Topic: Plane ID required please.....big plant at Great Dixter today?

[Deb P]

Any ideas please? It's about 6 feet tall with purplish foliage....very impressive!

[ACE]

I cannot recall it's name but it don't half spread, also not the best of smell to go with it. Even after you dig it out it still keeps popping up. The name will come back sometime today.

Ha, remember now, we knicknamed it bungy as it was always bouncing back even after a dose of weed killer. Clerodendrum bungei is it's real name. Just don't be tempted, the flowers smell alright but cutting it back could make you feel sick with its strong smelly odour. Very impressive when it has shot up and bloomed but at the expense of every other plant in the area.

[Palustris]

Definitely and it is a vicious sucker producer of a plant as said.

[Deb P]

Many thanks for the info chaps, what a shame it's such a thug, I really wanted one in my garden!!!!

[ACE]

I have heard of them being planted in a sunken bucket, but I would not put it past it to get out via the drainage holes. We were replanting a very long herbatious border in a ladies garden, she had put a couple in the back of the border and two plants had spread 75 metres. I was using a digger to get down far enough to get the roots out and even now after 10/12 years of trying to eradicate it she still sees it pop back up, and of course it looks so striking she leaves it to flower, then digs it out with the winter maintenance. By then it has thrown out a few more suckers which get missed and up they come again. Even painting individual plants with brushwood killer has not worked.

I think it is a bit like lilac, if you prune it, then it will start suckering even more and as you have to cut it back at the end of each season it's a vicious circle.

[Deb P]

Looks like my only option will be in a pot then.........does it self seed though?! It sounds like a nightmare to control! I'm amazed it is as restrained as it is at Great Dixter, just a couple of tall but not wide clumps.....

[ACE]

I expect at Dixter it is managed, any good full time gardener should be able to do that with any plant. As for growing in a pot, they are very tall shrubs and you will need a big one. They do more compact varieties for containers, but these tend to have variegated leaves and I don't think they are showy enough, if it is the colour that has hit you why not go for physocarpus lady in red. I prefer  diablo myself as the leaves are far more interesting. A nice easy shrub to look after. Suckers a little bit but easily managed.