Garrya Elliptica

Garrya Elliptica is a rather special evergreen shrub that is particularly useful for evergreen screening or blocking out unsightly views as it will eventually reach around 4 metres in height. Garrya is a hardy native of regions of California,  Aka the Coast Silk Tassel, it will grow in just about any soil and is tolerant of growing in the shade but does prefer a fairly sheltered location. When grown in cold exposed locations the leaves can get burnt but is hardy to -10 in a sheltered spot.

The dense foliage has unusual wavy shaped leaves, hence its other common name Wavyleaf Silk Tassel and is a deep sea green, which is offset by fabulous grey green catkins. These start to appear in autumn and develop into silky tassels or flowers around December lasting right through to February, hence it's common name of Silk Tassel Bush.

Sometimes also referred to as Wavyleaf Silk Tassel, it is prized by florists and those growing for cut flowers, for autumn/winter floral arrangements. We currently have two shapes of Garry Elliptica, a bush shape and we also train this shrub onto bamboo frames, these make excellent flat screens which can be secured against a fence or wall to create a screen of living green.

Highly decorative, unusual catkins, easy to grow and will grow in locations not supported by some other shrubs it is no wonder the RHS has given this variety the AGM Award of Garden Merit, a very good indicator that this shrub will do very well in most UK gardens.

Almost maintenance free - unless you want to keep to shape or keep to a particular size then light pruning should be done AFTER Garrya has flowered, the catkins appear on the previous years growth so if you prune in late summer or autumn you're in danger of removing the branches that will flower that year.
Garrya Elliptica or Silk Tassel tree will tolerate salty air and is therefore a useful plant for consideration in coastal locations - as long as you plant in a sheltered spot. View our list plant recommendations for Coastal Planting here.

 

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