Bush Clover

Hardy shrub with purple flowers. Late and abundant flowering. Very decorative. Gardens, clumps.

This bush clover is a loose, open, deciduous shrub or sub-shrub which typically grows 5-10’ tall and as wide. If cut to the ground in late winter, it will rapidly grow to 5’ tall in a single growing season. Features trifoliate, dark green leaves and erect racemes of rose-purple, pea-like flowers which bloom both at the stem tips and in the upper leaf axils in late summer. Flowers are followed by small, flat, rounded to elliptic, one-seeded pods.

Although native to China and Japan, this shrub was introduced into the U.S. in the mid 1800s and was at one point commonly planted on banks and slopes to help control erosion.

Direct sowing in Spring