For five years I have looked out the dining room window and thought - boy, when the mock orange attains its mature size it will be too big here. I keep imaging the 5 foot tall and wide shrub in that spot near the rain barrel and I suspected it would be too much.
After five years this is what I have:
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| Mine after 5 years, and . . . . . . . . . what it should look like in bloom |
Mine has never bloomed. It dies back to the ground each winter and then regrows from the roots. Because mock orange blooms on old wood and none of the woody stem structure is retained, I don't get any flowers. What does grow each season is healthy foliage, but the new stems are just slender whips.
It is a 'Cheyenne' philadelphus that is native, tough as nails, easy to grow and needs no care. Mine is not able to compete with the juniper and cottonwood roots apparently, or it's in too much shade much of the day or both.
I've had good results so far with redtwig dogwoods in shade competing under trees, so I ended up putting another one there.
No flowering to speak of, no fragrance, but some fall color to complement the Japanese maple and some visual weight for the spot. Red stems will echo the rain barrel in winter. The barrel overflows at times and the redtwig dogwood tolerates flooding.
And the mock orange? I took it out, did not replant it anywhere. It's gone.