THE BEST PLANT YOU HAVE NEVER HEARD OF

To quote legendary plantsman and breeder Dr Michael Dirr, “These are the best plants that you have never head of.”

An evergreen, low growing shrub that does its job without fuss or fanfare and loves a tough situation, is quite simply a landscaper’s dream plant. Originating in China, the Distylium has been refined through a breeding program in the United States where the evergreen shrub has become an exceptionally useful landscaping plant.

While preferring acidic soils they are highly adaptable to a range of site conditions including heat and drought conditions as well as wet soils and cold climates. Through Fleming’s trialling program it has shown that Distylium perform best in full sun to part shade positions, but will also cope well in full shade.

According to Fleming’s director and leading nurseryman, Wes Fleming, Distylium are the best thing for the Australian landscape since Fleming’s introduced the Indian Summer range of Crepe Myrtle.

“I love these guys! They are just awesome ‘doers’ – we need shrubs that happily fill out gardens, are green, lush and soft without becoming woody or tired looking in a few years.”

Typical of plants in the Hamamelidaceae family, they flower from winter through to early Spring, with small, inconspicuous red apetalous flowers along the stem.

“The best thing about these guys is that they are so easy.  Once established, they require little to no maintenance. You don’t even need to prune them unless you really like to get your secateurs out and cannot help yourself – but really they don’t need any work.  Just plant and forget them – they’ll do their thing.

Fleming’s are releasing two varieties this yearincluding Vintage Jade and Cinnamon Girl.

Both excellent forms of the plant, Distylium ‘Vintage Jade’ has a distinctive layered branching habit, forming a low spreading shrub. As a single plant it will reach to around 1.2 metres tall and 1.5metres wide.

Also available will be Distylium ‘Cinnamon Girl’plum-purple new growth which turns blue-green as the leaves mature. Slightly smaller in size to its cousin, Vintage Jade, Cinnamon Girl will reach approximately 80cm to 1 metre in height and 1.2 metres to 1.3 metres to width.

“These extremely versatile evergreen shrubs will be equally at home in domestic gardens and larger scale commercial landscapes.  We have used them extensively through our trials and found them particularly ideal for mass planting in garden beds,” said Wes.

Fleming’s trials have also shown the plant to be extremely suitable for median strips and traffic islands, where they will provide deep green colour year-round. Also useful as a component of shrub borders and in mixed garden beds where they will provide a background for other colourful foliage and flowers. In smaller spaces they can be successfully grown in larger pots and planters.