Rob's plants
home garden plants wildlife seed photos
plant sale journal topics plantlinks fun guestbook

Physocarpus opulifolius

 
Physocarpus opulifolius
ninebark

Common name ninebark
Family rosaceae
Life cycle shrub
Flowers white (late spring)
Size 6-10'
Light full sun-part shade
Cultural notes ordinary garden soil
From seed germinate at or slightly above room temperature .
detailed seed-starting info below
Seed ripensearly October

This arrived in our garden as a changeling - I received seed in a trade labeled as Neillia thibetica, but that plant doesn't look anything like what grew from the seed. An inquiry on Gardenweb led me to the correct identification. The white flowers in late spring are nice, but the bright red fruit that follows is even more striking. As the picture shows, the flowers and fruit partially overlap, making for a lovely effect. The foliage is attractive too - all in all, not bad for a changeling!

Physocarpus opulifolius

We also grow its cultivar cousin 'Diabolo' - with purple leaves and, so far, a more upright habit. Quite a handsome devil!

ninebark
Physocarpus opulifolius
'Diabolo's fading flowers turning into red fruits
ninebark

We left this plant behind in our Pennsylvania garden (and wish it well); we don't grow it in Houston.

One or more images of this plant are included in my stock photo catalog

About my plant portraits
PlantLinks to other web pages about Physocarpus opulifolius


Visitors to this page have left the following comments


Seed-starting details for this plant

  1. Seed from '01 trade. Baggy 70F (90%G, 8-35d). Extra warmth helped germination
  2. Seed from '04 garden, collected from 'Diabolo'. Baggy 75F (57%G, 10-23d)
  3. Seed from '04 garden, collected from species. Baggy 75F (52%G, 8-27d)
  4. Seed from '07 garden collected from 'Diabolo'. Baggy 75F (35%G, 7-17d). About half the seedlings have dark coloration


I welcome comments about my web pages; feel free to use the form below to leave feedback about this particular page. For the benefit of other visitors to these pages, I will list any relevant comments you leave, and if appropriate, I will update my page to correct mis-information. Faced with an ever-increasing onslaught of spam, I'm forced to discard any comments including html markups. Please submit your comment as plain text. If you have a comment about the website as a whole, please leave it in my guestbook. If you have a question that needs a personal response, please e-mail me.

Your name

Your comments