Euonymus plants - Oregon Association of Nurseries

Doreen L. Wynja
Far from
anonymous
Evergreen and deciduous Euonymus plants
are popular workhorses in the garden
The various Burning Bush
selections are some of the most
popular commercially-available
selections of Euonymus. Their
intense fall color captures the
attention. This one in particular is
called Cole's Compact (Euonymus
alatus ‘Cole's Compact’).
By Elizabeth Petersen
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OCTOBER 2012
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“Bread and butter.” These are
the words garden center owners and
wholesale growers use to describe
the importance of euonymus to their
businesses.
Lynette Shonnard, owner of
Shonnard’s Nursery in Corvallis, Ore.,
counts on euonymus for consistent
sales. “Euonymus are part of the 20
percent of plants that are responsible
for almost 80 percent of the revenue
stream,” she said.
Chris Steinke, sales manager for
wholesale grower Youngblood Nursery
in Keizer, Ore., moves them in large
numbers. Youngblood supplies about 95
percent of its nursery stock to retail garden centers, so he knows the market.
“Euonymus is a commodity in every
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Far from anonymous
Phil Thornburg
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Emerald 'N
Wintercreeper
(Euonymus
fortunei 'Emerald 'N Gold') makes a nice groundcover and
will also climb if trained and supported. Its bright, green and gold variegated foliage changes colors
in the fall.
garden center,” Steinke said.
The reason euonymus plants are
consistently in demand?
“They do their job and they do it
well,” Steinke said. Plants are not hard
to grow and they provide eye-catching
structure for the garden.
The evergreen selections, many of
which are variegated, are often used
to make small to medium, formal or
informal hedges. They are “workhorse”
plants, Steinke said.
Kevin Klupenger, general manager
for Advanced Ornamentals in St. Paul,
Ore., has grown euonymus for years.
“They are darned dependable, nice
looking and a valuable nursery crop,”
Klupenger said. “They are bread and
butter plants that sell pretty well year in
and year out.”
Recently there has been higher
“They are bread and
butter plants that sell
pretty well year in and
year out.”
— Kevin Klupenger
Advanced Ornamentals
‘Compacta’ is especially popular
because its brilliant color is so eyecatching in the fall, Klupenger said.
Known as Burning Bush for its
flaming red fall foliage and Winged
Euonymus to describe its unusual
stems, the compact, deciduous selection is by far the most popular, abundantly available cultivar of euonymus.
Cold hardy to Zone 5, the mediumsize shrub (eight feet tall and wide)
makes striking mass plantings and formal hedges.
“Euonymus is a broad genus,”
said Darren Morgan, nursery manager
and buyer for Shonnard’s Nursery.
“The deciduous varieties sell primarily
by impulse, although many designers
like them too. Intense fall color on
the Euonymus alatus ‘Compacta’ and
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demand for fewer plants, Klupenger
said, and euonymus varieties are still in
the mix.
Advanced Ornamentals supplies
containerized stock, mostly #1s, for brokers, rewholesalers and garden centers
across the country. About 75 percent of
the stock goes to the Midwest and East
Coast, Klupenger said.
“Everybody grows ‘Compacta,’”
Steinke pointed out, “and it has been
around forever.”
The plant is also known in the
trade as E. a. var. compacta, E. alatus
‘Compactus’ and E. alata ‘Compactus’.
Dozens of Oregon growers list it in
the OAN Nursery Guide. Most of them
offer it as containerized material, but
some also offer it in B&B or bareroot.
Youngblood Nursery offers it in #5
containers.
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Far from anonymous
Youngblood Nursery
Euonymus fortunei 'Harlequin' makes an excellent evergreen groundcover. It is intensely variegated,
with hues of dark green, lighter green and ivory.
prises good thru10/31/12
the newer, smaller E. a. ‘Little Moses’
makes these some of my best selling
fall shrubs.”
Need for a sterile variety
A note of caution is in order: the
species, Euonymus alatus, has become
too aggressive in some areas where abundant seed has sprouted beyond gardens
and become invasive. The Delaware River
Invasive Plant Partnership has this to say
about E. alatus:
“While it behaves well in urban
areas, burning-bush planted near
woodlands, mature second-growth
forests, and pastures can be a problem. It has escaped from cultivation
in the Northeast and Midwest, notably
in Connecticut, Virginia, Pennsylvania,
and Illinois.
“The earliest evidence of natural-
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OCTOBER 2012
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™
“For consistent yearround sales, the
evergreen varieties
are champions.”
— Darren Morgan
Shonnard's Nursery
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ized populations of winged euonymus
in eastern Pennsylvania dates from the
1960s. Today it is found with increasing
frequency in moist forests throughout
eastern counties.”
A new sterile variety of E. alatus
to solve the invasiveness problem may
be introduced shortly.
At the University of Connecticut
College of Agriculture and Natural
Resources, Professor Yi Li’s laboratory
has developed a seedless variety of
Euonymus alatus. It retains the popular brilliant foliage but eliminates its
ability to spread and become invasive.
This explanation was published
on the UConn website on August 19,
2011: “‘The availability of a triploid
seedless, non-invasive variety of burning bush creates a win-win situation
for both consumers and commercial
nurseries,’ says Li, head of UConn’s
Transgenic Plant Facility and director of
the New England Invasive Plant Center
at the Storrs campus. The bush is an
extremely popular ornamental plant
for landscapers and gardeners because
of its intense red autumn foliage and
robust ability to grow in a wide range
of soils and environmental conditions.
In addition, the plant has very few pest
or disease problems.”
Doreen L. Wynja
™
Moonshadow Euonymus (E. fortunei 'Moonshadow') leaves have a distinctive yellow blotch at the
center. This creeper can also be used in container arrangements as a spiller.
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5/31/2012 12:49:53 PM
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Far from anonymous
Youngblood Nursery
Euonymus japonicus ‘Microphyllus Butterscotch’ is a small-leaved Euonymus selection that's ideal for
small spaces, short hedges, or edges. The brilliant, variegated color is a step up from other options.
Common and unique evergreens
Quite unlike the deciduous E.
alatus in looks, evergreen and semievergreen selections of euonymus
provide handsome foliage, which is
often variegated.
The plants make reliable choices
for hedges, edging and groundcovers.
They tolerate tough conditions, including the salty, windy conditions of coastal regions. Oregon growers offer an
assortment of both industry standards
and unique specialty selections.
“For consistent year-round sales,
the evergreen varieties are champions,”
Morgan said. “Sales on these varieties
roughly split between impulse sale and
design spec.”
Cultivars of E. fortunei
(Wintercreeper Euonymus) come in
a variety of forms. ‘Emerald ‘n’ Gold’
Farm Store
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St. Paul, Oregon
503-678-5932
1-800-648-2718
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OCTOBER 2012
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Doreen L Wynja
Emerald 'N Gold Wintercreeper Euonymus leaves
will turn a burgundy color with salmon-pink
margins in the fall. The creeper will put down
new roots wherever the stems touch the ground.
and ‘Emerald Gaiety’ are medium-sized
shrubs that accent countless commercial
and residential properties nationwide.
Both of these dwarf shrubs can
be trained to climb if given support.
‘Emerald 'N Gold’ boasts dark green
leaves edged with wide bands of
gold. In winter, the golden bands turn
creamy-white with touches of pink.
Low-growing ‘Emerald Gaiety’ is a
steadfast staple that fits into any landscape to line out a walkway or create
a low hedge or edging. Its deep green
leaves are edged in white and tinged
with pink in winter.
Improved selections provide
more choices.
E. fortunei ‘Harlequin’ is a newer
cultivar that is popular among the customers of Youngblood Nursery, because
it looks nice grown in clusters as a
small groundcover. “It is still gaining in
popularity, but we can’t keep up with
demand,” Steinke said.
Hardier and brighter than ‘Emerald
Gaiety,’ the low-growing, heavily variegated, green and ivory evergreen shrub
takes cold as low as Zone 4.
“For small shrub and groundcover use, we prefer E. fortunei
‘Moonshadow’,” said Morgan of
Shonnard’s Nursery, although the older
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Far from anonymous
curt kipp
As with many Euonymus selections, the leaf variegation on Silver King (E. japonicus 'Silver King') has a
texture that resembles a watercolor painting. Silver King can be grouped to form a hedge, and has more
pizzazz than the average hedge plant.
E. f. ‘Emerald Gaiety’ still sells too.
E. fortunei ‘Wolong Ghost,’
although variegated, develops a completely different type of variegation: its
dark green leaves are accented with
silvery white along the veins instead of
the edges.
“I really like it,” Steinke said of the
rare and unusual, prostrate, evergreen
shrub, “but it is not in the mainstream
yet.” Well suited as a ground cover, it
has potential for the market.
E. japonicus (Japanese Euonymus)
cultivars offer landscapers and gardeners another type of ornamental
evergreen shrub or small tree. Very
adaptable to all types of soil and conditions, these cultivars are widely grown
in sun or shade.
E. j. ‘Microphyllus’ and
‘Microphyllus Variegata,’ which have
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OCTOBER 2012
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leaves reminiscent of boxwood, are
very popular.
“‘Microphyllus Variegata’ makes a
great substitute for boxwood as a small
formal or informal hedge,” Steinke
said. The plant’s small green and white
leaves are held closely together on
upright stems, and the slow-growing,
upright evergreen reaches about two
and a half feet tall and wide.
Morgan recommends little leaf
selections of E. japonicus, including ‘Microphyllus Butterscotch’, Silver
Princess™, and ‘Microphyllus’ “for small
spaces and in place of boring boxwood
for small edging.”
For larger accent and hedging plants, the E. j. varieties
‘Aureomarginata’ and ‘Silver Queen’
give consistent performance and great
color, Morgan said.
The narrow, columnar E. j. ‘Green
Spire’ makes an attractive upright accent,
its dark green, evergreen leaves pres-
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Euonymus japonica 'Rokujo Variegata' is
a miniature ideal for collectors and smalll
containers, reaching only about 8 inches tall. The
leaves are tiny, with green and white variegation.
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2012
Looking for a tall and narrow plant rather than a
groundcover or short hedge? There’s a Euonymus
for that as well. Euonymus japonicus ’Greenspire’
fits into tight spaces and requires a minimum of
clipping to keep its appearance tidy.
ent year-round. It is so popular as to be
“almost a commodity,” said Steinke.
Youngblood offers ‘Green Spire’
in #1, #2 and #5 pots, but the biggest demand is in the smaller sizes.
Rewholesalers want as big as they can
get, though, Steinke said.
For the collector’s garden and
tiny spaces, Youngblood includes E.
japonicus ‘Rokujo Variegata’ in its Tiny
Treasures collection in four-inch pots.
Sporting tiny white and green leaves,
the mini-shrub gets only six to eight
inches tall and three inches wide.
“The rare, most unique, very
upright evergreen selection is a choice
selection,” Steinke said.
For something different — and
quite a bit larger — Morgan’s personal
favorite is E. europeaus ‘Red Ace.’
“In the late summer, before the
fall leaf color develops, the rather large
bright berries give a nice extension to
the season,” he said.
Elizabeth Petersen writes for gardeners
and garden businesses, coaches students and writers, and tends a one-acre
garden in West Linn, Ore. She can be
reached at gardenwrite@comcast.net.
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