Fortune's Mahonia
Mahonia fortunei
Narrow, tropical-looking evergreen leaves and fragrant yellow flower spikes for bees in fall and winter, on a tidy, slow, low-care shrub for shade. Keep it out of hot afternoon sun and wind, which scorch the leaves.
- Mature size
- 5 × 5 ft
- 1.5 × 1.5 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 7b–10b
- USDA
- Sun
- Part sun to full shade
- Water
- Dry to medium
- Blooms
- Oct–Dec
Fortune's Mahonia at its mature size
A mature Fortune's Mahonia grows 4 to 6 feet tall and 3 to 6 feet wide.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: NC State Extension, Buchanan’s Native Plants.
Through the year
What Fortune's Mahonia looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
In leaf · Jan–Sep
Dark green fine-toothed leaflets, no flowers.
In flower · Oct–Dec
Upright spikes of small yellow flowers at the stem tips.
Growing Fortune's Mahonia
- Grows well in
- The Southeast and the Plains and Mountain West.
- Growth rate
- Slow
- Good for
- Hedge, small space, foundation planting, shade garden, drought tolerant, and winter interest
- Leaves
- Evergreen
- Native to
- Southern China and Taiwan
Spacing for a hedge
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Fortune's Mahonia, that’s about 5 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Fortune's Mahonia in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.
Other mahonias
Fortune's MahoniaAll drawn to the same scale.