Skimmia japonica 'Moerings 3' RUBESTA® Japanese skimmia
Skimmia
Skimmia is a small, evergreen, shade-loving shrub from Japan. After the year 2000 there have been plenty of new varieties which are still being tested for stability of their featured characteristics. The aim is to select plants distinctly different from the species. They are usually split by sex: profusely flowering male plants, and female plants producing attractive fruit. Varieties also differ from one another by habit as well as leaf colour, respectively its variegation.
Dutch series RUBESTA® of Japanese skimmia is bred by Adrianus Jozeph Moerings and his first introduction, called solely RUBESTA®, is an improvement over a bestselling male variety Rubella. It has smaller foliage, more compact habit, and exhibits better growing performance thanks to stronger root system.
RUBESTA® skimmia has dark green and glossy, evergreen leaves. In autumn are formed attractive terminal panicles composed of tiny, bright maroon flower buds which persist on the plant until early spring. Then they open into porcelain white, 4-petalled flowers with yellow anthers. They are intensely fragrant – almost like lilacs – and bloom early in the skimmia season i.e., from late March or early April. RUBESTA® is a male, non-fruiting variety but a great pollinator for all female skimmias producing berries in late summer. It grows slowly into a mounding shrub 50-70 cm tall and wide. European patent No. EU 34653 was granted in 2013.
If you plant it well you needn’t look after it any longer except for occasional watering in dry spells. There are a few rules you have to follow if you want your skimmia look perfect: the soil has to be always moist but extremely well-drained, acidic (add peat), light (add leaf mould), and most of all humus-rich. The best location is dappled shade or even deep shade (shady back of your house or under thick canopies of tall trees). When leaves turn pale or even yellow the plant suffers from too much sun or water, or too little nutrients in the soil.
Skimmia is tolerant of atmospheric pollution which makes it an ideal choice for urban landscapes. Being suitable for all-year-round cultivation in outdoor pots it is widely used by trendy restaurants and cafes as a decoration of their outdoor seating areas where thanks to its compact habit it does not take up space. Just avoid sunny locations. The entire plant is poisonous. It is hardy to about -27 °C (USDA zone 5b).
Last update 08-05-2022
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- STANDARD QUALITY - Plants of this group are 1st class quality with number of branches and overall density adequate to their size and age, considering they were container grown.
- DE LUXE QUALITY - This label guarantees a luxurious quality of manually selected plants that, compared to their height and age, are exceptionally dense and beautiful.
- EXTRA - These plants are usually mature and bigger specimens with exceptional overall appearance.
- STANDARD (as described in the plant form) means a tree with a trunk of 190-210 cm and a crown at the top, unless specified differently. The commercial size for trees is their girth measured in the height of 1m from ground.
- HOBBY - These plants are of the same quality as our standard-quality plants but younger and therefore cheaper.
- SHRUB - a woody plant with branches growing bushy from the ground level.
- HALF-STANDARD or MINI-STANDARD - a small tree with shorter trunk, its size is usually specified.
- FEATHERED - These are trees with branches growing already from the base of the trunk and up along the stem.
- GRASSES and PERENNIALS - Sizes given usually read the diameter of the pot or the clump, as specified.
