Halesia diptera magniflora

[Hans J]

Hi all ,

has anybody here expierience with this tree/shrub ?

I'm thinking if I should try it with Halesia ....but here in Germany is mostly Halesia carolina or monticola aviable ....and they are to big for me ( and my garden )
A nice friend ( Thank you John  ) has given me the advice with H.diptera magniflora ...

Any suggestions are welcome !

Thank you in advance
Hans

[TheOnionMan]

I don't have experience with that particular species, it looks lovely in a photo in this PDF, a short synopsis of Halesia by Rick Darke. It is listed as growing 10-15 meters, so not really that small.
www.rickdarke.com/Halesia.pdf

It would appear that H. carolina is the smallest, however many plants bearing that name are apparently not correct, I wonder what my tree really is. I do grow H. tetraptera var. monticola and tetraptera 'Rosea'.

There are all lovely in flower, but as trees go, I find them somewhat unruly in terms of their growth, odd ungracefully branching, and this truly annoying tendency with for the limbs to become so heavily laden with those big fleshy "winged" fruits that they make the branches descend and hang towards the ground. Just so happens, yesterday I was clearing an area that became completely "closed down" from an impenetrable mass of descending limbs, these were all on tetraptera 'Rosea'.  I feel bad cutting the tree way back, the mass of big light pinks bells is amazing in spring.  Photo shows developing pods on tetraptera 'Rosea' in July 2015.

If I had limited room for a smallish ornamental tree, I would look for something other than Halesia, perhaps a Stewartia instead.

[TheOnionMan]

Halesia tetraptera 'Rosea' in flower (photo 1), big flowers, initially open very pale pink bells then age to a good rose-pink color, eye-catching in bloom. The dried pods have winter interest too (photo of pods is monticola). But the branching habit is unruly and unsatisfactory, and when planted in some shade, it will constantly reach out sideways trying to reach sun and light.  I have seen good looking specimens in arboretums planted in full sun, but again, they grow large in time.

[Hans J]

Hello Mark ,

thank you for your answer .
I have today also found this PDF from Rick Darke ...it has helping me a little bit more to understand the confusion with all the names
Like you I suppose that many of this Halesia trees are wrong named ...so I have a bit fear

How big are your trees ?
Do you grow it in cool and humid conditions ?

Thanks
Hans

[astragalus]

Mark, how large is "large"?

[Garden Prince]

Hans asked me in a PM if I know Halesia diptera magniflora. As more people might be interested in this tree I put my answer in the forum.

I have a  Halesia diptera magniflora about 15 years in my garden. I bought it as a very tiny plant from Hulsdonk Nursery when it was located in Zundert, NL (they are now located in Belgium). For the first few years I grew it in a pot as it was too small to put in the garden.  It started flowering from a relative young age.

The tree is now about 3.50 metres high and flowers in May (later than Halesia monticola) and growth rate is slower than that of H. monticola. Flowering period is not very long, about two weeks. The two winged seeds stay on the tree for a long time.

The tree is pretty hardy. It did not suffer in the winter of 2012 when the temperature dropped here to about -18.

This year I succeeded in getting some seeds from Magniflora to germinate. Halesia germinates in a pattern of warm-cold-warm so if you do a natural stratification process the seeds germinate a year and a half after sowing.  This works pretty well for Halesia monticola but seeds of H. diptera magniflora seem to have a will of their own. Sowed them 2 times before with zero germination (a decent percentage of the seeds were fertile) until this year. Finally got a few seeds that germinated.

[Hans J]

Many thanks Garden Prince for your Detail informations ...that was what I have wished !

Happy Gardening
Hans