Pictured at right-double flowered Kerria japonica planted on the east side of Duke’s Nello Teer Engineering Library.
Kerria japonica is one of my favorite shrubs. It is in the rose family and has a wonderful litany of common names (kerry rose, Easter rose, Japanese kerria, Japanese tea rose, and yellow rose of Texas). It is an old-fashioned plant that folks love to divide and give away. One of the reasons for its popularity is the early flowers. They bloom just before before the waves of roses, dogwoods, and azaleas grab everyone’s attention around here.
In the landscape, you can find it growing in partly shady to sunny spots. Mine does fine with that difficult morning-shade-afternoon-sizzle equation which often ruins azaleas and hydrangeas in central and southeastern North Carolina. They can form a thicket up to six feet tall but unlike forsythia or winter honeysuckle, it does not seem to turn into a monster. After it loses its leaves in the fall the thin crayon-green branches are very attractive and airy. It survives drought once established and can be found in double-flowering and single flowered forms. Old thickets of kerria have a tendency to look a bit scraggly if the oldest canes are not cut down. Like a lot of other flowering shrubs, any pruning should be done after the blooms give out.
Call it kerry rose or yellow rose of easter or whatever you want to; Kerria japonica would make a very popular shrub if homeowners could find it more easily ….or if more of us gave some away from our own yards.
Here is a link to Chapel Hill’s Niche Gardens’ online catalog. It shows the beautiful single flowered version that they have for sale.
Around central North Carolina, 80 degrees has become the new 70F. I've gone from photographing flowering cherry trees to noticing the scary volume of green foliage emerging from fig trees, oak trees, and perennials all over my garden. Here's to hoping that all that new growth doesn't get burned by a twenty seven degree morning ten days from now....and here's also to a glorious growing season that is quickly kicking past second gear (pollen and bugs and all)
Even in this cold week there are plenty of flowers out there: hellebores, snowdrops, early daffodils, camellias, crocuses, and flowering Japanese apricots......these are some of the late winter stars that I would love to have more room for in my garden. But like everyone else, I am ready for the spring bulbs to really get going. This year I am psyched about the Spanish bluebells that a neighbor gave me last year. (That's them pushing though a mat of pine needles in my backyard). Hyacinthoides hispanica is a classic "grandmother bulb" that will take dry shade.
A few nights ago, around 8 o’clock, the sky had a soothing look. A low imperfect and partially erased ceiling of clouds made the day seem still there. It was almost warm. I drove west in a straight way towards Chapel Hill Road and I couldn’t decide if I should roll my window up or down. So I left it up halfway. Spring is here, the pollen is not yet on, but the pure and simple reality of April has let itself in. Welcome. Hot weather and tiny tomato plants and sunscreen bottles are only six weeks away.
We will feel spring this weekend. Accompanying the warmer temps will be colors we’ve missed-pale and primary yellow. The sunny daffodils and forsythia will be the most talked about flowers. But another of my favorite late winter colors has joined the fray- the small and bright greenish-yellow buds of Wintergreen barberry Berberis julianae. The shrub's thorns are incredibly long and sharp, so please plant carefully. If you want a drought resistant hedgerow, this evergreen shrub could be a good choice. Its color and bite make it an electric fence for the garden.
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