King Kong Kadsura. I have brought back a number of variegated Kadsura vines from my visits to Japan, and since they are dioecious (separate male and female plants), occasionally I would notice a berry or two on them. How they got there I have no idea, since I have never had a male pollinator. In almost every garden center in Japan, we would see all green female plants just laden with huge clusters of translucent red berries, especially plants trained into bonsai. I would inquire as to how they were pollinated and I would receive a blank stare as if they did not understand my question. Then it finally dawned on me that since it was a species native to Japan, that there were plenty of male plants in the landscape that served as pollinators. When visiting a small specialty nursery with mostly variegated plants in Nagoya in 2013, I noticed several trays of just green-leaf Kadsura vines, so through our interpreter I asked what was significant about this selection since it was all green leaves. The reply was, "These are male plants." Viola!!! Finally I had found the much sought after male Kadsura of which I had searched for years. Kadsuras were once classified in the Magnolia family, as the flowers appear to be miniature magnolias, but it has now been placed in the Schisandra family, Schisandraceae. The last picture is of a female plant trained as a bonsai which obviously had a male partner nearby. This is not the plant you will receive. The other pictures are of 'King Kong', our male cultivar. One can obviously see how the flowers somewhat resemble those of Magnolia. Most of our 2 quart plants have begun to flower, and these pictures are from one of these. To get fruit-set, one would have to grow plants outside or in a greenhouse for insect pollination, or perform hand pollination indoors.
Zones 7-9
