Scientific Name
Pieris floribunda (Pursh) Benth. & Hook. f.
Common Names
Mountain Fetterbush, Mountain Andromeda, Mountain Pieris
Synonyms
Andromeda floribunda, Andromeda montana, Andromeda vaccinifolia, Leucothoe floribunda, Portuna floribunda, Zenobia floribunda
Scientific Classification
Family: Ericaceae
Genus: Pieris
Flower
Color: White
Bloom Time: Autumn
Description
Pieris floribunda is a bushy shrub, up to 6 feet (1.8 m) tall, with oval, shiny, leathery leaves which are typically evergreen but may shed in a harsh winter to brown and persist until spring. It has erect, or erect with just slightly nodding panicles of white, urn-shaped flowers that form in fall as upright pink buds. The brown, dry fruit is a slightly angled globular capsule up to 0.5 inches (13 mm) long in autumn and persisting until late April. The gray-brown bark is shaggy and peeling when mature.
Hardiness
USDA hardiness zone 4a to 8b: from −30 °F (−34.4 °C) to 20 °F (−6.7 °C).
How to Grow and Care
As they are originally from a forested habitat, they do best in dappled shade. Intense sun in early spring can burn the tender new growth. They will not do too well in full shade as they won't produce as many flowers, and the color of the new growth won't be as intense. They need well-drained but moisture-retentive humus-rich acid soil. If you have alkaline soil, you will have to grow it in a pot; you can add ericaceous compost and feed and mulch with pine needles, but it will only be temporary, and an alkaline soil will always be an alkaline soil.
They are a hardy shrub, but it may need some protection from late frosts, which will burn the new growth and flowers. The frost probably won't kill the plant, but it will mar the spring display, which is usually the main reason it is grown.
Plant them to the same depth as they are in the pot and water well. Keep an eye on the watering in the first season, mainly if there is a long dry spell.
See more at How to Grow and Care for a Lily of the Valley Bush.
Origin
Native to the eastern United States, primarily the southern Appalachian Mountains in the States of Tennessee, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Links
- Back to genus Pieris
- Plantopedia: Browse flowering plants by Scientific Name, Common Name, Genus, Family, USDA Hardiness Zone, or Origin
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