Mites?

Skimmia is an ericaceous shrub. It requires acid soil or it will get chlorosis and go yellow. Even if you have acid soil, the soil near your foundation might be alkalina and cause a problem. Look for telltale yellow leaves with green veins.

\Er`i*ca"ceous\, a. (Bot.) Belonging to the Heath family, or resembling plants of that family; consisting of heats.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

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Thanks, S&B! That's my new word of the day. Hopefully, I'll recognize it the next time I see it.

Unless this is one of those new re-classifications based on recent DNA work Skimmia is classed in Rutaceae, and not Ericaceae.

Plants may be ericaceous without being members of the Ericaceae family. Other examples are Gardenia and Camellia.

"Calcifuge" is more to the point. Extending taxonomic term "ericaceous" to include all calcifuge shrubs, including those outside Ericaceae is a somewhat unfortunate practice as it is misleading.

I disagree. Calcifuge refers to plants which do not grow well in lime-rich soil. Ericaceous implies the need for acid soil (in order to adequately take up Iron). Many plants may be calcifuge, but not ericaceous. Lilacs are an example.

Some ericads native to dry climates, arbutus and arctostaphylos for instance, are not particularly lime-hating. In fact it has been observed that native arbutus growing at a cement plant in Seattle look much healthier than many others in town.

Growing successfully three of them in a close to neutral (pH from 7 to 7.35 depending on the location) loamy to slightly clayey soil, I don't believe Skimmia japonica requires acid soil. Nor does it require a particularly light soil full of organic material, its roots beeing more 'fleshy' and more able to cope with clay than the fibrous roots of a rhododendron, an azalea or a Pieris.

Of course, I wouldn't plant one in a chalky soil, but it shouldn't be qualified, in my humble opinion, as an ericaceous plant.

Will skimmia grow in zone 6?

Zcoolest, I have been able to grow skimmia in Z6 on the North side of my house. They were happy until the following.
Cheryl, did you check on the sticks deep down inside the shrub? Mine are suffering from what looks like a fuzzy white scale on the sticks. I have the same or similar insect on my greenspire euonymus. The leaves are turning yellow from it and the plant is slowly dying back. They ruined one plant last year and are back again.

Oops, I just noticed the original message was old.
How did your skimmia do Cheryl?