Hartlage Wine Calycanthus. When J. C. Raulston took me aside on one of my visits to Raleigh and showed me his first pictures of this plant in flower, I was smitten. This hybrid sweet shrub is a cross between the Chinese Calycanthus (Sinocalycanthus) chinensis and our native American Calycanthus floridus. The cross was made in 1991 by one of his students Richard Hartlage and it first flowered in 1996. It has 3” flowers of a deep burgundy red with 6-8” heart shaped leaves and will reach small tree proportions. It has true hybrid vigor with its rapid growth habit and huge flowers. Even though the flowers lack the fragrance of our native species, they make up for that loss in that they fully open. It grows well in sun or shade. This is one of the shrubs at our retail which probably generates more interest than any other when it is in full flower in late April and May.
Zones 5-9
