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  • Home
  • About, Services, Contact
  • Amanda's Garden Blog
  • Ask Amanda
  • Roses
    • Types of Roses
    • Easy Roses
    • Climbing Roses
    • Portland's Rose Test Garden
    • Rose Insects & Diseases
    • Pruning Roses
    • Rose Sawfly
    • Rose Bloom Balling
  • Pruning Basics 101
    • Pruning Tools
    • Winter Pruning
    • Pruning Grapes
    • Pruning Clematis
    • Prune Your Own Garden Registration
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    • Lawn Reno, Seed & Sod
    • Lawn Maintenance Schedule
    • Spring Lawn Care
    • Moss in Lawns
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    • Lawn Grub Control
  • Mulch & Mulching
    • Living Mulches - Groundcovers
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    • Taking Cuttings
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    • Fall Garden Chores
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    • Drought Gardening
    • Sheet Mulching, Lasagna Gardening
    • Cover Crops
    • Composting
    • Compost Tea
    • Houseplant Winter Care
    • Hummingbirds in Winter
    • Winterize Your Garden
    • Ponds in Winter
  • Growing Food
    • Spring Veggie Gardening
    • Fall Veggie Garden Clean-up
    • Crop Rotation, Succession & Companion Planting
    • Harvesting
    • Growing Potatoes
    • Winter Veggie Gardening
    • Taming Tomatoes
    • Speeding up Tomato Harvest
    • Tomato Tips
    • Saving Tomato Seeds
    • Raspberries
    • Tomato Troubles
  • Plant Pests 1
    • Plant Pests Part 2 - Controlling Insects
    • Garden Inspections
    • Cloches
    • Helping Pollinators
    • Critters in the Garden
    • Black Sooty Mould
    • Brown Marmorated Stink Bug
    • Dogwood Anthracnose
    • Viburnum Leaf Beetle
    • Dormant Oil/Lime Sulfur
    • Japanese Beetles
    • Peony Blotch/Measles
    • Slugs & Snails
    • Horsetail, the Weed
    • June Beetle
    • Powdery Mildew
    • Soil Solarization
    • Rhododendron Leaf Spot
    • Plant Rusts
    • Black Knot
  • Container Growing
    • Choosing a Container
  • Feeding Plants 101
    • Fertilizers & Ratios
    • Nutritional Deficiencies & Toxicities
    • Organic Plant Food
  • Monthly Flower Arrangements
    • Christmas Wreaths
  • Plant of the Month
    • Spring Flowering Bulbs
    • Colourful Fall Plants
    • Abelia
    • American Sweetgum
    • Ash (Fraxinus) Trees
    • Astilbes
    • Azaleas, Deciduous
    • Aubretia, Rock Cress
    • Aucuba, Japanese Spotted Laurel
    • Autumn Crocus
    • Bear's Breeches
    • Beautyberry, Callicarpa
    • Black-eyed Susans
    • Bleeding Heart, Lamprocapnos spectabilis
    • Calla Lilies
    • Catalpas
    • Chinese Windmill Palm
    • Columbine
    • Chrysanthemums
    • Crocuses
    • Dahlias
    • Dawn Redwood
    • Daylily
    • Delphiniums
    • Devil's Walking Stick, Aralia spinosa
    • Doghobble, Leucothoe
    • Dwarf Alberta Spruce
    • Dwarf Burning Bush
    • Elderberries, Sambucus
    • Evergreen Clematis
    • English Daisies
    • Fawn Lilies, Erythroniums
    • Fall Asters
    • Flowering Currants
    • Flowering Quince
    • Fritillaria
    • Garden Peonies
    • Garden Phlox
    • Ginkgo biloba
    • Grape-hyacinths
    • Handkerchief or Dove Tree
    • Hardy Fuchsia
    • Harry Lauder's Walking Stick
    • Heathers
    • Heavenly Bamboo
    • Hellebores, Lenten roses
    • Himalayan Sweet Box
    • Hydrangeas, Mophead & Lacecap
    • Jack-in-the-pulpit, Cobra Lily
    • Japanese Anemones
    • Japanese Forest Grass
    • Japanese Maples
    • Japanese Skimmia
    • Japanese Snowbell
    • Japanese Spirea
    • Japanese Spurge
    • Kale, ornamental
    • Katsura Trees
    • Kousa Dogwood
    • Laurustinus viburnum
    • Lavenders
    • Lily-of-the-Valley Shrub, Pieris japonica
    • Mediterranean Spurge
    • Mexican Mock Orange
    • Montana Clematis
    • Mountain Ash
    • Oregon Grape Holly
    • Oriental Poppies
    • Oriental Lilies
    • Paperbark Maple
    • Pearl Bush
    • Persian Ironwood
    • Peruvian Lily, Alstroemeria
    • Phalaenopsis, Moth Orchids
    • Photinia, Fraser
    • Poinsettias
    • Primroses
    • Persian Silk Tree
    • Portuguese Laurel
    • Rose of Sharon
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    • Sneezeweed, Helenium
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    • Snowdrops
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Spotted Japanese Laurel

Amanda's Garden Consulting

Indoors or Outdoors, take your pick!

aucuba japonica,spotted Japanese laurel,broadleaf evergreens,variegated foliage,houseplant,container plant,shade plant,The Garden Website.com,Amanda Jarrett,Amanda’s Garden Consulting,gardening website
Aucubas are big, bold and round.Give them room to grow!
aucuba japonica,spotted Japanese laurel,broadleaf evergreens,variegated foliage,houseplant,container plant,shade plant,The Garden Website.com,Amanda Jarrett,Amanda’s Garden Consulting,gardening website
Grown for their foliage, aucubas have thick shiny leaves.
Aucuba japonica f. longifolia 'Salicifolia' Japanese Laurelaucuba japonica,Japanese laurel,broadleaf evergreens,variegated foliage,houseplant,container plant,shade plant,The Garden Website.com,Amanda Jarrett,Amanda’s Garden Consulting,gardening website
'Salicifolia' Japanese Laurel is a much larger cultivar with narrow leaves.
Aucuba japonica f. longifolia 'Salicifolia' Japanese Laurel,aucuba japonica,spotted Japanese laurel,broadleaf evergreens,variegated foliage,houseplant,container plant,shade plant,The Garden Website.com,Amanda Jarrett,Amanda’s Garden Consulting,gardening website
The berries and foliage of the 'Salicifolia' Japanese Laurel.
aucuba japonica,spotted Japanese laurel,broadleaf evergreens,variegated foliage,houseplant,container plant,shade plant,The Garden Website.com,Amanda Jarrett,Amanda’s Garden Consulting,gardening website
The female flowers are not showy but produce colourful red berries.
aucuba japonica,spotted Japanese laurel,broadleaf evergreens,variegated foliage,houseplant,container plant,shade plant,The Garden Website.com,Amanda Jarrett,Amanda’s Garden Consulting,gardening website
Flowers are often hidden amid abundant foliage.
aucuba japonica,spotted Japanese laurel,broadleaf evergreens,variegated foliage,houseplant,container plant,shade plant,The Garden Website.com,Amanda Jarrett,Amanda’s Garden Consulting,gardening website
Berries are usually borne singly and contain a single seed.
aucuba japonica,spotted Japanese laurel,broadleaf evergreens,variegated foliage,houseplant,container plant,shade plant,The Garden Website.com,Amanda Jarrett,Amanda’s Garden Consulting,gardening website
Spotted laurels are large, bold and impressive shrubs.
​Common Name:  spotted Japanese laurel
Botanical Name:  Aucuba japonica
Form:    round, broad
Family:  Garryaceae
Genus:  Aucuba
Species:  japonica
Plant Type: broadleaf evergreen
Mature Size:  6 to 10 feet by 5 to 9 feet
Growth: fast
Origin:  China, Japan, Taiwan
Hardiness Zone: 7 to 9
Foliage:  waxy, glossy, ovate, deep green marked with yellow spots or streaks, upper leaf margins are serrated
Flowers: small plum coloured, are not noticeable, dioecious (male & female on separate plants
Fruit: red ½” drupes contain one seed, persist until spring
Exposure:  shade to partial shade, dislikes hot sun
Soil:  moist, organically rich, well-drained best but generally soil tolerant
Uses:  shrub border, winter interest, hedge, background, bold accent, containers, screen, houseplant, foundation plants
Propagation:   cuttings, seeds
Pruning:  cut back overgrown and old plants in early spring before new growth begins
​Problems:  root rot in wet soil, fungal leaf spot, scale, mealybug

Comments: 
 Aucubas, also known as spotted Japanese laurels are ideal for moist and shady locations throughout the garden. These colourful broadleaf evergreen plants are not grown for their flowers, but for their large bright green leaves that are splotched or streaked with yellow. They are bold shrubs with many stems and large glossy leaves with a round canopy. These versatile plants are suitable for many uses throughout the garden, as well as inside the home as a houseplant. Now that’s versatility!
 
Use spotted laurel along house foundations, in shrub borders, as informal hedges and as an accent to draw attention to an area or as a lone specimen. These versatile evergreen shrubs do well when grown in containers and can be brought inside during the winter in climates where they aren’t hardy. They are also suitable to keep them inside all year long as they make reliable and colourful houseplants. Just don’t let them dry out too much as they are prone to spider mites. The same thing goes for outdoor container grown specimens.
 
Issues with spotted laurels occur when they receive too much sun, where the soil is too arid or too wet. This doesn’t mean they are fussy, in fact they are very easy to grow and are difficult to kill, even if you cut them way back. However, they are shade loving plants that like moist soil and if conditions are extreme, they are not going to like it. Foliage wilts and turns brown to black when there’s too much sun. When it’s too dry, growth is stunted and shrivels. Saturated soil results in withering, droopy leaves and a quick death.
 
Although female acucubas produce bright red berries, they are not profuse, so they are not noted for their colourful fruit. Aucubas are dioecious, which means that male and female flowers are born on separate plants. Male plants don’t produce any berries, but they do provide the pollen for the female plants, just like holly, skimmia, kiwi, mulberry and ginkgo for example. If you want fruit, then you need a male and female plant in close proximity to each other. 
aucuba japonica,spotted Japanese laurel,broadleaf evergreens,variegated foliage,houseplant,container plant,shade plant,The Garden Website.com,Amanda Jarrett,Amanda’s Garden Consulting,gardening website
No harm was done to this Japanese laurel, despite being buried under snow, as they are hardy from USDA Zones 7 to 9.
Pictureaucuba japonica,spotted Japanese laurel,broadleaf evergreens,variegated foliage,houseplant,container plant,shade plant,The Garden Website.com,Amanda Jarrett,Amanda’s Garden Consulting,gardening website
This aucuba is flecked with yellow dots.

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Copyright © 2017
  • Home
  • About, Services, Contact
  • Amanda's Garden Blog
  • Ask Amanda
  • Roses
    • Types of Roses
    • Easy Roses
    • Climbing Roses
    • Portland's Rose Test Garden
    • Rose Insects & Diseases
    • Pruning Roses
    • Rose Sawfly
    • Rose Bloom Balling
  • Pruning Basics 101
    • Pruning Tools
    • Winter Pruning
    • Pruning Grapes
    • Pruning Clematis
    • Prune Your Own Garden Registration
  • Lawn Basics
    • Lawn Reno, Seed & Sod
    • Lawn Maintenance Schedule
    • Spring Lawn Care
    • Moss in Lawns
    • Lawn Alternatives
    • Lawn Grub Control
  • Mulch & Mulching
    • Living Mulches - Groundcovers
  • Propagation
    • Growing Seeds Outdoors
    • Growing Seeds Indoors
    • Hardening Off Plants
    • Taking Cuttings
    • Seed & Plant Catalogues
  • How to Garden Topics
    • Fall Garden Chores
    • Planting Know-How
    • Soil Building
    • Soil pH
    • Watering Tips & Techniques
    • Drought Gardening
    • Sheet Mulching, Lasagna Gardening
    • Cover Crops
    • Composting
    • Compost Tea
    • Houseplant Winter Care
    • Hummingbirds in Winter
    • Winterize Your Garden
    • Ponds in Winter
  • Growing Food
    • Spring Veggie Gardening
    • Fall Veggie Garden Clean-up
    • Crop Rotation, Succession & Companion Planting
    • Harvesting
    • Growing Potatoes
    • Winter Veggie Gardening
    • Taming Tomatoes
    • Speeding up Tomato Harvest
    • Tomato Tips
    • Saving Tomato Seeds
    • Raspberries
    • Tomato Troubles
  • Plant Pests 1
    • Plant Pests Part 2 - Controlling Insects
    • Garden Inspections
    • Cloches
    • Helping Pollinators
    • Critters in the Garden
    • Black Sooty Mould
    • Brown Marmorated Stink Bug
    • Dogwood Anthracnose
    • Viburnum Leaf Beetle
    • Dormant Oil/Lime Sulfur
    • Japanese Beetles
    • Peony Blotch/Measles
    • Slugs & Snails
    • Horsetail, the Weed
    • June Beetle
    • Powdery Mildew
    • Soil Solarization
    • Rhododendron Leaf Spot
    • Plant Rusts
    • Black Knot
  • Container Growing
    • Choosing a Container
  • Feeding Plants 101
    • Fertilizers & Ratios
    • Nutritional Deficiencies & Toxicities
    • Organic Plant Food
  • Monthly Flower Arrangements
    • Christmas Wreaths
  • Plant of the Month
    • Spring Flowering Bulbs
    • Colourful Fall Plants
    • Abelia
    • American Sweetgum
    • Ash (Fraxinus) Trees
    • Astilbes
    • Azaleas, Deciduous
    • Aubretia, Rock Cress
    • Aucuba, Japanese Spotted Laurel
    • Autumn Crocus
    • Bear's Breeches
    • Beautyberry, Callicarpa
    • Black-eyed Susans
    • Bleeding Heart, Lamprocapnos spectabilis
    • Calla Lilies
    • Catalpas
    • Chinese Windmill Palm
    • Columbine
    • Chrysanthemums
    • Crocuses
    • Dahlias
    • Dawn Redwood
    • Daylily
    • Delphiniums
    • Devil's Walking Stick, Aralia spinosa
    • Doghobble, Leucothoe
    • Dwarf Alberta Spruce
    • Dwarf Burning Bush
    • Elderberries, Sambucus
    • Evergreen Clematis
    • English Daisies
    • Fawn Lilies, Erythroniums
    • Fall Asters
    • Flowering Currants
    • Flowering Quince
    • Fritillaria
    • Garden Peonies
    • Garden Phlox
    • Ginkgo biloba
    • Grape-hyacinths
    • Handkerchief or Dove Tree
    • Hardy Fuchsia
    • Harry Lauder's Walking Stick
    • Heathers
    • Heavenly Bamboo
    • Hellebores, Lenten roses
    • Himalayan Sweet Box
    • Hydrangeas, Mophead & Lacecap
    • Jack-in-the-pulpit, Cobra Lily
    • Japanese Anemones
    • Japanese Forest Grass
    • Japanese Maples
    • Japanese Skimmia
    • Japanese Snowbell
    • Japanese Spirea
    • Japanese Spurge
    • Kale, ornamental
    • Katsura Trees
    • Kousa Dogwood
    • Laurustinus viburnum
    • Lavenders
    • Lily-of-the-Valley Shrub, Pieris japonica
    • Mediterranean Spurge
    • Mexican Mock Orange
    • Montana Clematis
    • Mountain Ash
    • Oregon Grape Holly
    • Oriental Poppies
    • Oriental Lilies
    • Paperbark Maple
    • Pearl Bush
    • Persian Ironwood
    • Peruvian Lily, Alstroemeria
    • Phalaenopsis, Moth Orchids
    • Photinia, Fraser
    • Poinsettias
    • Primroses
    • Persian Silk Tree
    • Portuguese Laurel
    • Rose of Sharon
    • Saucer Magnolia
    • Shrubby Cinquefoil
    • Sneezeweed, Helenium
    • Snowberry
    • Snowdrops
    • Solomon's Seal
    • Star Magnolia
    • Strawberry Tree, Pacific Madrone
    • Stewartia
    • Torch Lily, Kniphofia uvaria
    • Tree Peonies
    • Tuberous Begonias
    • Variegated Wintercreeper
    • Viburnum, Pink Dawn Bodnant
    • Virginia Creeper
    • Weigela
    • Winterhazel, Corylopsis
    • Winter Camellia, C. sasanqua
    • Winter Daphne
    • Wintergreen, Gaultheria procumbens
    • Witch Hazel
    • Wood Anemones
    • Yews
  • Garden Tours & Such
    • NW Horticultural Society July Garden Tour 2024
    • Burnaby in Blooms
    • Burnaby's Century Gardens
    • South Delta Garden Club Tour 2023
    • Garden Club Events
  • Website Index
  • May Garden Chores 2025
  • Subscribe
  • Need Help?
    • Gift Cards