leatherwood offers early flowers
and the season's first hummingbirds to the sweetly scented trusses
and the tree carries associations of endurance and sanctity that run deep in Japanese culture
well-drained soil that never dries out
meaning every garden plant of the species today is a clone of clones
Stauntonia hexaphylla prophouse-on-the-horizon leatherwood offers early flowersStauntonia hexaphylla is a handsome, vigorous evergreen climber from the woodlands of Japan, Korea, and China, grown as much for glossy year round foliage as for the famous fruit. The palmate leaves are cut into five to seven leathery, dark green leaflets, held on a strong, twining vine that clothes a support densely from top to bottom. A member of the Lardizabalaceae, Stauntonia counts Akebia, the chocolate vine, and Decaisnea, the blue sausage tree,