This tall growing deciduous shrub flowered at Burncoose for the first time in the late spring of 2018 and was quite a revelation. It is a native of the SE United States and our previous attempts to get it established in the garden had failed.
The flowers of A. triloba are cup shaped and 1.5-2in across. They appear on the old wood along the stem. Each flower has three large calyx lobes surrounding six purple-brown petals (three large, three small). A most unusual sight. Sadly it is probably very unlikely that these flowers will go on to produce edible fruits in our climate although these have occasionally been seen on a plant at the Hillier Arboretum. After a summer as hot as the current one perhaps we have a chance.
A. triloba needs to be grown in full sun in a humus rich neutral to acid soil. Our plants have been grown from seed imported from the USA and sown in the autumn. The plants were around 3-4ft tall when the flowers first appeared.