Sinopanax formosana

Sinopanax formosana in Dan Hinckley's garden

     I was at Dan Hinkley's garden yesterday and I saw again his speciman of Sinopanax formosana, pictured above.  That picture was taken at the end of May, and yesterday the new leaves that you see at the top of the plant in the picture had expanded and were quite a bit larger than in the picture.  All in all, this is a great looking plant with its furry, indumentum covered stems and its thick leaves with indumentum on the undersides.
     This plant, which is one of those evergreen shrubs or small trees whose name ends in panax, is a member of the aralia family, and as I have said on more than one occasion, that family has more than its fair share of great plants.  Thus, this plant is related to the scheffleras, fatsias, and tetrapanaxes, and I would assume it to grow in similar conditions and in a similar fashion to those plants.  I have never grown it however, because it has not been in cultivation here.  Dan collected this plant in Taiwan (see Dan's blog where he describes seeing this on Taiwan).  Dan has now grown it in his garden at Windcliff for a number of years, and it has proven to be hardy here, so far.
     The great news, however, is that Dan says that he thinks Monrovia will be selling this plant in the future.  Hurray!  One of the great things about gardening is that there is always something to look forward to.  Speaking of looking forward to things, Dan also confirmed that Monrovia will be offering more forms of Schefflera taiwaniana and Schefflera delavayi.