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Do you want to build a snowman? Or would you prefer to read a gardening article about a bunch of plants with the word “snow” in the name? Great, you’ve come to the right place. With our recent wintry weather, I’m sure gardening isn’t on the forefront of most of your minds, but since snow is, I figured why not combine the two! There is no shortage of cultivars of winter-blooming plants like Hellebore and Camellia that have snow in their name. Hellebores typically bloom from January through March, with flowers sometimes poking up through the snow, and if you browse catalogs and plant databases, you can quickly find ‘Cinnamon Love,’ a cultivar with cinnamon-burgundy flower stalks topped with pure white flowers that develop a tinge of pink as they age. There’s also ‘Snow Love’ – white flowers that age to green, and ‘Mahogany Rose’- white blooms with rose and mahogany tones. Camellias have an entire group of cold-tolerant hybrids often referred to as the Winter group, dozens of which feature the word winter in their name. Many of these camellias also feature snow, such as ‘Snow Flurry’ and ‘Winter Snowman.’ Both of these have white flowers, as you might have guessed.
leaf Hydrangeas have clusters of white, cone-shaped flowers from May-June. Middle right: Viburnum plicatum, 'Summer Snowflake,' derives its name from the lacecap flower heads that make the plant appear as though it's covered with a light dusting of snow when in bloom. Bottom left: 'Snow Carpet' is a miniature hybrid shrub rose that grows up to 10 inches tall and spreads up to four feet across. Photo: S. Zona, CC BY-NC 2.0 It's not solely winter-blooming plants that borrow the word snow, however. There’s an Oakleaf hydrangea cultivar named ‘Snow Queen’ that that has gorgeous white, cone-shaped flower clusters from May-June. Mophead hydrangeas, at least the white-blooming ones, are sometimes called snowball plant or snowball bush, because the round shape of the bloom resembles a snowball. Several types of viburnum, from Viburnum obovatum, to Viburnum opulus, to Viburnum plicatum, are also often called snowball bush for the same reason. A cultivar of Viburnum plicatum, ‘Summer Snowflake, derives its name from the lacecap flower heads with both sterile and fertile flowers that make the plant appear as though it’s been covered with a light dusting of snow when in bloom.
There’s more! The Styrax and Halesia genus, which I’ve written about before, both feature several species of trees often referred to as snowbells because of their white, bell-shaped flowers. There’s a white weeping Japanese cherry known as ‘Snow Fountain.’ Serissa japonica, a summer-blooming evergreen shrub, is often referred to as the snow rose, due to its smattering of white blossoms atop glossy foliage. Not to be outdone, there are several true rose cultivars that have snow in the name, including ‘Snow Carpet,’ ‘Snow on the Heather,’ ‘Summer Snow,’ and ‘Snow Queen.’ Fear not, gardeners, the snow will be gone from the ground soon. It may already be as you read this, in fact. Yet, reminders of our winter weather may be in many of our gardens all-year round. Matthew Stevens is the horticulture extension agent for North Carolina Cooperative Extension’s Pitt County Center. If you have any questions about this article or other aspects of your home gardening, please contact the Pitt County Master Gardener Infoline at 252-902-1705.
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Earlier this month, Bob Weir, rhythm guitarist, singer, and founding member of the Grateful Dead and many of its offshoots and side projects, passed away. If that seems like an unusual way to begin a gardening column, bear with me. Bob was not quite as famous as bandmate Jerry Garcia, but he helped carry on the legacy of the band for 30 years after Jerry passed, and Bob wrote and sang nearly as many of the Grateful Dead’s songs as Jerry did. Perhaps the most well-known of Bob’s songs was ‘Sugar Magnolia,’ and to honor his legacy, that is the plant I will write about this week. Except, it turns out that there’s no such thing. There’s many different types of magnolias, of course, and far be it for me to question Bob and co-writer Robert Hunter’s botanical knowledge, but good luck finding a horticulture reference of any kind that lists one by that name. The NC State Plant Toolbox (plants.ces.ncsu.edu), one of the finest online plant databases, lists nineteen species of Magnolia, and countless cultivars, but a search for Sugar Magnolia turns up zero results. So which one of those nineteen species might he have been talking about? I started learning about plants as a teenager, right around the same time I started listening to the Grateful Dead and other classic rock bands of the ‘60s and ‘70s. The first magnolia I discovered was saucer magnolia, Magnolia soulangeana, a hybrid with multiple trunks that lands somewhere between large shrub and small tree. Saucer magnolia is known for it purplish-pink early spring flowers, which are highly susceptible to cold and frost. Once I realized there wasn’t a true sugar magnolia, I convinced myself that perhaps this was the one the song was about, for no particular reason other than ‘Saucer Magnolia’ wasn’t a catchy song title, so changing the name was an artistic decision.
Top left: In early spring, the saucer magnolia has purplish-pink flowers on the outside and whitish on the inside. I wondered if this was the magnolia they were singing about. Photo: Bagemet, CC BY-SA 4.0 Bottom left: Then I wondered if it could be the sweetbay magnolia since the blooms of this tree are sweet. Photo: H. Duckworth, CC BY 4.0. Right: Finally, I thought it might be the very impressive Southern magnolia, although its scent is not particularly sweet. Sweetbay magnolia, Magnolia virginiana, is a more likely possibility. Sugar is sweet, of course, and there is a mention in the lyrics of “sweet blossoms,” so this seems to make some sense. The sweetbay magnolia is a small to medium semi-evergreen tree, with white spring blossoms that are pleasantly fragrant and showy, but smaller and not as prolific as many other magnolias. It is native to the Eastern United States. The Grateful Dead were from California and while they’d eventually tour the world many times over, it seems unlikely that they’d write one of their most enduring songs about a niche species from the other side of the country like Sweetbay magnolia.
So maybe it’s the more popular and grandiose Magnolia grandiflora, often called Southern magnolia. These are abundant throughout the Southern United States, including Louisiana, which perhaps makes the lyric “She can dance a Cajun rhythm” relevant to this discussion. Everything about this species is more impressive. The leaves and flowers are substantially larger than the sweetbay, and the height and width can be nearly double, so it certainly could make an impression on even a casual observer. It is not, however, particularly sweet. Its flowers are fragrant but not nearly as much so as the sweetbay. The mystery continues. The Grateful Dead were notorious pranksters, and Bob often spoke of his sixty years of playing in the band as being just a small part of what he hoped would be a 300-year-long musical legacy, so maybe botanical nerds like me will be spending the next 240 years trying to answer this silly question while listening to the music play. Fare thee well, Bob. Matthew Stevens is the Horticulture Extension Agent for North Carolina Cooperative Extension’s Pitt County Center. If you have any questions about this article or other aspects of your home gardening, please contact the Pitt County Master Gardener Infoline at 252-902-1705. As gardeners, we all have our favorite and least favorite plants. Once we decide which plants make up each list, we rarely, if ever, let them move from one list to the other. However, for every rule there is an exception. To that end, I must admit that Mahonia, a group of plants in the genus Berberis that was once firmly entrenched on my least favorite list, is now perhaps not quite ready to be ranked amongst my favorites, but certainly one I see a lot more value in than previously. When I’ve mentioned this to other gardeners, I sense that Mahonia is or has been on a lot of least favorite lists, but let me attempt to make the case here for Mahonia as a valuable landscape plant in just one sentence. If I told you that there was an easy-to-grow evergreen shrub that could tolerate a range of soils, required little pruning, was largely deer-resistant, had attractive, fragrant yellow flowers in early winter when little else was blooming (that are loved by bees when the temperatures are warm enough for them to forage), and produced colorful blue fruit that ripen by early spring, you would want that plant, right? Well, Mahonia is that plant.
is blooming. Photo: Nacho, CC BY 2.0. Top right: Close-up of yellow blooms. Photo: J. Martin, Public Domain Mark 1.0 Bottom left: Colorful blue fruit ripen by early spring. Photo: Nacho, CC BY 2.0 Bottom right: The narrow foliage of Berberis eurybracteata makes it less abrasive and gentler looking than leatherleaf Mahonia. ‘Soft Caress’ is a popular cultivar of this narrow leaf type that is quite colorful in full bloom and increasing in popularity. I imagine a lot of you are put off by the foliage, as I was for a long time. Berberis aquifolium, one of the most commonly used species of Mahonia, has sharp pointy leaves much like many hollies. They are long and pinnately compound (meaning that many individual leaflets make up a single leaf). With 9-13 leaflets per leaf and 3-5 spines per leaflet, there’s a lot of opportunity to be rudely poked by this plant. Mahonia grows best in partial sun, where it will maintain a glossy green color. If grown in full sun, the leaves can become bleached and that certainly makes them less attractive. So, between the undesirable color of the leaves when grown in the wrong spot, and its prickliness, a lot of us have crossed paths with Mahonia and been left unimpressed.
Like so many plants, however, Mahonia is much more attractive when grown under the right conditions. In moist, acidic soils under partial shade, such as a wooded area under pines, Mahonia is a nice shrub. If Berberis aquifolium, also commonly known as Oregon holly grape, doesn’t suit you, you may find the slightly softer leaves of Berberis fortunei or Berberis x hortensis more pleasing. Berberis eurybracteata also has much narrower foliage than leatherleaf Mahonia or the hybrids, which makes it less abrasive and gentler looking. ‘Soft Caress’ is a popular cultivar of this narrow leaf type that is quite colorful in full bloom and increasing in popularity. All grow best in well-drained, acidic soil in partial shade. It should be noted that Berberis bealei, a species of Mahonia still offered for sale in many nurseries, garden centers, and big box stores across the state, is listed as an invasive species by the NC Invasive Plant Council. It also has coarse, sharp leaves that many find unappealing. If choosing to plant Mahonia, it is best to avoid this particular species and instead plant one of the others that I have mentioned. Matthew Stevens is the horticulture extension agent for Nash County Cooperative Extension. If you have any questions about this article or other aspects of your home gardening, please contact Matthew at 459-1403 or [email protected]. I often write about how flowers aren’t the only ornamental characteristic by which we should judge the aesthetic value of plants. Sure, pretty blooms are nice, but plants do other things as well. There are, of course, many plants whose primary attribute is their attractive fruit, or their colorful fall foliage. Sometimes even more subtle attributes, such as bark color or texture, may be the thing that first catches your eye when observing a plant. Perhaps that’s the case with sugarberry, Celtis laevigata, or it’s close cousin hackberry, Celtis occidentalis. Both are known for the corky growth that develops on their trunks and branches. Initially these corky growths may appear as individual bumps or warts, but they increase in size as the trees age, often creating deeply furrowed ridges along the trunk. This may not be pretty, in the classic sense, but it is certainly notable, and if trunks are your thing, this very well may float your boat.
Beyond this somewhat unusual physical trait, both sugarberry and hackberry are tall deciduous trees that cast quite a bit of shade. They are often used as street trees in urban areas for this reason, lining sidewalks and parking lots. They can be a bit messy, however, as they produce many small red berries that can get stepped on and smushed. The berries do offer another small bit of ornamental value, but more than this, they are valuable as a food source for many birds and small mammals who feed on them. Sugarberry and hackberry both also serve as host or food source for a large number of butterfly species, including the Hackberry Emperor, American Snout, Morning Cloak, Tawny Emperor, and Question Mark butterfly. They are pretty large for the average home landscape – hackberry grows 40-60’ tall, and sugarberry 50-70’. But if you are a native plant enthusiast who also values pollinators, either of these trees would be a good thematic fit in your landscape.
Both trees are related to elm, though both seem to have resistance to the problematic Dutch elm disease, which has decimated the American elm population. It is also part of the Hemp (Cannabaceae) family, and though it doesn’t seem to share any of the intoxicating effects of other relatives, perhaps that relationship is why this plant was used by some Native Americans for medicinal purposes. A concoction made from the bark was used to treat sore throats and other ailments, and parts of this tree have also been used historically to make food, fuel, and tools. In more modern times, the wood from hackberry is used to make furniture and baskets. Although we often think of natives as relatively pest free, both hackberry and sugarberry have a number of minor pest issues. Aphids love tender new growth, and the excretions of their feeding often lead to black sooty mold. They are also prone to powdery mildew, leaf spot, and an unsightly but mostly harmless condition called hackberry nipple gall, which causes a bumpy distortion to infected leaves. Matthew Stevens is the horticulture extension agent for North Carolina Cooperative Extension’s Pitt County Center. If you have any questions about this article or other aspects of your home gardening, please contact the Pitt County Master Gardener Infoline at 252-902-1705. While Juniper is hardly the sexiest genus in the plant world, it is undeniably a diverse genus with a large number of plants that fill utilitarian roles in many landscapes. Not all plants need to be the star of the show. Landscapes, like teams, need role players. Need a ground cover? How about one of the many Juniperus horizontalis cultivars? The most popular of these, ‘Blue Rug’ juniper, is a dense creeping evergreen shrub with bluish-green tinted foliage. ‘Blue Rug’ may only grow 4-6 inches or so above ground, but each plant will grow 6-8’ wide in time, if not larger. It’s a great option for slopes or erosion control, or simply to cover areas beneath larger shrubs or small trees. It is a slow grower, however, so if you’re looking for a plant that can establish quicker, you may wish to try ‘Bar Harbor,’ which will grow about a foot high and is not quite as dense, or ‘Plumosa,’ which grows 18 inches high by 5 feet wide. ‘Plumosa’ needles have a slightly more grayish cast, and turn purplish during the cold months of winter.
green tinted foliage. It makes up for its low height by growing six to eight feet wide. Photo: F.D. Richards, CC-BY-SA 2.0. Lower left: ‘Bar Harbor’ needles. ‘Bar Harbor’ grows about a foot high. Photo: J. Hollinger, CC BY 2.0 Right: The Eastern red cedar, Juniperus virginiana, is a native tree that can be used as a privacy screen. Photo: N.A. Tonelli, CC BY 2.0. Maybe you don’t need a groundcover, but you are looking for a medium to large tree to establish a screen. Many people use arborvitae or Leyland cypress, but since there are some pest concerns with each of these plants, you want to try a native alternative. Enter Eastern red cedar, Juniperus virginiana. While not entirely pest-free, this upright pyramidal-shaped evergreen tree is averse to some of the bigger issues facing the other screen trees mentioned, though with a similar size and appearance, making it a suitable alternative in some scenarios. Similar to many of the groundcover junipers mentioned above, its needles are more of a blue-green or gray-green than a true green.
What about an accent plant in a shrub border? The Chinese junipers, Juniperus chinensis, come in all shapes and sizes, but many of the most widely available cultivars are small to medium-sized shrubs with off-color foliage. For example, both ‘Parsons’ and ‘Angelica’ have bluish-green foliage, while ‘Gold Star,’ ‘Old Gold,’ and ‘Saybrook Gold’ are golden-yellow. Using plants of these hues in combination with more typical green foliage, or with other off colors like burgundy or purple, can create some striking visual combinations in the landscape. Regardless of which juniper you may need to fill a niche role in your landscape, they more than likely will share a few common characteristics. The first is an affinity for soils that are average moisture or drier – they don’t like to be wet. Most will grow best and express their color optimally in full sun. Many produce what is often referred to as a berry, but botanically is more accurately a cone. Cones from some junipers are used as seasoning, or to make beverages, including gin. Plant foliage, though frequently prickly to the touch, is often pleasantly aromatic. Matthew Stevens is the horticulture extension agent for North Carolina Cooperative Extension’s Pitt County Center. If you have any questions about this article or other aspects of your home gardening, please contact the Pitt County Master Gardener Infoline at 252-902-1705. Rare are the plants in our landscape that bloom in fall and winter, and perhaps that’s why camellias are such a treasured plant in the South. They really have no rival when it comes to the floral display that they put on during the coldest part of the year. As many experienced gardeners are probably aware, there are two different species of camellia commonly found in our area, Camellia sasanqua and Camellia japonica. Despite what the names might lead you to believe, both are native to Japan, not just the japonica species. Both are slow growing, dense, slightly pyramidal-shaped large shrubs that like moist, well-drained, acidic soil. Sasanquas and japonicas are different in a number of ways that are important for gardeners to know. For starters, sasanquas are generally a smaller plant. They generally grow to a height of about 6-10 feet, compared to 10-15 feet for the japonicas. Sasanquas have smaller leaves and flowers as well. Though flowering time varies quite a bit within each species, sasanquas tend to bloom earlier, in mid to late fall, while japonicas often flower from January through March. Although it is a treat to have plants that can produce such spectacular blooms during the coldest part of the year, camellia petals can often be damaged by especially cold temperatures, turning brown around the edges. This is true of both species. Plants themselves are hardy, but will need protection from cold winter winds. Often they’ll do best when placed near a wall or building where they’ll have some shelter during the coldest part of the year. Of the two species, Camellia japonica tends to be a bit more winter hardy.
 Top left: ‘Autumn Spirit’ is a cold-hardy fall-winter blooming camellia bred at UNC-Chapel Hill. Photo: C. DeWitt, CC BY 4.0 Top right: Camellia japonica do best when placed near a wall or building that provides shelter during the coldest part of the year. Photo: C. Dewitt, CC BY 4.0 Middle left: The roselike flower of ‘Ashton’s Ballet,’ an Ackerman hybrid, has double flowers in November and December. Middle right: ‘Snow Flurry’ is one of the earliest cold-hard fall-blooming Ackerman camellias. Bottom row: The flowers and leaves of camellia sasanqua are smaller than those of camellia japonica. A series of cold-hardy camellia hybrids known as the Ackerman hybrids was developed to be more tolerant of extreme winter conditions. These are named after the plant breeder William Ackerman of Ashton, Maryland, who began working on cold hardiness after the entire collection of camellias at the US National Arboretum in Washington D.C. was nearly lost following a series of cold winters in the late 1970s. Cultivars such as ‘Winter’s Beauty,’ ‘Winter’s Charm,’ ‘Winter’s Star,’ and ‘Polar Ice’ are part of the Ackerman hybrid group.
Another series of cold-hardy camellias was bred by Dr. Clifford Parks, former director of the Coker Arboretum at UNC-Chapel Hill. ‘Survivor’, ‘Twilight Glow’, and ‘Autumn Spirit’ are cold-hardy fall-winter blooming camellias, and ‘Red Aurora’ and ‘April Tryst’ are late winter/early spring bloomers with increased cold hardiness. Camellias do have a few relatively minor pest problems, such as scale, aphids, and spider mites, which cause some light cosmetic damage. Many of these are avoidable or at least controllable if the plants are grown in the right environment – partial-shade locations with moist, well-drained soil, and a fair amount of organic matter. Locations where azaleas or mophead hydrangeas thrive are typically also adequate for camellias, though the camellias will take up a larger amount of space. Matthew Stevens is the horticulture extension agent for North Carolina Cooperative Extension’s Pitt County Center. If you have any questions about this article or other aspects of your home gardening, please contact the Pitt County Master Gardener Infoline at 252-902-1705. Gardeners are always asking me for low maintenance plants that they can incorporate into their landscapes. Gardening is, after all, hard work, and it can be frustrating to put a lot of effort into plants that struggle or succumb to one ailment or the other. Having at least a few plants in the landscape that you know will be alright whether or not you are able to give them your full attention can make taking care of the rest of them feel just a little less daunting. There are many plants I could recommend as “low maintenance” depending on the situation, but perhaps the most durable plant I know of, whether grown indoors or out, is Aspidistra elatior, the Cast Iron plant. Now, this perhaps goes without saying, but this plant does not look like cast iron; rather, it got its name because of the fact that it won’t break, bend, rust, rot, wilt, or die under almost any circumstance. It’s just one of the toughest customers in the plant world. It’s definitely not flashy, but it will survive. The Cast Iron plant grows best in shady spots, the type of garden spots where you might grow hosta, ferns, or solomon’s seal. Growing to a height of 2 feet tall and forming clumps as much as 3 feet wide, it can serve either as a substitute for or complement those other shade-loving perennials.
Lower left and lower right: Goldfeather' and ‘Lennon’s Song’ are striped striped cultivar. Photo: C. DeWitt, CC BY 4.0. Upper right: The spots on the 'Milky Way' cultivars stand out against the green background. Leaves emerge directly out of the ground, with 7-12 inch petioles and leaf blades up to 12-18 inches long. They are oval-shaped, and most often solid green. Again, they are not flashy, although there are a few colors with variegated leaf color that are a bit more interesting. These include the cultivars ‘China Stars,’ ‘Milky Way,’ and ‘Well Spotted,’ each of which has dots of white speckled across a green background, and striped cultivars such as the yellow and green ‘Goldfeather’ and ‘Lennon’s Song’ and the green and white ‘Mangetsu’ and ‘Variegata’. The variegated cultivars are a bit more interesting and remind one of the many different variegation patterns of hosta.
While not grown for their flowers, the Cast Iron plant does have some, sort of. They are not typically seen by gardeners, as they occur just at or even below the soil surface, often hidden by dense foliage, mulch, and top soil. The clever horticulturist Tony Avent says they are “best appreciated by moles” due to their location. They bloom sporadically, usually in early summer, and the flowers are actually pretty interesting to behold, as they are a cup-shaped inflorescence with 7-20 petals, ranging from cream-colored to purple. Flowers will occur with a little more frequency in higher light environments, although the foliage may burn a bit in these types of settings, so it's usually best to grow this plant in the shade. Cast Iron plant is commonly used as a houseplant, and also thrives in low-light environments indoors. Matthew Stevens is the County Extension Director and Horticulture Agent for North Carolina Cooperative Extension’s Pitt County Center. If you have questions about this article or gardening in general, please contact the Pitt County Extension Master Gardener Infoline on Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 10 am to 12 noon at 252-902-1705. While some might think of gardening as an activity for just the warmer months, experienced gardeners and plant lovers recognize that gardens and landscapes have something to offer in all four seasons. Sure, spring and summer is mostly about flowers, with colorful blooms visible on any number of trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants anywhere you look. Fall has fewer blooms, but gives us the delightful change in foliage color associated with many of our deciduous trees and shrubs. As the calendar gets set to turn into winter, those colorful leaves have just about all fallen, and many of those trees and shrubs are bare. So where do we look for color and interest in winter landscapes? In many ways, winter is the season for berries, and perhaps no plant showcases the winter berry attribute like the holly. There are, of course, many different species of holly, but so many of them have something to offer during the winter months. First, there is the American holly, Ilex opaca, our native evergreen holly. Ilex opaca is often found growing in mixed forests, and can be used in larger landscapes as a specimen tree, or as a screen, but is not well suited for small landscapes as it grows to a height of 40-60 feet tall. Plants are dioecious, meaning individual trees are either male or female. Only the females produce berries, but a nearby male is needed for pollination. ‘Greenleaf’, at 20-30 feet mature height, and other female cultivars of American holly, are better suited to smaller landscapes.
Left: The ‘Nellie R Stevens’ holly, a cross between the English and Chinese hollies, is a pyramidal-shaped evergreen popular in modern landscapes. Above right: Berries from the 'Savannah holly.' Photo: J. Robbins, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 Below right: Holly berries and leaves. Photo: J. Robbins, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 There is also the well-known ‘Nellie R Stevens’ holly, a cross between the English and Chinese hollies, which is monoecious (self-fertile) berry-producing, pyramidal-shaped evergreen popular in modern landscapes. It too can be used either as a specimen or screen. At up to 30 feet tall and 20-25 feet wide, it provides a dense growth nearly as wide as tall. Foster’s holly (Ilex x attenuata ‘Fosteri’) and Savannah holly (Ilex x attenuata ‘Savannah’) grow to a similar height as ‘Nellie R Stevens’, but are both slightly more slender, at 10-15 feet wide. Both Foster and Savannah are heavy berry producers with clusters of pea-sized red fruit from early fall through late winter.
The aforementioned English holly can be a bit difficult to grow in the Southern U.S. However, its classic combination of red berries and sharply toothed dark green foliage is the blueprint for traditional holiday décor, and in fact is often referred to as Christmas holly. The Meserve holly, sometimes referred to as blue holly due to its especially dark shade of foliage, is the most visually similar holly that we grow in Eastern N.C. Many of the blue holly cultivars, such as ‘Blue Prince’/’Blue Princess’ and ‘Blue Boy’/’Blue Girl’ are dioecious male and female pairs and are typically medium sized shrubs used in foundation plantings or hedges. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the Winterberry holly, Ilex verticillata, while discussing hollies that bear fruit in winter. Winterberry is especially adapted to wet sites, and unlike the others mentioned, is deciduous. Its bare stems dappled with dark red berries can absolutely dazzle in the right setting. Matthew Stevens is the County Extension Director and Horticulture Agent for North Carolina Cooperative Extension’s Pitt County Center. If you have questions about this article or gardening in general, please contact the Pitt County Extension Master Gardeners at [email protected] or 252-902-1705. While I love gardening in Eastern North Carolina for many reasons, there are a few favorite plants of mine that I wish were better fits for our climate. I have lived in Massachusetts, Maryland, and a few different parts of North Carolina, so naturally I’ve encountered some plants in previous lives that don’t do quite as well here due to climate or soil differences, but I still have fond memories of them. One of those plants is the Sourwood tree, Oxydendrum arboreum. The first time I remember seeing a Sourwood tree, I was perhaps ten years old. My parents had just planted a new tree in the backyard, right in the shallow left field area of the imaginary baseball field my friends and I sometimes played on. I remember being annoyed that this new tree got in our way and I would occasionally mutter under my breath about how inconvenient it was. A few years passed, I became interested in plants and landscaping, and went off to college to study horticulture. Then one summer I came home, looked out the kitchen window to see my parents’ sourwood tree in full bloom and thought, “My God, that’s beautiful.” Sourwood has small, white, bell-shaped blooms arranged in long, drooping panicles in early summer. Flowers are fragrant and resemble both lily of the valley (it is sometimes referred to as lily of the valley tree) and the Japanese andromeda shrub. In fact, Sourwood was previously classified in the genus Andromeda before it was re-named as Oxydendrum. The blooms sit atop the glossy green foliage and create an effect similar to a snow-covered tree in winter. Even as the individual flower petals drop, the finger-like stalk of the panicles remain, extending the visual impact. A bronze fruit capsule develops post-bloom, which adds interest.
Top left: The white, bell-shaped blooms left: The white, bell-shaped blooms of the Sourwood tree are fragrant and resemble both lilies of the valley and the Japanese andromeda shrub. Photo: Mrs. Gemstone, CC BY-SA 4.0 Top right: The flowers are arranged in long, drooping panicles in early summer. Photo: W. Cutler, CC BY 4.0. Bottom left: The striking red fall foliage is among the most attractive of all fall colors. Photo: S. Kaiser, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Bottom right: In summer, the flowers sit atop the glossy green foliage. Photo: J. Robbins, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 Sourwood trees are native to a large part of the Central and Eastern United States from Pennsylvania south to Florida and as far west as Ohio and Louisiana. Although they are found throughout North Carolina, they are much more common, and better suited, to the western half of the state. Perhaps you’ve seen sourwood honey for sale and wondered where that honey comes from. The answer is that it likely came from areas in the mountains where beehives were placed in proximity to groves of sourwood trees. While not ideal for our area, they theoretically could be a fit in some butterfly/pollinator gardens or rain gardens, as they attract and provide habitat for many species of butterflies, and are also tolerant to a range of soil moistures.
Matthew Stevens is the County Extension Director and Horticulture Agent for North Carolina Cooperative Extension’s Pitt County Center. If you have questions about this article or gardening in general, please contact the Pitt County Extension Master Gardeners at [email protected] or 252-902-1705. Many factors go into choosing which plants we use in our landscapes. For most of us, the primary concern is the aesthetic value of the plant – how it looks in our yards. We all have different tastes, so we may value plants differently in this way, but I imagine appearance is at or near the top of almost everyone’s list when choosing plants. We may also factor in things like the smell or feel of a plant, its country of origin, or its relative ease of care. Some gardeners may, at least on occasion, make plant selections based not only on how well a plant performs inside the garden, but also outside of the garden. I’m thinking of Aucuba japonica, the Japanese Aucuba, which is not only a stalwart of gardens used in foundation plantings and other landscape settings, but also a plant prized for its foliage in flower arrangements, centerpieces, wreaths, and other types of indoor decoration. Aucuba Japonica is a mid-sized evergreen shrub that does very well in partial to full shade. Various resources will tell you it can grow to 6-10 feet tall and 4-6 feet wide, though I can’t remember ever seeing one that large. They are often used as foundation plants or as low screens or hedges, and may be pruned either by the gardener who cares for it or by grazing deer who also seem to love it. Leaves may be solid green, as long as 6-8 inches, with a glossy finish and somewhat leathery feel. However, leaves are often variegated, with yellow spots and streaks.
The cultivar known as ‘Variegata,’ often referred to as Gold Dust Aucuba, features leaves that are dazzlingly spotted with blotches of yellow. While this is the most popular Aucuba cultivar, it is not the only one, and each differs in its foliar display. Mature leaves of ‘Picturata’ resemble Gold Dust, but newest leaves emerge with a wide yellow streak through the middle between dark green leave margins. ‘Sulphurea Marginata’ does the opposite. The center part of each leaf is a slender streak of green, but the rest of the leaf is golden yellow. Even the cultivars with solid green leaves, like ‘Nana,’ a dwarf, compact Aucuba, and ‘Pacman,’ another smaller cultivar that also has contorted leaves, are attractive, as the foliage stands out amidst other shrubs with smaller, duller, or more traditionally shaped leaves.
Aucuba is easy to grow in the right spots. It likes moist, well-drained, slightly acidic soils in partial to full shade. It can have some problems with pests like scale, or deer, and it can suffer from root rot if soil drainage is poor. Its prized foliage can also burn if grown in full sun, so protection is important. Its insignificant spring flowers usually go unnoticed, and female plants do produce a modest display of red berries in fall and winter, but its glorious foliage is undoubtedly the main reason for growing Aucuba. Matthew Stevens is the County Extension Director and Horticulture Agent for North Carolina Cooperative Extension’s Pitt County Center. If you have questions about this article or gardening in general, please contact the Pitt County Extension Master Gardeners at [email protected] or 252-902-1705. |
Matt Stevens
Pitt County Extension Director & Horticulture Agent Archives
February 2026
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