Kadsura japonica "Fukurin"

Kadsura japonica, the Japanese kadsura, is an evergreen twining vine of the star-anise family, Schisandraceae, a close relative of the medicinal magnolia-vine Schisandra, native to the woodlands of Japan, Korea, and southern China. 'Fukurin' is the variegated form, glossy dark green leaves edged in a clean cream-yellow margin that lights up a shaded wall or fence and holds through the year.

Beyond the foliage, the vine offers small, fragrant, creamy-white flowers tucked into the leaf axils in the warm months, and, on female plants with a male nearby, showy red fruit in rounded, grape-like clusters in fall. Evergreen and moderate in vigor, kadsura twines gracefully rather than smothering, well-mannered on a trellis or fence.

Kadsura wants what a woodland edge provides: moist, rich, well-drained soil and partial shade, sheltered from harsh sun and drying wind. Given a support to climb, the vine is easy and untroubled, evergreen through mild winters and taking brief frost, with foliage that may flush slightly red in cold. In hard-winter areas give a protected spot.

Use 'Fukurin' to brighten a shaded fence, trellis, arbor, or woodland-garden structure, where the variegated evergreen leaves lift a dim corner and the fall fruit, when it comes, adds a bright note. Pair with ferns, hydrangeas, and other shade companions, and site where the fragrant summer flowers can be met at close range. A collector's evergreen vine for the shade.