Styrax japonicus 'FRAGRANT FOUNTAIN'

Japanese snowbell is a showy tree with snowdrop-like flowers. Their fragrance grows more intense with more flowers produced, and this new variety from 2008 makes a profusion of them. It is called Fragrant Fountain and was bred by Crispin Silva from Crispin's Creations Nursery in Oregon, USA. It was patented in 2009 as PP19664 by Planthaven International.

Fragrant Fountain is a weeping form of Japanese snowbell with strictly pendent branches, forming a uniform, very compact habit. Flowering begins in late May and continues for 3-4 weeks. Flowers are followed by small, hard, olive-like seedpods in late summer. Deciduous leaves are glossy, ovate to elliptic, mid to dark green, turning yellow or red in autumn. It can be pruned at the end of winter.

This variety was selected as a seedling of Rosea variety crossed with male pollen from Carillon variety opposed to which the new invention has much more compact habit. Pruning is best done after flowering but is not needed or even recommended with weeping forms unless you are creating a dome-shaped canopies with pendent twigs. If you want a tall plant soon you need to train the central leader by attaching it to a bamboo stick or pole, otherwise it will gain height very slowly.

Grow it as a specimen shrub or in a mixed border with lower shrubs. It is usually pest and disease free. It needs moist, acidic soil, humus-rich soil. A location protected from drying winds is preferred. Its hardiness was so far tested down to -24°C (USDA zone 6) but is expected to go lower, following its parents' hardiness.

Last update 01-03-2018