Nandina belongs to the genus Nandina of the Berberidaceae family and is native to China and Japan.
It is distributed in Hebei, Shaanxi, Shandong, Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hubei, Sichuan and other provinces in my country.
Now it is widely cultivated in courtyards at home and abroad.
The stems of Nandina bamboo are clustered, and the branches and leaves are sparse. The leaves turn red in autumn and winter, and there are numerous red fruits, which are round and smooth and will not fall off for a long time.
It can be cultivated in the open field in areas south of the Yangtze River Basin. It should be planted in clusters in front of courtyard houses, on the edge of grassland or at the corners of gardens.
There are many rows of potted plants in the cold areas of the north, which are good materials for making bonsai. Nandina is also a traditional cut flower material. It looks elegant when paired with wax plum and pine branches.
Nandina is an evergreen shrub, up to 2 meters high, with upright, clustered branches and few branches, and the young branches are red.
The leaves are alternate, with 2 to 3 pinnate leaves. There are nodes on the total leaf rachis and a phimosis sheath at the base. The leaflets are oval-lanceolate, the apex is acuminate, the base is wedge-shaped, the entire edge is leathery. , hairless on both sides, with raised veins below, dark green, often turning red in winter.
The panicles are upright and terminal, with white flowers about 6 mm in diameter. The flowering period is from May to July.
The berries are spherical, about 8 mm in diameter, and bright red. The fruit period is from September to October and persists until February of the following year.
Commonly cultivated varieties include: Nandina japonicus, colorful Nandina, fine-leaved Nandina, yellow-fruited Nandina, glabra Nandina, turtle leaf Nandina, spiral-leaved Nandina, round-leaved Nandina, and chestnut Nandina et al.
Nandina prefers semi-shade. It is best to see light in the morning and shade at noon and afternoon. However, it can also grow under strong light. However, the leaf color often turns red if the sunlight is too strong or too weak. affect the results.
It likes warm climate and fertile, moist and well-drained soil, and can tolerate slightly alkaline soil.
It has slightly poor cold tolerance, is not strict with water requirements, and grows slowly.
Nandina has axial branches, strong tillering force, many trunks and irregular tree shape.
It belongs to the year-differentiation type. New shoots start to grow in April every year, flower buds differentiate from April to June, and bloom from May to August. After flowering, the growth slows down, and thickening is the main growth. After November It is the fruit viewing period.
Nandina planted on the ground can be shaped in a bush-like manner, either in a skeleton style or in a cluster.
After the seedlings are established, cut them off as early as possible to promote branch growth, and cultivate 3 to 5 or more strong branches to form a skeleton or cluster state. No deliberate shaping is required.
When expanding the tree shape in the future, the strong branches among the annual branches should be lengthened or lightly shortened, and the weak branches should be shortened to obtain a rough balance between the various parts. However, at the same time, be careful not to cut them into small pieces. The highly consistent shapes should be well-proportioned and strive to be natural.
Nandina Bamboo requires very little maintenance and pruning, and the main task is to sort out miscellaneous branches.
After fruiting every year, in early spring, cut off the remaining fruit ears, clean up the branches, thin out dense branches, cut off a small number of long branches, and leave the rest of the branches. Generally, there is no need to change the head.
If the old stalk grows too high, the results will be significantly reduced. The stalk can be cut off at the ground level and partially renewed. Potted nandina should be repotted every 2 to 3 years. When repotting, cut off part of the old roots and thin out thin branches, dead branches, diseased and insect-infested branches from the base, so that new branches can germinate, and the height of the plant clusters should be basically the same, and the branches should be evenly dense. , generally it is advisable to retain 3 to 5 branches per cluster.
Nandina has a phenomenon of bearing fruits in different years. It bears more fruits in the first year and less in the second year. To overcome this shortcoming, the taller and thin branches in the cluster can be cut from the base to promote Grow new branches to ensure more flowers and fruits the following year.