Leucothoe keiskei 'ROYAL RUBY' leucothoe
size/type
small shrub,small shrub
usual height
0,3-0,6m
usual width
0,5-1m
leaves
evergreen broadleaf
colour of leaves
flowers
insignificant or non-blooming
location
full sun to shade
soil type
acidic (peaty)
soil moisture requirements
evenly moist (dislikes drought)
USDA zone (lowest)
5 (down to -29°C)
winter protection
for zone 5+6
for zone 7
categorized
Leucothoe belongs to relatively new plants which gain more and more attention and admirers. They are low or prostrate evergreen shrubs with leathery leaves and sufficient hardiness.
Description of the plant:
Royal Ruby is a leucothoe variety that can be used as an attractive groundcover with larger leaves. They are elongated, glossy, and green in summer, gaining burgundy red shades at the leaf margins, and from colder days of autumn completely changing to deep burgundy red for the whole of winter. This colour stays until mid or end spring until the plant starts making new leaves. Thanks to its rich winter colour placing a stone near it or planting it in front of a stone fence or wall can be most pretty for the best contrast. It forms a rather prostrate shrub with arching branches. For a denser plant you may trim the branches in mid spring but it is not necessary. It grows medium fast. Royal Ruby bears plentiful of tiny creamy white flowers in spring.
Leucothoes grow naturally in woodlands under trees which means that they are used to anything from filtered sun to deep shade. However, in our tests they proved to live happily in full sun, too, if given sufficient moisture.
As an ericaceous plant it requires soil that is light, acidic, and constantly moist (not wet). If your garden soil is too heavy do not dig a deep hole but make a shallow and wide bed topped up with a good mixture of peat, fine bark chips, and leaf (forest) litter. Keep the soil moist by mulching. Slow-release fertilizers are advised. This variety is extremely hardy for a leucothoe down to min. -27°C (USDA zone 5b), and is suitable for growing in outdoor pots.
Last update 20-11-2008; 06-01-2010; 24-02-2012
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GLOSSARY
- STANDARD QUALITY - Plants of this group are 1st class quality with number of branches and overall density adequate to their size and age, considering they were container grown.
- DE LUXE QUALITY - This label guarantees a luxurious quality of manually selected plants that, compared to their height and age, are exceptionally dense and beautiful.
- EXTRA - These plants are usually mature and bigger specimens with exceptional overall appearance.
- STANDARD (as described in the plant form) means a tree with a trunk of 190-210 cm and a crown at the top, unless specified differently. The commercial size for trees is their girth measured in the height of 1m from ground.
- HOBBY - These plants are of the same quality as our standard-quality plants but younger and therefore cheaper.
- SHRUB - a woody plant with branches growing bushy from the ground level.
- HALF-STANDARD or MINI-STANDARD - a small tree with shorter trunk, its size is usually specified.
- FEATHERED - These are trees with branches growing already from the base of the trunk and up along the stem.
- GRASSES and PERENNIALS - Sizes given usually read the diameter of the pot or the clump, as specified.
