How to Grow Mahonia

The inclusion of Mahonia in supermarkets and roundabouts' landscaping gives Mahonia a poor reputation. It seems harsh. Mahonia is an easy-to-grow shrub with winter colour and berries for wildlife. Their bright yellow flowers are attractive and welcome in the winter gloom. Some varieties, as shown below, have scented flowers. Mahonia has attractive evergreen foliage, similar to holly leaves. 

Mahonia looks good in a border mixed with other evergreen shrubs and has the advantage of being fast-growing. Mahonia planted on a perimeter makes a good security hedge because of its very spiky thorns.  

 You can plant Mahonia pretty well anywhere; however, it will do best in part sun/part shade and is also shade-tolerant. The winter flowers provide late winter /early spring nectar for any solitary bees emerging from hibernation.

How to plant Mohania:  soak the root ball in water for 20 minutes and dig a hole about twice the size of the plant. Place in the centre so that the top of the plant in the pot is level with the soil; backfill with good peat-free compost, firm in and water again. Remember to water regularly until the shrub establishes itself.

When growing Mahonia, you do not have to prune the shrub, but a light prune from time to time after flowering, will trim the shrub into shape and remove any dead branches.

Mahonia looks good with : an under-planting of snow drops and Hellebores to provide a mixed winter border. Suitable companion shrubs would be Berberis if making a thorny hedge, or Rhododendron, Azalea and Viburnum if planting a mixed shrub border. Another good companion plant is Cornus alba Sibirica with strong red stems.

Mahonia not the shrub for you? Check out 22 Beautiful Shrubs and plants with Autumn and Winter Interest.

Which variety to grow depends on what you are looking for in your garden.

Scented: There are a number of attractive scented varieties. The group of Mahonia known as M. x media includes all upright varieties, and illustrated below, above centre and right is 'Charity', which has lovely yellow fragrant flowers. Mahonia x media, which grows up to 5m high 4 m wide, and flowers from late autumn to early winter; good varieties are 'Charity', 'Winter sun' and 'Lionel Fortescue', and all are scented and very hardy H4. These have large, upright, yellow, scented flowers. Growing 'Charity' in a north-facing spot makes it a good shrub for a difficult growing area. Recently, the RHS have awarded Garden Merit (AGM) to Mahonia  x media Underway which reaches up to 3m and has large erect spikes of fragrant yellow flowers in the winter. Mahonia japonica is also hardy to H4, a mid-sized shrub growing up to 2m and scented.

Height: Most of the scented varieties are tall. There are more compact varieties such as low-growing Mahonia repens, which grows up to 30cms, illustrated in the image below, and right, which has lovely berries in the late summer. It can be planted as ground cover. Those low-growing with RHS award of garden merit: Mahonia aquifolium 'Apollo' Mahonia × wagneri 'Pinnacle', both around 1-1.5m and Mahonia eurybracteata subsp. ganpinensis 'Soft Caress', a new variety with no spikey leaves (see below)

Other popular varieties grown in UK gardens are: Mahonia fortunei, smaller 1.2m high 1 m wide, which flowers in the autumn. A recent introduction is a red flowering Mahonia called Mahonia nitens 'Cabaret', which flowers in late summer and autumn.The inclusion of Mahonia in supermarkets and roundabouts' landscaping gives Mahonia a poor reputation. It seems harsh. Mahonia is an easy-to-grow shrub with winter colour and berries for wildlife. Their bright yellow flowers are attractive and welcome in the winter gloom. Some varieties, as shown below, have scented flowers. Mahonia has attractive evergreen foliage similar to holly leaves.