Garden Planner & Almanac The Cottage Garden Companion
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Enkianthus

Enkianthus perulatus

Yellows and sulks on limy ground; on acid soil kept damp it needs next to no attention.

Light Partial shade suits it best — morning sun, afternoon shade.
Water Keep it moist; drought tells on it quickly, so mulch to hold the moisture.
Height 2.5 m
Spread 6 ft 7 in
Spacing 200 cm

Spacing & sowing

Plant spacing
6 ft 7 in
In-row spacing
6 ft 7 in
Between rows
8 ft 2 in
Square-foot density
Not suited to SFG

Growing

Type
Shrub · Perennial
Botanical family
Mixed / other
Sunlight
Partial shade suits it best — morning sun, afternoon shade.
Watering
Keep it moist; drought tells on it quickly, so mulch to hold the moisture.
Feeding
An ericaceous feed in spring, and nothing lime-based ever.
Frost tolerant
Yes
Flowering
April
Pruning
Very little — take out dead or crossing branches after flowering.

Through the year

  • Mar–Apr Bud Break
  • Apr–Jul Flowering
  • Jul–Nov Growing
  • Nov–Dec Leaf Fall
  • Jan–Mar Leaf Fall

Companions

Rhododendrons, Azaleas, Camellias, Pieris, Japanese Maples

Pests & problems

Garden allies

Beneficial predators that hunt this plant's pests — grow their favourite flowers nearby to recruit them. companion plant

  • Beneficial nematodes Steinernema & Heterorhabditis spp.
    Hunts Vine weevil

    Microscopic worms watered onto damp soil that hunt down soil-dwelling grubs and release a bacterium that kills them within days. Timing is the whole thing: warm, damp soil and a small target grub, which means late summer for most of what they are used against.

  • Frogs & toads Anura
    Hunts Vine weevil

    A resident toad works the beds every night for slugs, cutworms, and weevils. Recruit them with water — even a sunken basin pond — plus damp shade and an upturned-pot toad house; skip the slug pellets that poison their prey.

  • Ground beetle Carabidae
    Hunts Vine weevil

    Fast, glossy night hunters that patrol the soil surface for slugs, cutworms, and root-fly larvae. Give them daytime cover — thick perennial edges, stepping stones, a log — and skip the tillage that wrecks their burrows.

    Plant nearby LavenderMintThyme
  • Hedgehog Erinaceus europaeus
    Hunts Vine weevil

    A European animal, and worth saying so plainly: there are no hedgehogs in North America, and the ally that does the same night shift here is the toad, the opossum or the ground beetle. Where they do occur, cut a gap in the fence and skip the pellets.

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