PlantFiles: Seven Son Flower, Autumn Lilac
Heptacodium miconioides

This is a beautiful plant which does not seem to be widely used in my area, despite it being fully hardy. I only recently saw a large specimen in full bloom for the first time, and I must say the fragrance is heavenly. The fragrance is similar to that of angelwing jasmine; it has the same delicate floral note. The bark is very attractive as it exfoliates with age. I have heard that this tree tends to be weak stemmed, though by all accounts even if the branches are damaged or snapped off, the plant will grow back within a season and its shape is usually better if this happens. A very interesting and novel tree as it blooms later than most. Although it will make a much larger plant, it's a good substitute for jasmine if you love fragrance but live in a cold area and hardiness is a problem.

Fast-growing, hardy tree. I planted one on a steep bank in poor soil. It is thriving all the same! Flowers appear in late summer. Not spectacular, but nice. Winter bark adds interest.

Great looking foliage on this plant. We want to know how tall the plant has to be to flower. Can you grow it as a large shrub and expect flowers? Can you keep it at 6' or rejuvinate every other year and expect flowers on the new growth that same summer?

I haven't planted mine yet. I will be planting a 4' one come the beginning of May. I really am excited. I've been drooling over this plant and trying to locate one for the last year. I live in zone 5b almost 6a. It will be on the north side of my home but far enough away from all obstructions to be virtually in the sun all day. I'm also concerned with any winterizing this plant may need. Our snow, while this year was the worst in 50 years, has been very very light for the last 10. While I want everything I plant to be successful, this plant is new to me, and I really want to give it the best care possible.

Update: I ordered a 4' Heptacodium from Forest Farm, what I received was actually a little over 6' feet. Also, I didn't get it planted till probably about mid July 08. It has done wonderfully. I'm growing it as a multi (3) trunk tree. It flowered about 1 1/2 months after I planted it and the pealing bark is really attractive. This year it has grown at least 4' and is over 10' tall and lots of new branches. It actually looks like a tree now. A few suckers (not aggressively) came up at the base of the trunks but they snap off easily. It's been setting flower buds for a few weeks now and I am really looking forward to them. In fact, this has done so well for me and grows so fast that I planted 4 more (babies from Forest Farm again).

A wonderful multi season plant. A bee and butterfly magnet!

I would dispute the claim that this plant needs acid soil. Mine is in neutral to slightly alkaline and is thriving. I planted it in 2003 as a 4' shrub, and it's now about 15' tall.

It is a tree (I just can't bring myself to call anything this big a shrub) that needs to be pruned to really be used to best effect. I remove all but the main stems from 3' down, and cut back some of the higher branches by 1/3 in spring.

As this plant is not widely grown in my area (Toronto, ON) cuttings have great novelty value at local flower shows (last fall it received 'best in show' for a cultural entry at my local Horticultural society). It's also one that most causes most plant people walking through my garden to ask "what's that?!?"

I bought one of these plants last year. Once in the ground its leaves turned a nice shade of green and it grew quite steadily. It is young and needs efforts to shape its branches upwards but im comfortable training it to a shape it and I can agree with. It flowered and the fragrance was noticible at a distance although not that heavy, right at the plant i had a harder time finding the fragrance. The sepals didnt get a chance to really get going before a freeze came and destroyed thier efforts. The few that remained looked a purplish brown red color. It was a color hard to explain. I suspect it flowered later than it would have normally since it was its first year in the ground. I was very pleased to see the bark peel on such a young plant. It is a very different aspect that does remind me a lot of crape myrtle. There is no appreciable fall color. I think a trick to getting this plant accepted into commerce at least here in Illinois is to get people more comfortable with these plants that dont need to get sheared. I know many people here would never limb a bush up and perhaps the plant would fall victim to the hedge clipper. Since there are few plants here that can be used in that kind of manner fewer people know how to use it in a landscape.

I've read the comments, and seen the pictures and I don't believe it!! I've had this plant for over two years in a partly shady area of a new garden. It hasn't grown very much and certainly hasn't 'bushed' out at all with the same 6-7 branches. I get a handful of flowers and bracts in the VERY late fall. I'm about to pull it out. I have it in area where my azaleas and other acid lovers are. I'm in zone 5a and it should do well here. We've had mild winters, and lots of rain.

Update - November 2008. Some type of fungus or blight killed my Seven Son Flower by the end of the 2005 growing season. I removed it and planted a new one in the same spot at the beginning of the 2006 season. When I planted the new one, it was about 5' tall. The new one has been trouble-free and is now (November 2008) 12' tall with a beautiful fountaining habit. I can't sing the praises of this great little tree enough!

Originally written in 2005: This is a great small tree and it is virtually indestructible. I planted a 4' tall Seven Son Flower in the late summer of 2001 in extremely poor soil. By the end of 2003, it was easily over 8' tall. In the winter of 2003-04, a wind storm tossed heavy debris on it and snaped it of at the base. During the 2004 growing season it resprouted from the woody stump and was 4' tall by mid summer. Then something (squirrel, rabbit or vole) gnawed off most of the new growth, yet it managed to regrow a couple feet before the end of the season. It is now 2005, and this tree is sprouting again.

They don't lie when they call this the Crepe Myrtle of the North. I live in Zone 5A (very close to 4B) which makes Crepe Myrtle pretty much out of the question. Seven Son Flower makes a great alternative. It has a beautiful exfoliating bark which makes for good winter interest.

One caution: If you are allergic to bee stings, this might not be the tree for you. When it blooms, my Seven Son Flower is perpetually covered by dozens of bees throughout the day.

Heptacodium miconioides,or Seven Sons Flower is one of my most sucessfull new plants that I have grown lately.I have had no problems with it so far,no pests at all.

I have had one of these for 4 1/2 years.Got it in the late Fall as a single branch bareroot 1/2 meter tall sapling.I planted it in a mostly sunny spot in clay soil that has an inch of sandy loom on top of it,but it is on a gentle slope,so drainage is excellent.I keep it mulched and watered during dry spells,but it has missed a few watering after its first year with no ill effect.The tempertures here have hit 0 F in the Winter and in the Summer near 100 F,with very high humidty.It leafs out early,but has no trouble with the hard Spring frosts that we get here.It is the last of my non-evergreen broadleaf plants to lose its leaves in the Fall....but not much Fall leaf color.

It is now a multi-stemed shrub,about 5 feet tall,and has flowered for at least 3 years.This growing season is the one I expect it to begin growing well since the stems are of good size in diameter...it takes plants a few years to establish themselves in the clay soil here,but once they do,they grow fast.
I have Crape Myrtles growing near this plant.It blooms near the end of the C. Myrtles's blooming season and keeps some of its red calyxes until about the same time it begins to loses some of it leaves.Unlike the C.myrtles its leaves do not change color in the fall,but neither does its leaves turn ugly in the Fall like my Cornus mas.The leaves of my Heptacodium gets a tringe of purple around its edges in the late Fall,and then when the very hard cold spells hit,the last of the leaves fall.It has not gotten big enough yet for the bark to peel and show winter color.Next Winter I will shape it so that it had only 2- 4 trunks,and thus resemble the Crape Myrtles nearby.
I am the only one around here that I know who grows this tree...I have not seen it offered in any of the local nurseries or box stores.Being a very easy to grow and a fast flowering tree-shrub,I also am puzzled why it has not become popular yet.

Touted as the "crepe myrtle for the northern US" in some nursery catalogs, this plant deserves to be more widely grown and appreciated. Tall for a shrub (15-20 feet), this late summer bloomer sports bright red calyces that are even showier than the white flowers. Heptacodium miconioides was discovered in China by the famous plant collector E.H. Wilson, brought into western cultivation in the late 20th century, but twenty-some years later, it's still not found in many gardens or garden centers.

I just planted a five or six foot plant this July and it has grown about a foot. The bark is peeling nicely and each branch got a clump of flowers which started to open around Sept. 5th and are still blooming. I think the bark should bring alot of interest to my garden in winter.

Unusual plant best known in the New England states. It is best used in a border, has great foliage and interesting flower and fruit characteristics.

Grows rapidly to 15' tall and 10' wide. Adaptable to sun or shade, although best color is in sun.

Flower buds appear early in summer, but do not open until August or September. Individual flowers are creamy white, fragrant and are borne in 6" long terminal panicles.

Fruit capsules change green to rose-purple and are much
more effective than the flowers.

This plant needs well-drained, acid, organic soil.

Native to China