Autumn coloration is not usual in broad-leaved evergreens, but drooping leucothoe, Leucothoe catesbaei, has been liberally endowed with this quality.
The change in the season and the attention now focused on evergreens make this species’ rich, purplish, and reddish tones unusually noteworthy.
This North American shrub has the same scientific and common name; its namesake was a princess of Babylonia or modern It art.
It is likely that the botanist David Don, who commemorated her in his scientific publication at Edinburgh in 1834, followed the fashion of the time and drew his inspiration from the Boman classics.
The specific portion of the name honors Mark Catesby, the naturalist who explored and wrote about the wildlife of the southeastern region of our country in the early 1700s.
Drooping Leucothoe
Drooping leucothoe is native along stream banks and cool ravine slopes in the southern Appalachians from Virginia southward and westward to Mississippi.
In some places, the arching stems make such densely intergrown tangles that one can hardly push through them.
Frequently, leucothea grow with rosebay rhododendrons, and in their native habitats, this is all but impenetrable.
Cultivating Leucothea
In cultivation, leucothea develops into handsome clumps from 3’ to 5’ feet high and from 4′ to 6′ feet across.
The coloring that makes the arching branches so much admired starts with new spring growth, usually bronzy or pinkish.
Some plants retain a fine purple tone throughout the summer; others ripen to a deep, lustrous green.
The lance-shaped leaves, which vary from 3” to 5” inches in length, alternate along the zigzag branchlets.
In autumn and winter, their effect is at its best, for the foliage then takes on the striking crimson and purple coloration. Leaves remain on the branchlets for over two years before being shed.
In spring, graceful racemes push out from the axils of the leaves of the previous year’s growth. These reach about 2″ inches long and produce waxy white urn-shaped flowers 14″ inches long.
In England, where the shrub was introduced more than 150 years ago, many gardeners consider the drooping effect so fine that it is recommended practice to raise the branches with small props during the bloom in mid-spring.
Small five-celled capsules ripen great quantities of tiny seeds by the following autumn.
Seedlings come up readily in sphagnum moss and sand, but their development is so slow that most gardeners might not wish to bother with them in these early stages.
Established plants of this leucothoe show a growth pattern of exceptional beauty. Each year’s shoots do not start from or near the tip of the old growth, as in many woody plants.
Instead, one or sometimes two buds near the base of the old growth develop into strong shoots that arch upward.
Thriving plants do not grow higher and higher each year; the increasing growth weighs the older branches down, and they soon rest on the ground.
In natural conditions, buried in moist cushions of moldering leaves. These branches soon take root and extend the colony from the original center.
Mountain Upbringing
Drooping leucothoe are much sturdier than their evergreen foliage and southern homeland would suggest.
Mountain upbringing makes them surprisingly hardy, and temperatures 10° below zero or even lower for brief periods cause no damage.
Winds may sweep over the mountaintops of their native Smokies and the outlying ranges, but they do not reach the leucothoe thickets in the protected valleys.
Protection from winds is an essential factor in growing this species in gardens where their environment is so different.
Like the rhododendrons and other heath family shrubs of the same southeastern mountain region, the roots of leucothoe are almost entirely in the surface layer of forest litter and leaf mold.
This layer may be very deep, as in rock pockets—a cushiony, peaty tangle of wiry stems and roots – or it may be only 2″ or 3″ inches thick.
In either case, the lop is deeply covered with several years’ accumulation of leaves, which keeps the lower portion constantly cool and moist.
Formula for Perfection
The formula for growing leucothea to perfection includes well-aerated soil, constant moisture, and protection from winds.
An old leaf pile, a foot or so in-depth, makes an ideal bed for these shrubs, and such a medium can often be built up in front of hemlocks and rhododendrons or around dogwoods and [lollies in spots where drooping leucothoe can be used to advantage.
Clay soils are unsuitable, and leucothea should never be planted in heavy soils until thorough aeration and good drainage have been ensured by liberal additions of sand and a rather coarse leaf mold or humus.
These shrubs grow well in shade, but the best coloring is produced in plants that receive direct sunlight.
Used underneath birches, dogwoods, shad-hushes, or other trees casting a light shade pattern, they make a pleasing association for the winter picture.
44659 by Ben Blackburn