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Gold Splash Euonymus

tracey_b
12 years ago

My landscape plans for our newly finished house call for some Gold Splash Euonymus, but I can't find it anywhere. Should I just make a substitution with 'Golden' and then just keep it well pruned (size-wise, it's taller than 'Splash')? Mail order it perhaps? Reading about it, it sounds better than most euonymus (of which I'm not a huge fan).

Thanks.

Comments (6)

  • gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
    12 years ago

    It's a cultivar of Euonymus fortunei, but with larger leaves than typical. Similar but alternative choices would be E. f. 'Moonshadow' or 'Emerald and Gold'.

  • tracey_b
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Thanks. I think both of those get taller than the Splash, though? Still searching for 'Splash'.....

  • gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
    12 years ago

    If anything, they are likely to be shorter than Splash. It is a sport of 'Emerald and Gold' but with a more mounding habit. Cultivars of Euonymus fortunei can have rather variable growth habits, assuming both a low spreading groundcover-like habit, a more upright, vining habit as well as a mounding, shrubby habit, depending on how/where they are grown and how they are pruned or trained.

    If you still cannot locate 'Gold Splash', 'Emerald and Gold' will be the closest alternative in both appearance, habit and overall size. 'Moonshadow' is just a bit more dramatic in its coloring.

  • rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
    12 years ago

    Tracey, what size plant are you needing? I hate seeing shrubs turned into balls, boxes, or blobs because they end up being a lot bigger than expected in three years.

  • tracey_b
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    I've been online, trying to decide which to substitute. Seems that there's conflicting info as to the sizes these plants can attain. Supposedly, Splash is smaller than Emerald 'n Gold. And for Moonshadow--different plant sites say it's either 12" tall, 2'x4', 3'x5'....take your pick.

    My location for them is the front of the bed (between garage window-wall and the sidewalk going to front door)--in front of boxwoods. On either side, framing in the 7 euonymus plants, is purple pixie loropetalums.

    I just noticed that with emerald 'n gold and gold splash, the yellow is on the outer part of the leaf while on the moonshadow, the green is on the outer part.

    Thanks.

  • gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
    12 years ago

    There's conflicting size information on these because, as I explained previously, Euonymus fortunei cultivars can adopt a variety of growth habits. Even the same cultivar can be found as a spreading groundcover, a vine or a rounded shrub, depending on where and how it is grown. Both 'Emerald and Gold' and 'Moonshadow' are frequently found as groundcovers, although E&G can develop into a rounded shrub if that's your intention (I've yet to see 'Moonshadow as anything other than a low, creeping spreader). As a sport of E&G, Gold Splash is described as having larger leaves and a "more mounded habit" than its parent plant.

    FWIW, Euonymus fortunei - pretty much any cultivar - is immensely tolerant of pruning. And they often grow into large 'blob' shapes anyway :-) Or at least, typically evenly rounded mounds, unless adjacent to a surface they can "climb". So if they DO get larger than you intended, reducing the size is not going to wind up with an unnatural looking plant.

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