Leucadendron
Leucadendron salignum
Sun, acid ground, and drainage that never falters; take a third off once the flowers have gone over.
- Type
- Shrub · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Foliage color
- Gold and chartreuse · Bronze, red and brown
- Flower color
- Yellow
- Sunlight
- Full sun.
- Watering
- Moderate water, over drainage that has to be excellent.
- Feeding
- Rose & flower
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- March
- Pruning
- Take a third off after flowering.
- Mar–Mar Bud Break
- Mar–Jun Flowering
- Jun–Nov Growing
- Nov–Dec Winter Dormancy
- Jan–Mar Winter Dormancy
- Plant spacing
- 3 ft 11 in
- In-row spacing
- 3 ft 11 in
- Between rows
- 4 ft 11 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
- Root system
- Woody and fibrous
- Working depth
- 12–24 in
- Can reach
- 3 ft down where the soil allows
- Spread
- 6–8 ft across, about 1.5–2× the width of the plant
- Shallowest pot
- 20 in of soil
A shallow woody framework with the fine feeding roots in the leaf litter above it. Those feeders are mostly under the outer half of the canopy rather than against the stem, which is where water and feed should go.
Another proteoid-rooted South African: no phosphorus, no rich compost, no disturbance, and sharp drainage. It is the feeding that kills these, not the cold.
The habit is Leucadendron’s own; the figures are what that habit usually comes to at this size, not a measurement of this species. Roots follow the soil either way: a compacted pan, a high water table or heavy clay stops them well short of any of it, and deep open ground lets them go further.
Shrubs, like this one.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com