Best location
With bush clovers , full sun is best for heavy flower production and to maintain full - corporal habits . These plants are well-situated to rise in medium to dry soil ; good drainage is essential . As with other legumes , their root nodules contain a beneficial bacterium ( Rhizobium ) that converts atmospherical nitrogen into usable nitrogen . While this trait allow bush clovers to flourish in infertile soil — itsdecomposing leavesprovide nitrogen for neighbour too — rich soil or excess nitrogen apply through fertilization can promote overly lavish growth and slim down flower . Foliar greensickness may also be an issue in alkaline soil .
Easy care
Bush clovers mayself - sowin the garden under ideal growing precondition and can also spread when bow down stemsroot down at the node . Both shrub bush clover and Thunberg bush clover have naturalized in warmer parts of the UnitedStates , but shrub bush trefoil more widely so . Flowers flower on new growth , so pruning halt to the ground in previous wintertime or early spring will not affect flower production ( see instance below ) . New shoots issue slowly but come on quickly once up .
Potential problems
Winter losses of shrub - bush - clover cultivar were more usual in our visitation than expected give that they are tooth root hardy in Zones 4 or 5 . Less - than - idealistic growing conditions — moist to soggy soil at time in summer and wintertime — rather than stale temperatures were the likely perpetrator . In the late year of the trial , shorter or rickety cultivar scramble in the shadow of great neighbors ; ‘ Yakushima ’ ( L. bicolor‘Yakushima ’ ) was usually found nestled under the twisty skirt of ‘ Samidare ’ by midsummer .
Richard Hawke is an expert plantsman and the director of cosmetic plant research at the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe , Illinois .
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‘Gibraltar’ Thunberg bush clover.Photo: courtesy of Chicago Botanic Garden
To tame or rejuvenate bush clover shrubs, prune them back hard in early spring. This will not impact their flowering, because flowers form on new growth (which fills out quickly).Illustration: Jessica Daigle
