Growing Deutzia: Cultivation, Uses and Species

There are about 60 species of small flowering shrubs in the genus Deutzia. They are native to Asia and Central America. Most Deutzia are deciduous, but a few subtropical species are evergreen. The flowers are white in most species, but a few are pink or reddish.

Deutzia species bloom in spring. They are used as garden shrubs, and the smaller varieties can be grown as groundcovers or in containers. One of the most popular is Deutzia gracilis 'Nikko', which won the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Gold Medal Award in 1989. Deutzia scabra varietals are valued for their double flowers.

Growing Conditions

Deutzia is an easy shrub to grow, tolerant of a wide range of growing conditions. Slender Deutzia prefers moist, humusy soil with a neutral pH, but is quite tolerant of dry and heavy soils within a wide pH range. It blooms best in full sun but will tolerate light shade. They are hardy in zones 5 to 8.

Cultivation

Deutzia blooms on old wood, so pruning should be done right after the shrub is done flowering. Annual pruning will keep this shrub looking tidy; it gets shaggy and leggy if left untouched. This little shrub is smothered with flowers in late spring. There is no need to deadhead. Deutzia is not particularly vulnerable to any pests or diseases. Deutzia is easily propagated by layering or softwood cuttings.

Deutzia Uses

Gardeners love deutzia for its mass of spring bloom. It is spectacular in containers! It is also widely used as a flowering deciduous groundcover and a border plant. Its fine texture makes it useful after its flowering period is over.

Related Shrubs

Deutzia Corymbiflora

Deutzia Corymbiflora - Forms a shrub from 4 to 5 feet high, the young shoots erect and clothed with bronzy-green bark. The mature growths of the previous year carry massive clusters of white flowers, with often from 50 to 100 buds, and expanded blooms opening in summer. Though a promising shrub in some parts of France, it in this country appears to be too tender to prove valuable. This is the D. corymbosa of gardens, and D. setchuensis of Franchet. China.

Deutzia Crenata

Deutzia Crenata - Reaches a height of 6 to 10 feet, the flowers in erect thyrses, each flower composed of five pointed petals. Chief among its varieties are D. crenata, flore punices, whose double white flowers are shaded with rosy-purple on the exterior; alba plena, candidissima plena, and Pride of Rochester, for the three are almost, if not quite, identical; Watereri, white, flushed with rosy-lilac on the outside; and Wellsii, a double white flower, but in habit quite different from the other white forms.

Deutzia Discolor

Deutzia Discolor - The true plant is a charming little shrub with arching, wand-like shoots of 2 to 3 feet, crowded from base to tip with clusters of rose-flushed white flowers, each three-quarters of an inch across. At present a rare plant, D. discolor is represented in our gardens by the variety purpurascens, which is a more vigorous plant than the wild form, reaching a height of 3 to 4 feet, with slender rounded stems of a bronzy-green or red color, covered with little starry scales. The flowers, six to eight in a cluster, are rosy-purple on the outside, showing within as a pretty flush; the buds are of a carmine tint.

Deutzia Discolor Floribunda

Deutzia Discolor Floribunda - The other parent of this was D. gracilis, but it shows more of the influence of D. discolor. It forms a somewhat erect-growing little shrub that flowers freely; the blossoms in erect panicles, white, with a rosy flush on the outer petals and buds.

Deutzia Discolor Grandiflora

Deutzia Discolor Grandiflora - In this the influence of D. gracilis is shown in the long leaves borne upon stiffly erect shoots. The flower panicles are longer than in D. purpurascens, and the rosy-tinted flowers themselves larger, covering the stems throughout their length.

Deutzia Gracilis

Deutzia Gracilis - Between this and D. discolor purpurascens, M. Lemoine has raised a number of hybrids, two of which have been just dealt with. The following, however, of the same parentage, are so much more nearly related to D. gracilis that they may well be regarded as varieties of that well-known species.

Deutzia Gracilis Campanulata

Deutzia Gracilis Campanulata - This is taller than the others of its class, and bears long sprays of large milk-white flowers, which are bell-shaped and borne on dark colored stems.

Deutzia Gracilis Rosea

Deutzia Gracilis Rosea - A dense shrub a yard or more in height, hardy, and free-flowering. Its growth is erect, with small narrow leaves, and upright sprays of open bell-shaped flowers, rosy-grey on the outside and soft carmine within.

Deutzia Kalmaeflora

Deutzia Kalmaeflora - A hybrid 3 to 4 feet high, flowering towards the end of May in spreading clusters of a pale silvery-rose color, deepening towards the edges of the waved petals. The outside of the petals and the buds are of a bright rose-lake tint, while the peculiarity to which the plant owes its name is the ring of petal-like stamens forming a raised disc in the centre of the flower.

Deutzia Lemoinei Apple Blossom

Deutzia Lemoinei Apple Blossom - An erect shrub, 2 feet high, laden with rounded clusters of twenty to thirty flowers, springing erect from every joint. The petals fold back prettily, with margins fringed and waved, passing from rose in the bud to blush-pink, becoming white when fully expanded.

Deutzia Lemoinei Avalanche

Deutzia Lemoinei Avalanche - In this the stems are densely clothed with small dark green leaves and a profusion of crowded flower clusters, whose weight causes the stems to arch over in a pleasing manner. The flowers are of medium size, and it is hardy.

Deutzia Lemoinei Roseball

Deutzia Lemoinei Roseball - A counter-part of the last, save in the flowers, which, opening towards the end of May, are of a blush-pink with yellow stamens, the red flush deepening at the edges and on the outside of the petals.

Deutzia Lemoinei Snowball

Deutzia Lemoinei Snowball - Nearer to D. parviflora than its other parent, the flowers of this are mostly borne at the tips of the branches in compact rounded heads. Individually they are of great substance, with wavy petals, and in color creamy-white, relieved by stamens and disc of pale yellow.

Deutzia Longifolia

Deutzia Longifolia - One of the new Chinese species, and, like all the Deutzias, very free-flowering. The shoots are disposed in a graceful arching manner, and the flowers, which are borne in rounded clusters, are of a pretty blush-mauve tint when first expanded, but afterwards become almost white. The central cluster of yellow stamens forms a noticeable feature. It is said to force well.

Deutzia Myriantha

Deutzia Myriantha - The massive flower clusters of this open early in June, the blooms each three-quarters of an inch wide and of snowy whiteness, save for the pale yellow stamens. From the period at which it flowers this forms a valuable succession to those just named, while, in addition, it is perfectly hardy.

Deutzia Parviflora

Deutzia Parviflora - This species, which has played a part in the production of some of the varieties above named, is in itself a handsome shrub of 4 to 5 feet, its erect stems being crowned in spring by flattened clusters of flowers, suggestive of those of the Hawthorn. The manner in which the bark peels away in bands from the older stems is characteristic of this kind. It flowers in April and May, and it is by no means proof against spring frosts.

Deutzia Scabra

Deutzia Scabra - To M. Lemoine we owe the reintroduction of this scarce shrub, the true D. scabra, a name often erroneously applied in gardens to D. crenata. The true D. scabra, which is from Japan, flowers about the middle of May, and is sometimes injured by late frosts. The shrub itself is a rather loose grower, while the flowers borne in spike-like clusters are each about half an inch across, and of snowy whiteness with yellow stamens.

Deutzia Veitchi

Deutzia Veitchi - A very promising Deutzia, whose flowers, borne very freely, are of a deep pink when fully expanded, but rich rose in the bud state. About an inch across, with a central cluster of yellow stamens. It appears to be later in blooming than some of the other Deutzias, and should prove of considerable value to the hybridist.

Deutzia Vilmorinae

Deutzia Vilmorinae - A new kind of considerable promise, native of China. It bids fair to attain a height of 5 to 6 feet, while the flowers, at their best in the early part of June, are disposed 20 to 35 together in large clusters, which at first erect, become afterwards, from their weight, partially drooping. This, though charming from the graceful habit of the plant and its bloom, has yet to be tested as to its value in the open air in this country.

Deutzia Wilsoni

Deutzia Wilsoni - A handsome shrub from W. China, introduced by Wilson in 1901. The large flowers are white and borne in corymbose panicles. The leaves, 4 to 5 inches long, are ovate oblong, dull green above and grey beneath.