Description
Styrax – Snowbell –
There are approximately 100, deciduous or evergreen shrubs and small trees in this genus. They are found naturally occurring in woodlands and thickets in Eastern Asia, and North America, including Mexico, with one from Europe. They are grown for their graceful habit, flowers, and their alternate, short stalked, variably shaped smooth edged or toothed leaves. The daintily, nodding, bell shaped or sup shaped, fragrant white flowers may be solitary, borne in pendent, terminal or axillary racemes or panicles or produced in clusters on short branchlets, they appear on previous year wood in spring or summer. Grow as specimens or in a woodland garden.
Grow in moist but well drained, fertile, humus rich, neutral to acidic soil in full sun or partial shade with cool moist summers.
S. wilsonii – This rounded, bushy, deciduous shrub from Western China grows 8′ feet tall and wide. From slender shoots it carries oval to diamond shaped, dark green leaves, to 1″ long, with a few teeth near the tips. In early summer it bears broadly bell shaped white flowers, ½” across, are borne singly or in clusters of up to 4.
Zones 7-9
