Mahonia are an excellent backbone plant on which many a design is hung. A valuable, evergreen, winter flowering shrub providing colour, scent and nectar in the colder months.
Everyone is familiar with the very well known and much planted Mahonia x media 'Charity' with its upright form and long spikes of bright yellow, highly fragrant flowers in the depths of winter. Here are a few more Mahonia varieties we would like to share with you all:
- Mahonia eurybracteata 'Sweet Winter' is aptly named with the racemes of fragrant yellow flowers produced from autumn through the winter months. Compact in growth and upright in habit reaching 1.5m in height.
- Mahonia x media 'Winter Sun' has vibrant, highly scented, yellow flowers produced from autumn to the late winter months.
- Mahonia nitens 'Cabaret' is a real godsend for a winter flowering shrub that is a slightly different colour from the more well known Mahonia. The buds are orange – red in appearance opening from the base of the spike to reveal yellow flowers held in upright racemes. A compact form reaching only 1m in height. The emerging foliage in spring has a bronze hue maturing to green over the growing season.
- Mahonia eurybracteata 'Soft Caress' has foliage that is soft to the touch and less spikey than other Mahonia. The leaves are long and lanced shaped, forming a compact mounded shrub in appearance. Bright yellow fragrant flowers are produced throughout the winter.
Mahonia are well known for thriving in shaded conditions but are also just as happy in sun. A moist but well drained soil and some mycorrhizal fungi when planting and you can just step back and enjoy the winter fragrance and colour.
