Beautybush

Follow a regular watering schedule during the first growing season to establish a deep, extensive root system. Feed with a general purpose fertilizer before new growth begins in spring. For a formal appearance, shear annually after flowering. Pruning time: summer after flowering.

Beauty Bush is among the small number of very high-quality shrubs prized for their graceful almost weeping form and charming flowers. It makes a perfect foundation plant that covers unsightly footings, crawl spaces, vents and utility pipes. Plant along fences or take advantage of its reliability by using as a background plant for your favorite flowering perennials. Good to soften corners and as a specimen it presents a decidedly lush character to any front-yard composition.

Use this plant with lots of soft-colored, easy-care perennials such as the lavender Prairie Blue Eyes Daylily (Hemerocallis hybrids Prairie Blue Eyes), the deep-blue Lily of the Nile (Agapanthus africanus) and Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea). Then fill in with drifts of Wayne Roderick Fleabane (Erigeron x 'Wayne Roderick') and Lavender SwirlTM Trailing Lantana (Lantana sellowiana 'Monswee'). This shrub also pairs well with Shiny Xylosma (Xylosma congestum) and Sunrise Abelia (Abelia x grandiflora 'Sunrise').

This shrub native to China was first discovered by Italian missionary Giraldi while working in Shensi province from 1890-1895. He sent seed west but not until a second shipment by Earnest Wilson collected in the mountains of northern Hupeh reached the nursery firm of Vietch & Sons was the plant actually grown. Flowers were unknown until Wilson's first group matured in 1910. It was named for Richard Kolkwitz, a Berlin professor of botany.

E. H. Wilson was so enamored by the flora of China at the turn of the century, and its potential destruction by the charcoal industry, that he was nicknamed "Chinese" Wilson for his efforts at preservation long before ecological concerns were popular.