Plant of the Week
Dwarf Nandina, 'Gulf Stream'
Latin: Nandina domestica
Gosh, gaudy is good. But enough already! Dwarf nandinas,
those two-to-three foot glowing meatballs we see in every commercial
landscape planting throughout the South, are beginning to make me see red.
I personally like the full-size nandina parent. I think it’s a wonderful
landscape shrub, but one can only abide so many condensed mounds of red in
the landscape. Like the llamas in Hilton’s Lost Horizon: Moderation
in all things, please!
Nandina has long been a mainstay in the Southern landscape, but mostly it
was the five-to-seven foot shrub that was used. Because this member of the
barberry family grows from underground stems, it forms dense clusters of
stems growing from the ground. It’s been grown in the U.S. since the early
19th century, and it’s always been popular where it’s hardy, from
zones 6 through 9.
The dwarf forms of the plant are more recent in origin. They began
showing up in the nursery trade in a big way after WWII.
‘Gulf Stream’ is one of a bevy of 25 or so dwarf nandinas on the market.
It originated as a bud sport at Hines Nursery in Houston from the original
dwarf form, ‘Atropurpurea Nana,’ which is a truly ugly plant with a thicket
of upright stems. Gulf Stream has the triply pinnately compound leaves of
the species. It produces blue-green summer foliage and bright red leaves in
the fall and winter.
Being evergreen, this shrub will hold its leaves through the winter with
the color persisting until new growth resumes. The transition from red
winter color to green summer leaves is a yellowish blob that reminds me of
some unpleasant experiences I’ve had during stomach flu season. Gulf Stream
does not seem to flower or fruit, a decided drawback because the red
wintertime berries are one of the most appealing aspects of nandinas.
The leaves of some dwarf nandina selections, but not Gulf Stream, will
often be cupped and roll inwards or variously twisted. This is due to a
virus infection that seems to be common through certain of the more dwarf
strains. The virus, while not lethal, may cause the physiological dwarfing
in some cultivars.
Dwarf nandinas seemed to have taken over the parking lot world in the
early 1980's when nurseries learned how to propagate the dwarfs. Originally
propagated only by division, the numbers were bearable. Tissue culture
techniques, the propagation procedure where plants are grown aseptically in
test tubes, was perfected, and almost overnight the dwarfs went from
interesting novelties to landscape minion status.
What makes the dwarf nandinas popular in the landscape is their ability
to survive parched or wet planting sites with almost equal success. They
also give a good winter color display of bright red, at least in most years,
and they are insect and disease free. Also, their midget size allows them to
fit well in smaller landscapes.
But, still, there are too many of them. Perhaps their best use is as a
color accent in a bed of green hollies where they can set off the positive
attributes of both plants without overpowering the scene.
By: Gerald Klingaman, retired
Extension Horticulturist
- Ornamentals
Extension News -
December 8, 2000
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