Shade loving evergreen

Aucuba japonica

This is one of my favorite shrubs in my garden.  I love the yellow speckles on the shiny green leaves.  It has been a valuable addition for over 6 years now.  One of my grandmother’s former neighbors gave me a softwood cutting which I rooted in water on my kitchen windowsill.  Then once there were several viable roots I planted it under the Pecan tree.  This family of plants is dioecious which means the individual plants are either female or male.  The males produce small purple flowers with yellow anthers and the female produces red berries.  Just recently I discovered mine is a female plant since I found several berries hidden under the leaves.  To get a good production of berries you must have both male and females shrubs, otherwise you will only get a few sporadic ones from year to year.   Here is some interesting facts about this evergreen:

• Several variegated cultivars
• Growth rate is slow
• Hardy in zones 6-10 (with protection in 6)
• 6-10′ in height & 4-6′ in width
• Drought tolerant
• young leaves will blacken in sunlight
• easy to transplant
• native to Japan
• propogate from soft or hardwood cuttings
• good houseplants in colder areas
• Also called Japanese Laurel or Spotted Laurel