I was just looking around over in our Wayside Gardens Garden Center, and I happened upon some fantastic Sweetshrub.  I asked one of our helpful Master Gardeners about the plant, and she told me that it’s x Sinocalycalycanthus ‘Hartlage Wine,’ a crossbreed of Chinese Sweetshrub and our native Carolina Allspice.  All of these shrubs are descended from a single plant bred at the Raulston Arboretum in the early 1990’s.  The plant is named "Hartlage" after the undergraduate student, Richard Hartlage, who was in charge of the experiment ("Wine" comes from the blossom color).  It really is a rare find, because it is a hybrid with all of the best traits of both stock plants from which it was bred.  Like the Carolina Allspice, it is a hardy, vigorous shrub, but it has the large blooms and leaves of the Chinese Sweetshrub.  The buds that start to come out in spring burst into large, brilliant red blooms that will be the envy of your neighborhood, especially against the backdrop of the shrub’s lovely glossy foliage.  That foliage changes to a soft yellow in fall, which can be almost as beautiful as the flowers themselves.  Plus, because it’s an unusual shrub, you’ll most likely be the first on your block to have one!