Re: Kerria japonica variegata

In a message dated 1/25/02 2:42:25 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
Cersgarden@aol.com writes:

<< Nancy, I have one and this will be the 3rd yr.  I hope it leaps!
     Ceres >>

Maybe you will not hope it leaps.  Here, zone 4........digression, was zone 4 
for a long time and now is a puzzle to me........ Kerria variegata is a 
suckering shrub.  You must get some pruners and keep it under control.  This 
plant gets about four feet high with lovely white bordered bright green 
foliage.  Mine is over ten years old and has been leveled to the ground 
several times by me.   The foliage could be described as fresh looking.  It 
is one of those woody plants that can look good in a perennial group if you 
keep it from spreading around.  The buds swell early and often freeze here so 
it leafs out a bit later as the latent buds survive.  We never have a lot of 
flowers as they also freeze but the mass of foliage does fine.  In extreme 
winters the dieback can be sheared off.  

I have always liked this plant and have it in several places.  It can grow in 
partial shade.

The elderberry mentioned somewhere, a variegated form I think, needs a lot of 
water.  It can be grown in damp soil.  It will not do well in full sun unless 
there is plenty of water.  There are several named forms, ours is about five 
years old and reaches only a bit more than four feet.  It is also a good 
plant as a perennial companion.

Claire Peplowski

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