This genus was only introduced to the UK from China in 1985 and is still little known. It became an addition to the Burncoose catalogue a couple of years ago and our stock plant is now thriving in the garden at Caerhays where it is 4-5ft in height and multi-stemmed. It grows on a hot sunny bank in the woodland garden and produces copious quantities of seed which is useful. Our plant does not die down to ground level each winter as it is said to in colder areas and can therefore be considered as a deciduous shrub rather than simply a herbaceous plant for the herbaceous border.
The leaves are narrowly elliptic and about 6in long with shallow teeth on the edges. The leaves are a felted grey underneath. The flowers appear in early autumn from grey felted terminal bracts in dense pendulous spikes of 6-8in in length. The flowers are pink with long pink stamens.
