I can't begin to do justice to the fantastic autumn colour! It is semi-evergreen but turns the most amazing deep purple which is held until after Christmas. 15cm long racemes of fragrant white flowers are produced in early summer. Best colour in a sunny site with moist, fertile soil. Only growing to 4' or so, every garden has room for it. I love it!
I am so captivated by this species that I feel another collection coming on..! this variant has longer flower spikes, the weight of which make them droop rather than being upright as the others we have. Although we have not grown them side by side for long enough to be sure, I suspect that this one will be the largest of the three.
This selection has much pinker flower spikes.
I fell in love with this conifer a few years ago when I was searching for some tough evergreens to plant within our mixed borders to give some structure and protection. Pleasantly vigorous, with upright but gently arching habit and wonderful steely-blue needles. Mine is less than 2m tall after 10 years. I should also mention that my son rooted these cuttings (and conifers are not the easiest things to root!)
A classic garden conifer making a small mound of steely blue needles. It doesn't need to be rare to be worth growing!