Honeycup

Size, growth and what to expect

It grows at a medium pace, about a foot and a half a year in our growth estimator. It forms an upright, arching shrub 3 to 6 feet tall and 3 to 7 feet wide, and garden plants can reach 10 feet.

The bells open in May and June, each up to half an inch wide, in short clusters along bare stems. The five-valved capsules ripen in September and October, each holding 40 to 200 tiny seeds. The leaves turn red-purple in fall, and south of zone 7 some stay on through winter.

Its home is pocosins, shrub bogs, pine savannas and the rims of pineland ponds. It sometimes dominates the centers of peat domes and Carolina bays.

How to grow Honeycup

Honeycup grows in part shade or full sun, and more sun brings the best fall color. It needs an acid soil, sandy or peaty, that stays moist to wet, and it takes standing water. It will not grow on lime. Set plants 4 feet apart and keep them 3 feet from a wall, since the rhizomes spread outward. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and mulch with pine straw, clear of the stems. The seed is tiny and comes up readily. Give it eight weeks of cold, damp storage in the refrigerator. Sow it shallowly in spring in a fine, moist mix.

Keep the soil wet through the first summer unless the site is naturally soggy. Guard young plants from rabbits and deer for the first two winters where they are common. It needs little pruning. Cut out dead stems after flowering.

Each flower carries both male and female parts, and a lone plant sets some seed with its own pollen. Bumble bees are its main pollinators and raise the seed set. It has no serious pests or diseases. Seed-grown plants may differ from their parent.