Leptodermis pilosa Diels

A deciduous shrub 6 to 10 ft high; young shoots downy. Leaves opposite, grey-green, ovate, pointed, wedge-shaped at the base, entire, 1⁄2 to 11⁄4 in. long, 1⁄3 to 5⁄8 in. wide, hairy on both sides; stalk 1⁄4 in. or less long. Flowers fragrant, borne in axillary clusters towards the end of the current season’s shoots and forming there a panicle several inches long. Corolla lavender-coloured, downy outside, 1⁄2 in. long, slenderly funnel-shaped at the base, spreading at the mouth into five ovate lobes and measuring there 1⁄4 in. wide.

Native of Yunnan, China; discovered by the Abbé Dclavay in 1887; introduced by Forrest in 1904 from the Lichiang Valley. In the milder parts of the country it can be grown in the open, but in colder places like Edinburgh it needs the protection of a wall, one preferably with a southern exposure. It starts to flower in July and keeps on until the early frosts. The daphne-like fragrance of the pleasingly coloured blossom and the long period over which the flowering continues appear to make this shrub well worth its place in gardens.