I wouldn't put it any closer than 7 or 8 feet.

Ours is quite wide at the base - 4' is definitely too close.

Its quite variable...from about 10-20'. The few I've seen at the Chicago botanic gardens where all about 15' wide. The one I saw at the display garden in the Milwaukee area was closer to 12'. I believe all those specimans where semi-mature.

Keep in mind the plant has a very informal look (at least most of them).

The one I had was about 6' wide and about 5 years old.

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Is the one in the pic in shade? It is sparse for being 5 years old, if they look like that one, I could fit that by the house. I was under the impression that this shrub was a tall semi-narrow shrub. I have another area where I could use this shrub and it's width will be good. Thanks for the info.

We grow ours as a tree and I certainly wouldn't describe it as narrow! It's about 7 years old in the picture below - the trunk is near the right side of the photo so what you see is half of a fairly young tree. 4' is definitely not enough room.

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It is very much a tree worth growing so I do think you need to find room for it! The growing season is too short here for it to develop the colorful calyxes. Also, I've noticed that the flowers that are pollinated and form berries seem to lose the calyx. The tree is swarmed by bees when it's in flower and, in 2010, the Monarchs swarmed it too! Between the bees and the Monarchs, pollination was pretty complete. But there's not enough time for the fruit to ripen before frost.

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Mine was actually in the ground 2 years and about 3 years old when I purchased it. I placed it in a northwest location so it suffered some dieback and leaf tatter.

They are shrubby, but considered a tree.

Ideally I would place this guy about 8' off the house min. If its off the corner of the house maybe you can get away with 6'.

Thank you all for sharing your pics and information about Hept. mic. I've had mine now for about 4 years and while I'm still not entirely thrilled with the form, it is getting better. I'm going to give it one or two more years in its current spot and if it doesn't shape up then she's getting moved. I think one of the keys may be that she may have too much exposure (no sun protection at all). I think she would do a bit better with a little less sun. Also, she doesn't seem to like overhead watering. I've worked hard to prune her for optimal branching over the past few years and now I'm just going to let her do her thing. Last year I planted a Clematis 'Vino' to climb through her and that is already working very well. The butterfly pic above is especially encouraging. Best of luck, fellow SSF growers!

I have 2 on the way and will definitely have room for them, I will be putting them in a mixed plant "living fence" so 12 feet spacing should be okay? Did not mean to be ignorant Whaas but your's is not real fluffy. I'm being rushed to go somewhere so I must cut this short. Thanks for the pics and info.