At the end of March, I attended a very good Grounds Management Symposium at the Bartlett Arboretum in Charlotte, NC. We were treated to a lovely dinner at the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden. Along the main lawn area just outside the building are pergolas planted with an unusual evergreen vine, Stauntonia hexaphylla. It happened to be just coming into bloom when we were there. The small flesh-colored flowers are borne in clusters and they are quite lovely. The glossy foliage is nice, and it appears to be well-behaved vine. It is not commonly offered in nurseries, and its hardiness is limited to Zone 8.
The fragrance of the flowers is not pleasant, but I suppose any flower that looks a bit like flesh is probably not going to smell great. It must be pollinated by carrion beetles or flies. I did not see any bees working the flowers, and there were large numbers of carpenter bee females working other flowers in the garden.
As I strolled through the garden, my attention went to a flash of pink. It turned out that it was a patch of tricolor Japanese knotweed, Fallopia japonica 'Tricolor'. Emerging from the ground, its pink and green leaves are most attractive, but this is one of those rampant plants that has a connotation of worry along with it's beauty. The green form of the species is a noxious weed that is very difficult to eradicate. This form is probably weaker and less worrisome, but I would worry a bit that it might revert back to an all-green form and begin to spread rampantly. And it's a big plant, reaching six feet high with an equal spread, so you'd better have room for it if you plant it. I still admire the big colorful leaves.
