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Lespedeza liukiuensis 'Little Volcano'

 
Lespedeza liukiuensis 'Little Volcano'
Elegantly swooping style
bush clover
Masses of flowers in October

Common name bush clover
Family fabaceae
Life cycle shrub (Z6-9)
Flowers purple-pink (summer-fall)
Size 4-6'
Light sun-part shade
Cultural notes ordinary garden soil

Purple-pink pea flowers on a shrub that grows wider than it gets tall, with elegantly arching branches. Can be pruned back hard in spring. Sometimes listed as a subspecies of L. thunbergii. Ours is planted in a north-facing border where it gets only a few hours of sun per day, and it is perfectly happy there. It appears to be sterile, at least, I've never seen its characteristic seed pods in our garden. In its first (mild) winter, the entire shrub sailed right through; the second winter featured the Texas megafreeze, causing all the upper growth to die back – but it didn't take long for new growth to return from the base, much like the L. thunbergii that we grew back in Pennsylvania used to behave. In fact, that was the year in which our specimen truly went berserk: despite several attempts to restrain its enthusiasm, it overwhelmed the entire section of the border in which it is planted, culminating in a magnificent show of thousands of flowers on a firework-show (or perhaps volcano eruption) of arching lax stems. I like it a lot, so I'm contemplating what interventions are needed to provide it more room and allow its neighbors some breathing space as well...

Lespedeza liukiuensis 'Little Volcano'
First flowers on a young plant
bush clover
New growth a few weeks after the megafreeze

In our garden, this plant grows in the following area: foundation border

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