Japanese Pieris
Pieris japonica
An evergreen with coppery red new leaves and drooping chains of fragrant white flowers in early spring, lovely by a foundation or as a specimen. Deer leave it alone. Give it moist, rich, acid soil, shelter from winter wind and some shade in the South. All parts are poisonous to people and pets.
- Mature size
- 9 × 7 ft
- 2.7 × 2.1 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 4b–8b
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun to part shade
- Water
- Medium to moist
- Blooms
- Mar–Apr
Japanese Pieris at its mature size
A mature Japanese Pieris grows 8 to 10 feet tall and 6 to 8 feet wide, taller than most people.
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.
Through the year
What Japanese Pieris looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
In leaf · Jun–Feb
Uniformly glossy dark green foliage with small bead-like flower buds.
In flower · Mar
Glossy dark green leaves covered in drooping chains of pure white urn-shaped flowers, no red new growth yet.
New growth · Apr–May
Glossy dark green leaves with bright fiery red new shoots at every tip; last flower chains fading in April.
Photos
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Growing Japanese Pieris
- Grows well in
- The Northeast, the Southeast, and the Pacific Northwest.
- Growth rate
- Slow
- Good for
- Privacy screen, hedge, foundation planting, specimen, deer resistant, and fragrant
- Leaves
- Evergreen
- Native to
- China, Japan, and Taiwan
Spacing for a hedge
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Japanese Pieris, that’s about 7 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 Japanese Pieris in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.