3 tips for how to grow Euonymous

Delicate yet vibrant, Euonymous comes in all shapes and sizes so you'll find the right variety for your yard design. These easy tips will help you care for this wonderful shrub.

This versatile shrub can have different uses in your yard.

Known as Burning Bush because of its flaming red blooms, this tidy plant is a great choice for boundary plantings or a dense hedge that needs no pruning. To really bring out the bright red, plant it against a background of evergreens.

• Evergreen Euonymus is a 4.5-metre-tall shrub with large, lustrous leaves. It does well in more temperate climates and does well for plantings and specimens in beds.
• Winged Euonymus named after the wing-like ridges on the woody stems that can reach 3.5 metres tall and 1.8 to 2.4 metres wide.
• For a ground creeper, go for Wintercreeper. It’s a low-growing or vine-like shrub often used as ground cover or allowed to creep up walls or fences.
• Bushy varieties reach 1 to 1.2 metres and the stems of vining types can grow to three metres. Hardy in cooler climes, this plant has waxy leaves that make a stunning contrast to junipers and other green conifers.

The leaves of Euonmyous come in an array of variations so you’re spoiled for choice about what you can pick for your garden. Check these out:

• 'Compactus' is a smaller version of winged euonymus. The name is misleading as it grows to three metres! It has purplish-red fall foliage.
• 'October Glory' blossoms are bright crimson.
• 'Aureus' leaves are splashed with gold.
• 'Silver King' are edged in white.
• 'Tricolour' has yellow leaves marked with green and pink.
• 'Microphyllus', called box-leaf euonymus, has narrow leaves.
• ‘Wintercreeper’ also offers colourful cultivars.
• 'Emerald 'n' Gold' has leaves variegated in green and deep yellow.
• 'Emerald Gaiety' has silver-rimmed leaves.
• The leaves of 'Colouratus' turn purplish-red in fall.

These tips will help you plant and grow this versatile plant successfully:

• Set out purchased plants in early spring, in holes twice as wide and deep as the plant's nursery container.
• Work a five centimetre layer of compost into each hole to improve drainage, set plants in, fill around them and water well.
• Euonymus transplant with ease and should show new growth within a few weeks of planting and winged euonymus rarely has problems of any kind.
• Spray infested plants with dormant oil applied in the winter as directed by the label.
• In damp areas, euonymus can contract powdery mildew, a disfiguring fungal disease that deposits white, powdery patches on leaves.
• Severely prune plants in late winter or early spring to control it.

It’s worth noting that some Euonymus can be damaged by scale, which are tiny immobile sap-sucking insects that congregate on stems and leaf undersides. Keep your eye open for them and wash off with a hose.

One of the most durable and versatile plants you can have in your yard, you can grow and care for Euonymous with ease if you follow these tips.