The Bridgemere Gardening Blog

Classy and easy newcomer – Sinocalycanthus Hartlage Wine

We first had Sinocalycanthus Hartlage Wine at Bridgemere three years ago, when it was very new (and very expensive!). It was an obviously different and exciting plant, with those gorgeous, spherical maroon buds opening to subtle dusky pink flowers, with water lily-like centres of petals tipped white. The leaves too are good – large, glossy and healthy. We potted a plant up to make a display plant for the Tatton Park Show where it caused a sensation. Though its main flowering period is late spring to early summer, it always seems to produce a second “flush” in the middle of July – perfect timing for Tatton!

However, I always believe in reserving judgement about new plants until I know how they perform. How was something so exotic looking going fare in our climate? Was it going to “do” in average gardens or would it need lots of care and the sort of perfect conditions few of us have in our gardens?

It is a hybrid, raised in the US, between the American Calycanthus or Allspice and the much rarer more recently introduced Chinese Sinocalycanthus sinensis. It gets its rich flower colour from the American plant and its larger leaves and more intricate flower form from the Chinese one. The Allspice appears to do well in British gardens. The Chinese species, I have to say, I find temperamental and have yet to see looking really happy here. This is one for those seekers of rare plants who enjoys a challenge. Which parent was Hartlage Wine going to take after?

Joyfully, it has proved vigorous, hardy and easy during the intervening years. I have had several good enthusiastic reports, most recently from the owner of the superb garden at Wollerton Old Hall in Shropshire, who tells me that his plant, which he bought three years ago, has sailed through this last cold winter completely unscathed and has over fifty buds waiting to burst open. So – hurrah! It looks as if this beautiful and unusual shrub is going to be here to stay. Give it good, well-drained, humusy soil, in a reasonably cosy, sheltered site, and you will have something to wow your keenest gardening friends with!