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Fatsia japonica 'Variegata' (Variegated Japanese Aralia) - An evergreen shrub that can grow to about 6-10 ft. tall with thick, erect stems support huge dark green palmately lobed leaves held on long petioles that are smudged with cream and light green. Roundish dense clusters of small cream flowers held in terminal umbels appear in the fall.
Grows well in part sun to shade with regular to occasional irrigation and is relatively drought tolerant once established but it remains lusher with moderate watering. It is cold hardy to around and is cold hardy to short duration temperatures down to 20 to 25° F. It was not damaged during the February 2007 freeze with three nights down to 25° F and only suffered tip damage during the Christmas 1990 freeze when temperatures dropped just below 20° F. In colder climates this plant can be grown as a houseplant. This slow growing plant gives a tropical look to the landscape and brightens up dark areas in the garden.
Fatsia japonica is native to southern Japan, South Korea and the Nansei-shoto chain of islands (AKA the Ryukyu Islands). The name for the genus is a Latinized adaptation of Fatsi a Japanese name for the plant that came from the word 'hachi', the Japanese word for 'eight' in reference to the typical eight palmate leaf lobes and the specific epithet is a reference to the plant's origins in Japan.
We first got this plant in mid 1980s from Frieda and Herman Seyfarth's Padua Hills Gardens nursery in Claremont California and this original plant sourced there is a beautiful large specimen in our nursery garden. Later plants were acquired as micropropagated starts from AgriStarts Nursery in Florida and from these plants we have vegetatively propagated this plant on site since 1999.
The information displayed on this page about Fatsia japonica 'Variegata' is based on the research we have conducted about it in our nursery library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include our own observations made about this plant as it grows in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant have performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we have received from others and welcome hearing from anyone with information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information that will aid others to better grow it.
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