Choisya x dewitteana 'Aztec Pearl'
You can find this beautiful Mexican orange enlivening the Goldsborough Garden. Its star-shaped flowers open in late spring, and the bees love them.
Vital statistics
- Common name
- Mexican orange ‘Aztec Pearl’
- Family
- Rutaceae
- Height & spread
- 2.5m x 2.5m (8ft)
- Form
- Evergreen shrub
- Soil
- Well-drained fertile soil
- Aspect
- Full sun to full shade, sheltered site
- Hardiness
- Damaged by heavy frost
Choisya
This genus contains about eight species of evergreen shrubs. In their native habitat they grow on rocky slopes and canyons in south west USA and Mexico. Choisya is a member of the Rutaceae family, other members include Citrus species and skimmias. The plants within this family have oil glands within the leaves which when crushed are highly aromatic, the flowers are also highly scented. Choisya is commonly known as Mexican orange blossom this is a very good description as the flowers have a distinct citrus scent. These flowers are abundant in nectar providing good food for bees.
Star-shaped white to tinged pink flowers are produced in late spring and again in late summer and autumn. These are borne on terminal or axillary cymes or corymbs of 3-6 flowers, 2-3cm (3/4 - 11/4 in) across.
The leaves are opposite, can be either palmate, linear or formed of linear leaflets that are dark green.
Choisya is named in honour of Jacques Denis Choisy (1799-1859) who was a Swiss botanist and professor of philosophy at Geneva.
Choisya x dewitteana 'Aztec Pearl'
This cultivar is very vigorous, with strongly bronze-mottled, glossy, deep-green leaves. In spring each stem bears two to 10 sulphur-yellow flowers with a highly visible central ring and deep yellow anthers.
This cultivar was bred in 1982 by Peter Moore for Hillier nurseries, it was a cross between C. ternata and C. dumosa var. arizonica and the first hybrid in the genus. The latter species grows in deserts and dry oak woodlands of south east Arizona.
It is more of a compact shrub than Choisya ternata, with dark green leaves made up of three-five linear leaflets. The flowers are white, tinged with pink and borne in axillary cymes each with three-six flowers.
Cultivation
- Can be damaged by strong cold winds so is best positioned in a sheltered site or against a wall.
- These shrubs prefer light sandy and medium loamy soils that are well-drained.
- Can be grown in full sun to shade.
- Prefers moist soil but can tolerate drought.
- Prune to shape, removing growth that spoils symmetry after flowering.
- Trouble free in cultivation.
Propagation
- Root semi-ripe cuttings in summer.