Beauty bush

Kolkwitzia amabilis is a species of flowering plant in the family Caprifoliaceae, the only known species in the monotypic genus Kolkwitzia. It is a deciduous shrub known by the common name beauty bush. The Latin amabilis means "lovely".

The plant originated in Central China, where it was twice discovered, once by the Jesuit missionary Giuseppe Giraldi in Shensi and then in western Hubei province, by E.H. 'Chinese' Wilson who was collecting for Veitch Nurseries, who introduced it into horticulture. It was named for Richard Kolkwitz, a professor of botany in Berlin. Wilson sent plant material to his sponsors Veitch Nurseries, Exeter, in 1901; the shrub flowered there for the first time in 1910. It received a Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit (AGM) in 1923 for Nymans Gardens, Sussex. The shrub became very popular in the eastern United States following World War I, almost a defining shrub in American gardens made between the World Wars.

Another grey day, enlivened by Meeting with old mates on a flyer into my ex. workplace, the calling of the birds and the glow and scent of the flowers.