Photinia x fraseri

Photinia x fraseri is guaranteed to bring a blast of colour to hedges. The foliage is the main feature on this plant with brilliant, glossy copper-red leaves. They are large, evergreen shrubs that are perfect as screen or hedge plants or you can grow them as a specimen in a pot.

Photinia x fraseri ‘Red Robin’ (Christmas berry)

If this large to medium evergreen with its dense growth habit is happy in a garden, it supplies a blast of colour throughout the year by using only its lance-shaped leaves to do it. New growth is a brilliant coppery-red slowly maturing to dark, glossy green.

It is a large to medium evergreen, which when fully grown, should reach a height and width of approximately 2.5m by 2m but is easily trimmed to any desired height. Because of it’s height and its fast-growing nature, it is a fantastic screening plant.

The colours of the foliage of ‘Red Robin’ intensifies in winter as this is a very cold-hardy plant. This ensures a fiery winter when the rest of the garden looks drab. Because it is a fast grower, there is always new growth! ‘Red Robin’ is pretty in summer too, when many umbels of small white flowers appear. It is also suitable to coastal conditions but does not like tropical climates.

‘Red Robin’ has a dense growing habit and is extremely hardy, even in the coldest of locations. It is drought-resistant once established but will also handle wet garden conditions if need be. It is relatively fast growing and not fussy about soil type.

Photinia x fraseri ‘Louise’

Seen at selected nurseries recently is a new photinia with colourful markings and variegation.

Photinia x fraseri ‘Louise’ is a large evergreen shrub with a dense habit and glossy, elliptic to lance-shaped leaves. The very striking young shoots are initially pink, turning variegated with pink and rosy-red markings that mature to an olive green and cream variegation.

As this lovely shrub naturally produces two to three flushes of new growth per year, plus panicles of creamy white flowers in spring, a constant interest and a changing palette is ensured. Use it as a background shrub in a mixed planting, as a screen or hedge plant or grow it as a specimen in a pot. It can even be trained into a small, specimen tree.

In A Nutshell:

Size: about 2 – 2,5m x 2 – 2,5m.

Flowering time: Dome-like, flat clusters full of pink buds opening to white in spring.

Position: Full sun.

Water use: Regular watering will keep it healthy, although short periods of dryness will not harm mature plants.

Soil type: Well-draining, rich soil.

Climate: Cold hardy.

Pruning: The more you prune after flowering in spring and throughout summer, the more new growth you will encourage and thus more fiery young leaves. In the Southern Hemisphere, prune Photinias in February.

Pruning trick: To enjoy a coppery ‘head’ on your hedge you can sometimes leave the top of the hedge unpruned from late winter to spring, before shaping it more formally again after the leaves have turned green. If an old photinia hedge is not looking well due to neglect, it can be severely cut back to knee-high in spring without any fear of killing it.

Highly recommended for: Screening, as specimen plants for large pots, or to add as background shrubs in mixed borders.

‘Red Robin’ is cold and frost hardy. Panicles of white flowers appear in summer and are followed by dark fruits loved by birds.