Scarletta Fetterbush – Leucothoe

Leucothoe fontanesiana ‘Zeblid’

Plant Details

USDA Plant Hardiness Zones: 5a-8b Find Your Zone

Plant Type: Evergreen Shrub

Height at Maturity: 1.5-2′

Width at Maturity: 3-4′

Spacing: 2-3′ mass plantings; 6’+ for space between plants

Growth Habit / Form: Mounding

Growth Rate: Moderate

Flower Color: White

Flower Size: Small

Flowering Period: Spring, Early Summer

Flower Type: Single in elongated clusters

Fragrant Flowers: No

Foliage Color: Green, Red in spring, Bronze in fall

Fragrant Foliage: No

Berries/ Pods: NA

Sun Needs: Morning Sun with Dappled or Afternoon Shade, All Day Filtered or Dappled Sun, Shade or Mostly Shade

Water Needs: Average

Soil Type: Clay, Loam, Sandy, Silt

Soil Moisture / Drainage: Well Drained Moist, Moderately Drained, Somewhat Boggy

Soil pH: 4.5 – 7.0

Maintenance / Care: Low

Attracts: Visual Attention

Resistances: Deer, Disease, Heat, Insect

Description

Noted for its dwarf mounding habit and brilliant year round foliage, Scarletta Fetterbush is a beautiful and natural woodland plant that will set your shade garden on fire! In spring, striking scarlet-purple new leaves emerge that turn to a deep lustrous green in summer finally turning bronze-red during fall and winter. This beauty typically grows to only 2 feet tall and 3 to 4 feet wide in 10 years, making it a perfect choice for smaller garden spaces and containers. An excellent companion to azaleas, rhododendrons, aucubas, mahonias, hostas, dogwoods, anise and other shade-loving plants.

Landscape & Garden Uses

Growing in a dense mound to 1.5 to 2 feet tall and 3 to 4 feet wide, Scarletta Leucothoe is deal for use as specimen in smaller landscape spaces or in groupings, as a border or in mass plantings in large, shaded to partly shaded areas. Also excellent for pots, planters and other containers. A fine addition to woodland gardens and borders and looks especially nice around boulders and garden ponds.

Suggested Spacing: 2 to 3 feet apart for solid hedges; 6 feet or more apart for space between plants

Note: For our customers who live and garden north of USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 5a, where this Leucothoe is not winter hardy, you’ll be happy to know it can be grown in containers that can be brought indoors during winter and placed back outside when temperatures warm up in spring.

Growing Preferences

Scarletta Leucothoe is very easy to grow in organically rich, moist but well-drained soils and part shade. For best overall performance we recommend some shade in the afternoon. Maintenance is minimal except for a snipping here or there of a stray branch.

Plant Long & Prosper!

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The fetterbush arrived much larger than I expected and looks beautiful already. The packaging wilsonbros does is phenomenal! No damage at all! The 5 bushes have enhanced a troublesome area in my landscape which is now a highlight! Look forward to them turning red!——————————————————Hi Danna, Thanks so much for taking the time to provide your review of the Scarletta Fetterbush. We are so glad you are pleased and we hope you enjoy them for years to come! Thanks for the great review! 🙂
Beth Steele | Wilson Bros Gardens