Aucuba japonica 'Rozannie'

Most aucubas demand a matchmaker, a male plant set near a female before a single red berry will form, but Aucuba japonica 'Rozannie' needs no such arrangement. This compact, deep green selection is self-fertile, setting large, glossy scarlet fruit without a separate pollinator, and fruiting even more heavily when a male happens to grow nearby. Add to that lustrous, coarsely toothed, unspotted foliage and a tidy three-to-four-foot frame, and 'Rozannie' becomes one of the most useful aucubas for a shaded garden.

Woodlanders obtained this clone from the Massachusetts plantsman David Geiger. The great plantsman Michael Dirr, in his Manual of Woody Landscape Plants, allowed that he was impressed by the plant's characteristics while warning that it may be too slow for commercial production, and slow the plant certainly is. That deliberate pace is the price of a dense, refined, long-lived shrub, and patient gardeners have long considered the trade a fair one.

Aucuba japonica has anchored southern shade gardens for generations, prized for thriving in the dry, sunless corners that defeat other evergreens. The genus name is a Latin form of the Japanese aokiba, for the ever-green leaves. 'Rozannie' keeps all that toughness, tolerating deep shade, poor soil, pollution, and drought once established, while offering something the old spotted laurels cannot, a reliable crop of red berries on a single plant.

Set 'Rozannie' in part to full shade in good, well-drained soil with occasional summer water, as a foundation shrub, a low evergreen in a shaded border, or a handsome container plant for a dim courtyard. The dark, glossy leaves and winter berries brighten the gloom, and the compact habit suits smaller spaces. As with every aucuba, the leaves and berries are mildly toxic if eaten, worth a thought where children play.