Pieris Mountain Fire

Pieris Mountain Fire (Pieris japonica 'Mountain Fire'), also know as Japanese Andromeda Mountain Fire, is a partial-shade garden show-stopper! Pieris Mountain Fire offers many interesting features: from late winter into spring the foliage has flaming red tones, and in summer as it ages it turns burgundy. In winter it is thoroughly evergreen and stays that way until spring's red leaves arrive.

The spring foliage is always mixed with the previous year's leaves of pure green, so it looks almost like red flowers blooming on the bush. It doesn't take long, though, for the red leaves to give way to fragrant clusters of pinkish-white flowers that form in unusual hanging chains and dangle from the plant. Pieris Mountain Fire is a beautiful shrub that will cause a lot of garden chatter! This slightly arched shrub can easily be shaped into a lovely low privacy hedge, or it fits nicely into tight spots as a foundation plant.

Try it in your mixed border and with spikier evergreens like holly or juniper for a great year-round show.

Pieris Mountain Fire thrives in moderately fertile, humus-rich, acidic soil in full sun to partial shade. You might need to give it a little TLC and protect it in winter until it is established. Although it is hardy from zones 5 through 9, you'll have the most success in zone 9 with good soil moisture, additional organic matter and a more acidic soil.

Mountain Fire Japanese Andromeda often becomes a garden's stand-out specimen plant. Don't miss having one of these beauties in your garden this year!