PUSHING THE BORDERS

Another early bloomer

I recently did a job involving redesigning and replanting three failed green roofs on a block of flats in Clerkenwell in central London. I won't go into why they failed on this thread, but amongst the badly-chosen plants for the original scheme were two Akebia quinata. Despite the shallow soil (200mm) and the total absence of irrigation and maintenance, they are both alive, flowering and growing, so we retained them and replanted around them.

I was so impressed that I bought one myself. Now I have to figure out how to propagate it. I'll plant the main plant on the green roof, but I want some backups in case it doesn't like it up there. All advice welcome.

Yours has a rather attractive shade of flower Phemie, I have two the normal dark shade and this cream form, I grow them reasonable close and manage to get a bit of cross pollination, I find the seed pods a nice bonus (taste good too!)