Plants→Lespedeza→Bush Clover (Lespedeza thunbergii)

A large, rather untidy, sprawling plant with arching branches covered in beautiful rose-pinkish blooms come summer, which really did remind me of pea blossoms, having the same shape. Bush clover actually is in the legume family, same as garden peas. Give it lots of room. In summer it looked more like a shrub to me than a perennial, although it did die down to the roots each winter and start up fresh each spring in the typical perennial habit.

I no longer have mine as I found it just too untidy in spite of the fact that I just love the summer blossoms.

[ Reply to this comment | ]

Lespedeza is a wonderful fall-blooming shrub.
It's a very tough plant as well. I have moved it around quite easily, even while in bloom, and it came back nicely.
It has a cascading growth habit, which makes it very graceful in appearance.
I get many favorable comments on it from visitors because its color and form are unusual in a fall bloomer. It can be challenging, however, to place properly.
It also provides an important structural and architectural element in the fall garden.
I would not want to be without it.

[ Reply to this comment | ]

Have several of these. The best plant ever! We have a lot of wildlife around us, and this plant is never disturbed. One benefits from our irrigation system; others do not. All are in rocky hard clay soil with some garden soil thrown in to help them along. They don't need fertilizer or any special care. Mine are all in full sun.
I cut them down in fall after blooming is finished, and they all come back fuller than the year before. I think this is one perfect plant!

[ Reply to this comment | ]

This species is from China and Japan. A nice little naturalistic landscape company planted two shrubs in a church landscape where I do work in a new memorial garden. They are slow to grow in the spring. Later in summer they grow fast and hang down and sprawl outward, where they can interfere with nearby plants I've cut them down close to the ground each late fall or early spring. To me they are interesting, but I'm not passionate about them.

[ Reply to this comment | ]