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!
Japanese rose is covered from head to toe with beautiful springtime blooms!
Photo Credit: Lane Greer
The double flowers of ‘Pleniflora’ look like yellow asterisks on a green stick.
Photo Credit: Lane Greer
With only five petals, the single flowers of ‘Golden Guinea’ are still showy enough to set a garden aglow!
Photo Credit: Lane Greer
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).
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.
‘Golden Guinea’ and ‘Shannon’ have larger yellow flowers, and the plants are a bit fuller. ‘Picta’ has neat variegated foliage with white-edged leaves, while ‘Kin Kan’ has striped green and yellow stems. (Unfortunately, both ‘Picta’ and ‘Kin Kan’ have a tendency to revert to their “normal” green selves.)
You may be tempted to leave the flowers outside on the shrubs to enjoy in the garden, but they really make stunning indoor arrangements! Combine them with other springtime bloomers like bleeding hearts (Dicentra spectabilis) and Vanhoutte spiraea (Spiraea × vanhouttei). Or mix them with flowering plums and cherries (Prunus). Just be sure to put the stems in water only – researchers at Kansas State University found that floral preservative actually decreases vase life.
Planting one of these tough beauties means you can take it a bit easy in the garden – at least where this shrub’s concerned. Japanese rose will grow and flower under some of the worst circumstances a garden can endure – from poor, wet or dry soil to crowding and all kinds of sun and shade. And those beautiful, sunny blooms are sure to brighten your spring – no matter what the weather brings!
