Nandna domestica 'Fire Power' is my Favorite Plant, this week...

The longer I garden, the more I want something interesting at which to look in the winter as well as the other three seasons.  We're lucky in the pacific northwest to have so many conifers and broad leaved evergreens to color our gardens with great foliage color.  My favorite this week is Nandina domestica 'Fire Power" and also Nandina domestica nana purpurea.  Here are two of each which jumped in my car on a recent visit to Bark and Garden (More about that in another post.)

 

 

You really can't beat these plants for color this time of the year!

 

 

From the Missouri Botanical Garden's website comes this information:

 

Easily grown in average, medium moisture, well-drained soils in full sun to part shade. Some tolerance for full shade, but foliage often grows best in sun with some afternoon shade. Tolerates a wide range of soils, but prefers moist humusy ones. Best with consistent watering. This shrub is evergreen in the warm winter climates of USDA Zones 8-10. In the St. Louis area, it is considered to be semi-evergreen to deciduous because plants will typically lose their foliage (become deciduous) as soon as winter temperatures dip below 10 F., with the stems sometimes dying to the ground. Plants are not reliably winter hardy to the St. Louis area, and if grown therein, should be sited in protected locations with organic winter mulches applied.

Noteworthy Characteristics

Nandina domestica, commonly called heavenly bamboo, is a broadleaf evergreen shrub that is ornamentally grown for its interesting foliage and its often spectacular fruit display. It is native to Japan, China and India. This is a rhizomatous, upright, evergreen shrub that typically grows to 4-8’ tall and to 2-4’ wide. In St. Louis, it is semi-evergreen to deciduous, and typically grows shorter since the stems often will die to the ground in winter. Although it belongs to the Barberry family, it is commonly called heavenly bamboo because its erect, cane-like stems and compound leaves resemble bamboo. Tiny whitish flowers with yellow anthers appear in late spring in loose, erect, terminal clusters. Flowers are followed by sprays of spherical, two-seeded, red berries which persist from fall to spring, providing winter interest. Heavenly bamboo tends to invade adjacent lands including certain forested areas of the southeastern U. S. and naturalize therein. It is now considered to be an invasive species in some southern states. 'Fire Power' (or 'Firepower') is a dwarf form that typically grows to only 2' tall and as wide. It does not produce flowers or fruit, and is basically grown for its attractive foliage. Leaves emerge lime green in spring, mature to medium green, and acquire some red tints in mid to late summer before turning firey red in fall. Where evergreen, the leaves usually retain excellent red color throughout winter. 'Fire Power' was developed in New Zealand, possibly as a sport of Nandina domestica 'Atropurpurea Nana'.

 

At Bark and Garden, these are waiting to be loaded onto one of two trucks.  One is on its way to the Tacoma Home and Garden Show which opens today and runs through Sunday.  The other truck will be packed with plants to go to the Northwest Flower and Garden Show in Seattle that opens on Wednesday, February 6.  What an exciting time of year! 

 

Anyway, back to the lovely Nandinas - These look lovely among other evergreens and add a lovely punctuation to the yellows, blues, and greens of their mates.

Mine will probably stay in pots so that they can be moved around to provide winter color where it's needed. 

For more on this foliar star of the winter garden look here.  For links to other bloggers' favorite plants this week, go to Danger Garden and check out the comments section!  My favorite plant this week was started by Ms. Danger herself, Loree Bohl.