Plant: Chardonnay Pearls® Deutzia

Plant description

Chardonnay Pearls is a compact, mounded deutzia growing about 20 inches to 3 feet tall and wide, grown as much for its bright chartreuse yellow foliage as for its flowers. Pearl like buds open through spring into pure white, star to bell shaped blooms in short racemes above papery, serrated, opposite leaves. It takes part sun to full sun with at least four to six hours of light, wants average water in moist, well drained soil, and accepts clay, loam or sand across a wide pH range. Deer resistant and easy to keep, it works in mixed containers, shrub and perennial borders and low informal hedges. Prune right after flowering.

Flowers

Pearl like buds open to pure white, bell to star shaped flowers about three quarters of an inch across, carried in racemes 3 to 5 inches long through early, mid and late spring.

Foliage

Opposite, simple leaves 1 to 3 inches long with serrated margins and a papery, hairy surface; this cultivar holds a bright chartreuse yellow colour through the season rather than the plain green of the species.

Fruit

A dehiscent, brown, half circle shaped capsule about a quarter inch across.

Bark & stems

Slender stems are brown and smooth.

Light

Morning Sun

Pruning

Prune immediately after flowering, since flower buds are set on the previous season's wood, and apply a slow release fertilizer in early spring.

Native range

Central and South Japan

Plant details