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| Photo Credit: Lane Greer |
| Japanese rose is covered from head to toe with beautiful springtime blooms! |
Need a shrub that’s drought-tolerant, grows fast in shade, stands up to abuse and gives you scads of springtime flowers, as well as winter interest? Look no further! Japanese rose (Kerria japonica) is all that and a bag of chips!
All these features – and more – make this plant perfect for many gardens. Also called Japanese kerria, this shrub grows 3-6 feet tall and twice as wide. Plant it in shade (too much sun causes the flowers to bleach out) and in just about any soil. For the best show, though, aim for well-draining loam that’s a bit on the lean side (too much fertilizer and the plants get weedy). | Add Photo to Journal |  | | Photo Credit: Lane Greer | | The double flowers of ‘Pleniflora’ look like yellow asterisks on a green stick. |
The branches start to arch as the plant ages. So to keep your shrub looking good, prune older stems to the ground every year (new wood has improved flowers and great stem color). Or if you’d rather, prune the entire plant down to about 6 inches tall just after it finishes flowering. This keeps the shrub from forming small thickets. Japanese rose grows quickly and can easily reach 6 feet in a year’s time! As the plant regrows, you can look forward to watching the noticeably toothed foliage change to a pretty yellow as the season turns.
While its fall leaves are pretty, Japanese rose is really all about its yellow spring flowers! There are lots of different cultivars, and each offers gardeners something a little different. The most common selection is ‘Pleniflora’. It’s got double flowers that are so yellow, they almost look orange. This beauty is best used in masses or borders since it has a tendency toward legginess.
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