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seven son flower, how close to house?

13 years ago

I have 2 Heptacodium Miconoides ordered after seeing them in photos and I would like to put one close to the house, about 4 ft from the house wall. I know it gets 20 ft tall, but how wide? The FF website wasn't to informative on size. Would it get too big for the spacing of 4 ft away?

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Comments (8)

laceyvail 6A, WV
13 years ago
I wouldn't put it any closer than 7 or 8 feet.
woodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canada
13 years ago
Ours is quite wide at the base - 4' is definitely too close.
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This is probably my most favorite tree/shrub on my place. I have five all together. The first one I planted 3 years ago at about the 6-7 foot range, it was almost 12 feet as of last year. I've read smaller plants adjust to transplanting better, but I'll tell ya this one never missed a beat. I'm growing this one as a tree with 3 main trunks, although I'm considering making it two instead. I don't feed it, just water. I only prune crossing branches (once I think) and and any new sprouts that come up from the ground in the spring, and those I just quickly rub off. Usually only two or three anyway. No bugs, no winter burn, no dropping branches. Just plant it and forget it. Under mine I have planted hosta, iberis, and ajuga, no problem with roots. I think they may go down instead of out. I transplanted a four foot one last year and was quite surprised out deep the roots were. Let us know what you decide. :)
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That certainly sounds pretty big already. I planted mine when it was quite small - 3' or less. It was a shrub form and I pruned out the weaker stems right away to make a single trunk form. That pruning certainly didn't slow it down any, but I wouldn't have done that if it had been a larger plant to begin with. I wanted it to be a small tree but to also fill in a relatively large space, so I've left it to branch quite low down - it only has 3-4' of clear trunk. That means I have to keep lopping off bits of branches to keep a path clear. I lop off any bits that start blocking the path any time during the growing season. It seem to be a very tough plant because it's not bothered at all by my erratic pruning! It's one of our favorite plants because it makes a beautiful show in September just as the Monarch butterflies are gathering for migration and the tree is a butterfly magnet! I miss my garden in winter so I welcomed this thread as a reason to look at our pictures of this beautiful tree in our garden. I'll bore you with a few pictures :-) This is a picture from 2009 - it's a bigger tree now but this is still one of our favorite views of it: Bejeweled with Monarchs: Such a beautiful tree...!! I'm sure yours won't disappoint and, in your zone, you should get the pink display after the flowers fade - the growing season here is too short for that, but it's still well worth growing here.
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I grow both Cornus alternifolia (pagoda dogwood) and C. kousa and have a couple of smallish Heptacodium (7 sons). I love the all season appeal of the pagoda dogwood - it has panicles of small, creamy spring flowers (a bit like Queen Anne's lace) that turn into oodles of little summer fruit that slowly move from green through red to purple and end in deep purple, almost black. The birds love them, so the tree is really hopping in August, and the bright red berry stems remain for a bit after the fruit has been stripped. Mine in full sun had a peachy tone to the leaves in fall, a mix of pink, gold, and chartreuse that I really liked, though the ones in full shade aren't much for fall color. I also found the winter branch structure ornamental. They tend to grow as a multi-trunked tree IME, so if you want a single trunk you will have to do a bit of annual pruning. For me the only drawback is that the voles seem to love the roots of all dogwoods and have killed several including the largest of my Cornus alternifolia. The Heptacodium will grow in a much more shrubby fashion, and as others have said, has really just the late season flowers and bracts to recommend it. I don't find the peeling bark ornamental and the form needs quite a bit of work to make it tree shaped. Kousa dogwoods are lovely and don't seem quite as bothered by the voles in my garden, though they still have some vole issues. They aren't nearly as hardy as the Cornus alternifolia, given that my Kousa is still working on leafing out after having all its above the snow buds killed by last winter's temperatures that reached several degrees colder than -20F. It blooms for close to 6 weeks, starting with tiny chartreuse flowers that expand into large creamy blossoms over a couple weeks and then remain on the tree for quite a while. Some years the tree has a lot of red fruit that the squirrels eat, but not every year, and they seed around a fair amount. They also hang onto their leaves quite late, which is a mixed blessing; quite ornamental with orange to deep red leaves, but a problem if we get heavy snow in October which bends the still-leafy branches past full recovery to their original shape, though it hasn't broken any branches on my trees. I wouldn't recommend Kousa for a front yard in my zone since this year it looks quite patchy, but for your slightly warmer zone, it should be fine, since we had no bud damage at -17F. So as Mainegrower said, it's largely personal taste. The trees' overall shapes are different, they both have several seasons of interest, but not in the same way, and they feed different critters. If you are largely going for flower power, you want the Kousa as it blooms for about 3x as long, but I find the pagoda truly charming. Do you have room for both, with one near the property edge and one more central, or the two near opposite sides?
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whaas_5a
13 years ago
Its quite variable...from about 10-20'. The few I've seen at the Chicago botanic gardens where all about 15' wide. The one I saw at the display garden in the Milwaukee area was closer to 12'. I believe all those specimans where semi-mature.

Keep in mind the plant has a very informal look (at least most of them).

The one I had was about 6' wide and about 5 years old.

{{gwi:247077}}
poaky1
Original Author
13 years ago
Is the one in the pic in shade? It is sparse for being 5 years old, if they look like that one, I could fit that by the house. I was under the impression that this shrub was a tall semi-narrow shrub. I have another area where I could use this shrub and it's width will be good. Thanks for the info.
woodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canada
13 years ago
We grow ours as a tree and I certainly wouldn't describe it as narrow! It's about 7 years old in the picture below - the trunk is near the right side of the photo so what you see is half of a fairly young tree. 4' is definitely not enough room.

{{gwi:10335}}

It is very much a tree worth growing so I do think you need to find room for it! The growing season is too short here for it to develop the colorful calyxes. Also, I've noticed that the flowers that are pollinated and form berries seem to lose the calyx. The tree is swarmed by bees when it's in flower and, in 2010, the Monarchs swarmed it too! Between the bees and the Monarchs, pollination was pretty complete. But there's not enough time for the fruit to ripen before frost.

{{gwi:178925}}
whaas_5a
13 years ago
Mine was actually in the ground 2 years and about 3 years old when I purchased it. I placed it in a northwest location so it suffered some dieback and leaf tatter.

They are shrubby, but considered a tree.

Ideally I would place this guy about 8' off the house min. If its off the corner of the house maybe you can get away with 6'.
steve1young
13 years ago
Thank you all for sharing your pics and information about Hept. mic. I've had mine now for about 4 years and while I'm still not entirely thrilled with the form, it is getting better. I'm going to give it one or two more years in its current spot and if it doesn't shape up then she's getting moved. I think one of the keys may be that she may have too much exposure (no sun protection at all). I think she would do a bit better with a little less sun. Also, she doesn't seem to like overhead watering. I've worked hard to prune her for optimal branching over the past few years and now I'm just going to let her do her thing. Last year I planted a Clematis 'Vino' to climb through her and that is already working very well. The butterfly pic above is especially encouraging. Best of luck, fellow SSF growers!
poaky1
Original Author
13 years ago
I have 2 on the way and will definitely have room for them, I will be putting them in a mixed plant "living fence" so 12 feet spacing should be okay? Did not mean to be ignorant Whaas but your's is not real fluffy. I'm being rushed to go somewhere so I must cut this short. Thanks for the pics and info.

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