unfortunately it happens all the time..plant knowledge is power..you almost trusted your instinct..I hope that you learn to love your new plant..

how annoying. I was looking for ‘green giant’ arborvitaea and found some cheap ones but was 90% sure they were regular eastern arborvita, which was not at all what I wanted. Then I saw some more arborvitae labeled as hollies and some European smoke bush labeled as extra hardy native plants.

Maybe the 'Dark Knight' were seed raised instead of clonal. Katob sounds like they are not shopping at an independent garden center, plant labeling is less creative if a body sticks to these sources instead of ones that are not specifically dedicated to plants and related products.

if this was from one of your top grade vendors.. i would talk to the manager ... [also... they could probably order in some for next spring .... but i am sure it wont be bargain priced...]

if it was big box... well.... you know the rest ...

i was going to link to to a propagation video... but go figure.. there werent any on caryopteris .... and then i lost focus.. lol ...

ken

Yup. All my mislabeled plant showed up at the nursery section of a big box hardware store. I was prowling for clearance sales at the box store and save my big dollar purchases for my favorite independent garden center.

I didn't buy them from a big box store.

then talk with the manager .....

I've never read it but I was told some years ago that American Nurseryman magazine had had an article that said that as much 33% of US nursery stock had labeling problems.

I saw "Black Knight" and I thought for a moment you were going to say Butterfly Bushes, which I saw mis-marked at Home Depot stores and on line this autumn.

As for your mis-marked Black Knight Caryopteris...they're so easy to propagate from cuttings for free, and such fast growers.

Not sure if Black Knight grows true from it's own seeds, but my Caryopteris of unknown name was grown from a twig I rooted and seeds new bushes all the time and they grow super fast.

You might have to wait a little longer for a big bush (but actually not that long they grow super fast) but at least you know for sure it's your favorite Black Knight for sure.