Dee, I have that sort of vague recollection, too. Hope you get some not-so-vague responses! ;-)

Haha, thanks cyn! Glad I'm not the only one with this vague recollection!

:)

Dee

I have had a heptacodium grown as a tree for many years now. It is great. Migrating monarchs love it - so do hummimgbirds and bees. There aren’t many trees that bloom in the Fall…. It has never seeded here but I think our season here is too short for there to be any problems. We don’t even get the showy pink caylx phase after the white flowers drop. we do get a few but not showy like pictures I’ve seen from warmer zones. I’ve shut down the desktop computer where pictures are stored or I would post pictures of it. If it is possible to grow it safely there, I’d highly recommend it in a tree form.

I don't think it is an attractive tree, despite its allure for monarchs and late flowers.

Its branches break off during the winter. The white flowers are pretty but my particular tree is so tall and skinny that I can barely see them. I know it is growing in too much shade.

There are comments about the bark being "interesting" (shredding as it matures) I think the bark of a stewartia is much more attractive.

I kept it because it grew back after I cut it down. I didn't have the energy to take more assertive measures.

I'm sure "Woody" in Canada will have positive things to say but I say "meh."

Yep Marie - I have positive things to say :-) But it is true that it could be more attractive.... I would like it to have nice Fall leaf colour but it doesn't have anything particularly notable. We have never had any branches break in winter - we do keep it pruned to control size a bit so that might help re eliminating breakable bits.... We grow it as a single-trunk tree and not as a shrub. This past winter one branch did not survive the winter which makes me suspect it might not be a long-lived tree maybe....? We have ours planted close to a cedar clump - which gives the monarch butterflies a sheltered place to sleep at night while they are here (they sleep in the cedar at night and come out to feed on the Heptacodium when the sun comes out). The cedar makes a good background to show the tan bark colour of the Heptacodium in the winter. Because the Heptacodium is a bit too close to the cedar, it's only half a tree! The growth that would normally occur on the north side is absent due to the proximity of the cedar!

I turned the computer back on to show pictures:

- Not every year is a good monarch year and we don't always take pictures (we haven't seen many monarch butterflies this year at all!) So this picture is quite a few years old now but it's one of the best we have that shows multiple monarchs in the tree:

And DH taking some pictures:

This is one of my favorite pictures he took - of a hummingbird in the tree

I have several times seen Woody’s heptacodium in bloom, and if I needed a tree, it would certainly be on the list. Partially for the unusual season of bloom, but the visits of the bees, butterflies and hummingbirds make it extra special.

Yes, thanks all, that's one reason I was considering it - I got an article in an email about how it's great for pollinators at this time of year.

Woody, that's quite the lens on your DH's camera! How tall is your tree?

:)

Dee

dee - we planted the Heptacodium in 2002. I’m not sure how tall it is but the Missouri Botanical Garden site gives 15-20’ as its mature height and ours is in that range I think.

DH is an amazingly good photographer - he ’birds’ and that’s what he mainly uses the fancy camera/lenses for. The one in the picture is so heavy I need two hands to pick it up! I was looking at his butterfly album on his flickr page. There are some nice pictures there including this one from 2017 which I think was our best year for monarchs in the Heptacodium.

Oh my, woody, what wonderful photographs! Are those all in your garden? Is that your cephalanthus? I put one in my customer's swamp garden which is gorgeous and I am toying with one for myself but don't know if it's wet enough in my yard. But I know the monarchs do love them.

Speaking of which, you know, I'm not sold on the heptacodium from a visual or beauty standpoint - I really don't like those droopy leaves. But I like other things about it - the late bloom, the attraction to pollinators, and that one photo (and the one you posted above) with the monarchs all over it may have just sold me on it!

:)

Dee

Dee - some of the pictures are in our garden but a lot are not. We don’t have cephalanthus. I don’t like the leaf shape on the Heptacodium either… The tree is at the back of the main front bed, not growing as a free-standing feature. I would only grow it as a single trunk tree since a shrub would just be way too big unless you had a very big property. I actually bought it as a shrub and removed all the stems except one. For the first two years it tried to put out new stems st the base but I cut them off and it seemed to give up and be happy as a tree. It makes a good backdrop but I wouldn’t plant it as a stand-alone feature plant.

How long does it flower for? I may get 10 days out of main flowering period. The red calyxes extend the season, It is there and I"ll keep it. But honestly for my money and time late season reblooming phlox is a better investment.

We get about a month of bloom from it - this picture was taken Oct. 8 2019:

We do get some pink from the calyxes afterwards, just not as showy as further south. So, for us, this is a much better choice than phlox (although we do have phlox too...) but perhaps our relatively cool position near Lake Ontario helps it do very well....? We are not too far from one of the major gathering points for monarch butterflies heading south for the winter so that helps too I'm sure.

I think your location has a lot to do with the draw for the butterflies. I've had my heptacodium for 8 years and have not seen a butterfly near it.. There may well be butterflies but not in numbers that make them visible from the ground. Your location seems conducive to healthy, vigorous growth, too.

The point of my rather negative remarks is that your tree, woodyoak, may be exceptionally vigorous and exceptionally well located to attract monarchs. I think people should be realistic about whether their own will perform like yours.

Mine suffers dieback in colder years. i am officially in zone 5a, but it does get down to a bit below -20 in some years.

I have had two of them for 5 years, started from tiny Bluestone plants, and this is the first year that I have had appreciable bloom. I have not noticed any butterflies near them.

There are some new shorter shrubbier forms in the market. now A bad winter here in MN 4b might nip them back but they recover. i get butterflies

Thank you all for your input. If I do decide to buy this (and I am leaning toward it) it won't be a purchase this year, and perhaps not even next year. Thinking of it for a part of the yard that is on the edge of the woods that still needs to be beaten back lol. I'm concentrating on getting some winter color into the garden this year.

I do think though that I may try it in the spot I'm thinking of. I'll put it on the list and think about it some more and maybe try to see one in person somewhere and then next fall make a decision. I do appreciate ALL the opinions and suggestions.

Thanks!

:)

Dee