Kumagai Kadsura. I found this new cultivar of Kadsura in a small specialty nursery in Japan, and I have never seen it offered in America. The foliage has a golden-yellow background which is heavily splashed with green, making for a very attractive presentation. This species makes one of the best evergreen vines for the Deep South. Leaves are a glabrous 2-3" long, thick and leathery. Kadsura japonica is a dioecious species, which means plants can be either male or female, but I have never seen flowers on this cultivar, so we do not know its sex. But female selections of the species bear hanging clusters of translucent red berries. Flowers of both sexes are fragrant. Since it climbs by twining, one must provide an appropriate trellis or arbor on which it can take hold. It is happiest in filtered sun with uniform moisture. It will defoliate at 0°F, but buds and stems remain viable. It grows well in shade, but the golden color of this cultivar will not be as rich in this environment. It is an excellent container plant as well, if one wants to grow it in a climatic zone where it won't survive the winter outside. Very limited number for the present.
Zones 7-9
