Month: August 2023

Plant profile: Clerodendrum bungei

This exotic looking shrub, native to China and northern India, has a number of common names: Rose Glory Bower, Glory Flower, Kashmir Bouquet and Mexican Hydrangea. Rather more prosaically, it is known in China as Chou Mudan, stinky peony, and stinky safflower in Japan. Indeed it was originally introduced to the West under the name Clerodendrum foetidum. These names refer to the leaves, which smell quite unpleasant to some people, although to others the scent is reminiscent of peanut butter. Ironically, it is used medicinally in China to ‘dispel wind’, amongst other things. The large, showy, pink flowers, produced from late summer into autumn, are sweetly and strongly fragrant. The large ovate leaves, flushed dark red when young, are very attractive and give a distinctively exotic effect.

Clerodendrum bungei is hardy to zone 7, dying back to the ground in some parts of the U.K., although in my dry, shady, East Anglian garden it has yet to do so, even in the last winter (22/23). It gets to a good 6ft, 2m, in height, and once established in conditions it likes, can become invasive. It can spread quite a distance – up to 6 metres! – by suckers, and also self-seeds, though not prolifically. I find growing it in drier conditions keeps it reasonably well in check. It has become naturalised in several parts of the world and is an invasive weed in parts of the southern U.S. In its native China, it is a plant of mixed woodland slopes and waste ground, preferring shady, moist conditions and a humus rich soil.

There is also a variegated form, Clerodendum bungei ‘Pink Diamond’, which has attractive grey-green leaves with cream-variegated margins, and is slightly more compact than the straight species.

Plant profile: Anemonopsis macrophylla

Anemonopsis macrophylla, the false anemone, is a herbaceous perennial in the Ranunculaceae family. It’s also one of the most exquisite flowers you can grow in the shade. In late summer, the nodding lilac and white flowers float above the clump of jagged-edged foliage like miniature upturned lotuses sculpted out of wax.

It is this resemblance which gives the plant its Japanese name, rengeshoma, lotus-flowered Actaea (shoma is Actaea, and renge is lotus). If you add ‘ki’, gold, you get another gorgeous Japanese endemic, Kirengeshoma palmata.

Anemonopsis macrophylla is found in the wild only in a few places on Honshu, the main island of Japan. It grows in the woodlands of the central mountains, and in the garden likes similar sheltered conditions. It needs shade and a good humus rich soil, and will not tolerate drying out. It’s also a good idea to protect it from slugs. ‘Slug Gone’ wool pellets work well for me and are non-toxic as well as good for the soil. Some authors suggest that it benefits from a slightly raised planting position. Overall, unless you are blessed with the exact conditions it prefers, sadly rare in the U.K., it is a plant that definitely requires a little extra effort to grow well.

Anemonopsis macrophylla ‘Flore Plena’

There is also a white form of Anemonopsis macrophylla, sometimes sold under the name ‘White Swan’, and a double form, ‘Flore plena’. Though lovely, sought-after, and according expensive, neither of these beat the elegance of the straight species, in my opinion. In Japan, there is also a form with variegated leaves and one with an unpigmented petiole (‘Aojiku’, a very desirable feature in Japanese horticulture). I have had, as yet, no success with these from imported seed.