Catalog Description
Easy to grow evergreen shrub. Huge clusters of fragrant, pearl-pink flowers in spring. Use as background shrub, screen or a small tree with single or multiple trunks. Full to partial sun. Moderate grower, tree form to 20 to 25 feet tall, 8 to 10 feet wide; as shrub can be kept to 10 to 12 feet tall, 6 to 8 feet wide. Cutting grown. |
Design Ideas
May be the most versatile of all evergreen shrubs. Excellent cover for foundation planting that takes afternoon sun in summer. Well proven for parking lots and along driveways where reflected heat is problematic. Outstanding structural bloomer for back of beds and borders. Suited to making a casual naturalistic privacy screen or sheared into sheared into a more formal hedge. Size is ideal for a small tree in courtyards, urban gardens and in limited front yards.
|
Companion Plants
Its pearlescent white to pink blossoms stand out in spring when mixed in a border with Greenlane Euonymus (Euonymus fortunei `Greenlane`), Bronze New Zealand Flax (Phormium tenax `Atropurpureum Compactum`), Jerusalem Sage (Phlomis lanata), Japanese Aralia (Fatsia japonica) and similar foliage plants.
When trained as a small tree, underplant with drifts of Mondo Grass (Ophiopogon japonicus), Lipstick Strawberry Plant (Fragaria x `Lipstick`), and Wayne Roderick Fleabane (Erigeron x `Wayne Roderick`).
| |
|
Average Landscape Size
Moderate grower, tree form 20 to 25 ft. tall, 8 to 10 ft. wide, smaller as a shrub. |
Key Plant Benefits
Easy-to-grow evergreen shrub produces huge clusters of fragrant, pearl-pink flowers. Use as background shrub, screen or small tree with single or multiple trunks. |
Care Instructions
Follow a regular watering schedule during the first growing season to establish a deep, extensive root system. Feed with a general purpose fertilizer before new growth begins in spring. For a formal appearance, shear annually after flowering. |
Growth Conditions
| Growth Rate |
 Moderate Growing |
| Growth Habit |
| Round |
| Heat Zones |
High:
| 12 (>210 days) |
| Low: | 7 (>60 to 90 days) |
| Cold Hardiness |
| High: | 11 (Above 40 F) (see map) |
| Low: | 7 (0 to 10 F) |
| Water Requirements |
| Once established needs only occasional water. |
| Sun Exposure |
| Full to partial sun |
|  |
|
Flowering
Flower or Bloom description:
Star-shaped flowers in huge clusters
| Flower Color |
| Pink |
| Flowering Time/Season |
| Spring. |
|
Propagation
| Propagation Method |
1
| Cutting grown |
| Best time to Prune |
| Spring after flowering |
|
Attributes
Berries
Drought Tolerant
Easy Care Plant
Fragrant
Fruit-Bearing
Patio Container Plant
Pest Resistant
Showy Flowers
Spring Flowering
Tolerates Poor Soils
Windbreak
Woodland Garden
Year-round Interest |
Foliage
Large, glossy, leathery leaves
| Foliage Shape | Elliptic |
| Normal foliage color | Green |
| Underside foliage | Green |
| Juvenile foliage | Green |
| Mature foliage | Green |
| New foliage | Green |
| Spring foliage | Green |
| Summer foliage | Green |
| Fall foliage | Green |
| Winter foliage | Green |
|
Plant Lore
Raphiolepis is one of the few platns that has no known human uses. |
Plant History
This patented cultivar was developed and introduced by Monrovia Nursery Co. in 1973. There are many other cultivars, all derived from a single species, R. indica, which is native to southern China as well as Taiwan and Indonesia. In its native habitat it is the dominant shrub growing in colonies on hillsides from sea level to as high as four-thousand feet. There are no more than six species in the wild, and only two in cultivation, R. indica and R. umbellata. It was named by the famous John Lindley, who was one of the most influential directors of the Royal Horticultural Society in the early 19th century. The plant was originally classified by Linnaeus as a true hawthorn, genus Crataegus, but was later more accurately given its own genus by Lindley. He chose the new name the Greek raphis for needle and lepis for scale. to describe the unique flower bract architecture. However he chose the inaccurate species, for this plant did not originate in India but was likely collected in China by Carl Peter Thunberg, physician to the Dutch East India Company. Though the plants are common in the wilderness of southern China they were never garden plants in Asia. |
New Plant
|