{"product_id":"kolkwitzia-amabilis-pink-cloud","title":"Kolkwitzia amabilis 'Pink Cloud'","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eErnest Wilson came across this shrub in the late summer of 1901, up in the mountains above Ichang in western Hubei, and sent its seed home to Veitch in Exeter. Of the two thousand or so Asian plants he introduced to the West, \"Chinese\" Wilson counted \u003cem\u003eKolkwitzia amabilis\u003c\/em\u003e among his finest, which is no small ranking once you consider the company it was keeping. Dirr, in the \u003cem\u003eManual of Woody Landscape Plants\u003c\/em\u003e, is content to let the explorer have the last word. The beautybush flowered in England by 1910 and went on to become very nearly the defining garden shrub of America between the wars, then quietly slipped out of fashion. It turns up far less often now than it ought to.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e'Pink Cloud' is the form to want. \u003cstrong\u003eSelected from a seedling at Wisley in 1946, and still carrying the RHS Award of Garden Merit, they show a deeper, cleaner pink than the wild type on flowers a shade larger. \u003c\/strong\u003eIn mid to late spring the arching branches vanish under paired, bell-shaped blooms, soft pink flaring out of burgundy buds, each throat brushed with yellow. The whole shrub becomes a fountain, six to ten feet of it, the branches bowed gently by the weight of all that flower. Older stems exfoliate to a quiet brown, so there is something to hold the eye once the bloom has passed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eEasy in full sun, forgiving of most soils with clay among them, and steady through drought once it has settled. Hardy to zone 4, and the deer tend to walk on by. Prune after flowering rather than before, since next spring's flowers are already set on this year's wood. Give it room and a backdrop of green to spill against, and you will spend every May watching the branches go under beneath the pink.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057906880627,"sku":"KOLK-AMAB-PINK-CLOU-01G","price":38.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/Kolkwitziaamabilis_PinkCloud_VisionPictures2.webp?v=1780408506","url":"https:\/\/woodlanders.net\/products\/kolkwitzia-amabilis-pink-cloud","provider":"Woodlanders","version":"1.0","type":"link"}