum in the 1980s. It is now very
rare in the wild.
In late summer and early autumn it has clusters of exquisitely –perfumed, starry, white flowers. When the flowers go over
you can enjoy the pink calyxes. It doesn’t have a good autumn colour but it has glossy green heart shaped leaves with
deeply marked veins. The leaves are arranged in drooping pairs. As the tree matures you have the advantage of lovely
peeling bark in winter. To maximise this effect it is a good idea to prune it so that it grows as a small tree. It is also
possible to leave the lower branches on and grow it as a shrub. It eventually grows to about 15 feet. If it suckers it is
best to remove them so that you have the full effect of the lovely bark which has a striped effect of green, grey and
cream.
Heptacodium is said to do well on a well-drained, moist site which always strikes me as a bit of an oxymoron. I think it
means it mustn’t dry out but on the other hand it won’t tolerate sitting in wet ground. It is also said to prefer slightly acidic
soil but I grew it for years in a previous garden and it never seemed to suffer from a slightly alkaline soil.
You might find this plant listed as Heptacodium jasminoides but this is a synonym and not a different plant. It is certainly
worth seeking out for its wonderful fragrance.
Heptacodium miconioides
The Kaffir lily, Hesperantha coccinea comes into its own in October and will flower right through November and into the
first frosts. It belongs to the Iridaceae family. You probably know it as Schizostylis but this is one of the many plants
which has been renamed so we have to try and get used to calling it Hesperantha. I am a bit baffled as to why this is so
because I thought plants in the Hesperantha family grow from bulbs and flower in the spring. Whatever you call it
though, perhaps it should no longer be called the Kaffir Lily because apparently this is a pejorative name for black South
Africans. It comes from South Africa where it grows along streams and damp places. It seems to do well when we have
a wet season. It spreads by rhizomes and it has spear like leaves. The flowers open like shiny stars and have three
prominent stamens. Hesperantha coccinea ‘Major’ is red but it has perhaps been superseded by H.ccoccinea ‘Cardinal’.
There are several pink ones now; H.’Mrs.Hegarty has been around for some time but there are many new ones. I have a
very pale pink one called H. ‘Pink Princess’ which flowers earlier than most. To add to the confusion this is sometimes
called H. ‘Wilfred H Bryant’. If you prefer slightly later flowering ones ‘Viscountess Byng’ and ‘November Cheer’ start
blooming in November. There are now over thirty cultivars available including a white one. Many of them seem
indistinguishable one from the other though. Apparently if you sow the seeds you may get some interesting new colours
but I have never tried this.
Hesperantha coccinea 'Pink Princess'
Liz Wells