Genus:
Clerodendrum
Common Name: Glory Bower or Tube Flower
Family: Verbenaceae
Appearance: Deciduous & evergreen shrubs and trees with attractive foliage and flowers.
Flowers: Stunning flowers of various colours produced over many months of the year. Features: Attractive plants for informal hedges and specimen plants.
Requirements: Fertile well drained moist soils preferred. Very adaptable to a range of sites except salt conditions. Bloom well in full sun of part shade. Will not tolerate drought.
Culture: Pinch growth tips to encourage side shoots, prune to control plant shape, best to prune after heavy flowering periods, fertilise every 4 months with a complete mixture. Propagate by seed and cuttings.
Pest & Disease: Prone to a few beetles and grasshoppers - Carbaryl when required.
Species & Varieties:
Over 450 species, including:
C. paniculatum (Pagoda Flower) -To 3m with velvety dark green leaves and large red flowers over most months.
C. bungei -Spreading shrub to 2m with coarsely toothed, broad, ovate, leaves. Flowers rose-red.
C. incisum -Dense shrub with pure white nodding bud-like flowers.
C. fragrans (syn C. philippinum var. pleniflorum) -Suckering plant with dense clusters of double pink blushed fragrant flowers.
C. macrostegium -To 3m with pink flowers.
C. nutans (syn. C. wallichii) (Nodding Glory bower) -To 3m with dark green shiny leaves and large pendulent sprays of white flowers with red buds from autumn to spring.
C. philippinum -A branched shrub to 1.5m tall, mauve flowers.
C. speciosissimum (Jaffa Crown) -Mounding deep green foliage shrub to 1m, sparse terminal head of red or red-orange flowers.
C. tomentosum (Lolly bush) -Tall shrub with white flowers and blue-black berries.
C. ugandense - (Butterfly Clerodendron) -To 3m with small jagged edged leaves and small clusters of stunning blue flowers similar to butterflies are produced from autumn onwards.