Like S. japonicus but smaller and shrubbier.

JC Raulston Arboretum says it grows to 12'. It's not in Dirr's Manual of Woody Landscape Plants, and I've never seen one in person, so that's about all I know about it.

Glad to know that someone else out there occasionally orders plants without knowing a lot about them - it's an adventure, isn't it?

"A beautiful, medium-sized shrub of dense, twiggy habit. Leaves tiny, ovate, 1-2.5cm long, toothed or occasionally 3-lobed at apex, glaucous and downy beneath. Flowers pendent, solitary or in clusters, opening in June. A pretty shrub, flowering when quite young, but requiring a sheltered position."

--The Hillier Manual of Trees & Shrubs (2002, David & Charles)

Thanks bboy, I hope the spot it's going in is sheltered enough. I also have a Styrax americanus coming for a different spot. It's from Seneca Hill Perennials, and Ellen Hornig calls it 'Kankakee Form', a more compact, less "twiggy" selection.

John Elsley assigned it Zones 8-9 for Graham Thomas' book Ornamental Shrubs, Climbers and Bamboos (1992, Sagapress/Timber):

"Notable for its easy growth and freedom of flowering. It grows best in a sunny, warm spot, moist at the root, but is quite hardy*. The flowers are produced abundantly, facing in all directions from the thin twigs, amongst the small leaves. It is surprising that this, perhaps the smallest grower, is not more often seen.

'...a delightful object when every twig is glittering with white stars, each centred with golden anthers. A.T.J."**

*He's talking about England, of course
**Arthur Tysilio Johnson

bboy, are you referring to S. wilsonii or S. americanus? Fairweather Gardens (highly regarded nursery and somewhat conservative on their zone listings) lists wilsonnii as Zones 6-8. S. americanus is hardy to zone 5, according to the grower, Ellen Hornig-- "The rare northern race of the American snowbell, descended from a collection made in 1993 in a disjunct population near the Kankakee River in Kankakee County, Illinois (zone 5A, not far south of Chicago)."

I still list my zone as 5b, but it's really 6 now. We used to be a very definite zone 5A.

The two UK references could be talking about sunny exposure etc. for S. wilsonii due to lack of summer heat there, inadequate ripening of growth, the hot eastern North American summers not producing this issue. On the other hand, the Zone 8-9 assignment was given by an American. He may not really know the plant, however, at least a few others in the same book got rated too high.

The little bunchy-twiggy things I've seen here I didn't like nearly as well as S. japonicus. Looked like wadded versions of that species, completely lacking the abundant flowers slathering the bottoms of long, spaced branches.