Skimmia japonica 'FRAGRANT CLOUD'

If you like the smell of Japanese skimmia in the spring, then this variety is ideal for you. Fragrant Cloud will cover you in lovely, sweet lilac-like perfume. It is a luxurious, evergreen plant with small, white flowers that open from lime green flowers buds formed in fat, upright panicles the previous autumn. It is a male plant, pollinating female varieties that produce berries in the autumn and winter. It grows slowly and compact, making a neat ground cover. Ideal for Japanese style gardens.

If you plant it well you needn’t look after it any longer except for occasional watering in dry spells. There are a few rules you have to obey if you want your skimmia look perfect: the soil has to be always moist but extremely well-drained, acidic (add peat) and light (add leaf mould), humus-rich. The best location is dappled shade or even deep shade (shady back of your house or under thick canopies of tall trees). When leaves turn pale or yellow the plant suffers from too much sun or water, or too little nutrients in the soil which should be acidic. Tolerant of atmospheric pollution. The plant is poisonous. Hardy to min. -27°C (USDA zone 5b).

Last update 28-12-2008