Gold Dust Aucuba
Aucuba japonica ‘Variegata’ · a gold-speckled aucuba
A glossy evergreen splashed with gold that brightens dark corners all year, thriving in heavy shade, poor soil and city air, and useful as a hedge, screen or container plant. Shade is a must: sun scorches the leaves black. Give it soil that drains well, since wet ground rots the roots.
- Mature size
- 5 × 5 ft
- 1.5 × 1.5 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 7a–10b
- USDA
- Sun
- Part sun to full shade
- Water
- Medium to moist
- Blooms
- Mar–Apr
Gold Dust Aucuba at its mature size
A mature Gold Dust Aucuba grows to about 5 ft tall and 5 ft 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, The Tree Center.
Through the year
What Gold Dust Aucuba looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
In leaf · Year-round
Glossy dark green toothed leaves splashed with gold spots.
Photos
_-_Jardin_priv%C3%A9_%C3%A0_St-Brieuc_02.jpg){kind=link}
Growing Gold Dust Aucuba
- Grows well in
- The Southeast, the Pacific Northwest, and California.
- Growth rate
- Slow
- Good for
- Hedge, small space, foundation planting, specimen, shade garden, and winter interest
- Leaves
- Evergreen
- Native to
- Selection of a species native to Japan, Korea and China
Spacing for a hedge
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Gold Dust Aucuba, 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 Gold Dust Aucuba in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.