Mock Orange Plant Profile

 

Mock Orange Plant Profile

Mock Orange (Philadelphus coronarius) is a deciduous shrub with wonderfully fragrant white flowers in the spring and summer. The shrub is a terrific nectar source for butterflies and other pollinators.

Plant it in full sun for the best flowering. It prefers soils that are well-drained and slightly acidic to neutral. This shrub hates to sit in damp ground and usually only needs watering during periods of extended drought.

Fertilize it by spreading a layer of compost around the root zone in spring. A high-nitrogen fertilizer will encourage leafy growth at the expense of the flowers, so be careful not to spread any turf-grass fertilizers around the shrubs when fertilizing a nearby lawn.

The blooms on Mock Orange are most fragrant at night and you should locate it where you can enjoy their wonderful scent.

It produces flowers on new wood, so prune the shrub shortly after it finishes blooming each year. If it becomes overgrown, take out about a third of the older stems down to the ground. You can propagate it by taking cuttings in the summer.

It is a native to Europe and is hardy to USDA zones 4 to 8.

Mock Orange is disease- and deer-resistant.

It can grow to 10 feet tall and wide. There are dwarf and compact cultivars available such as ‘Snowbelle’, which is about 4 feet high, and ‘Illuminati Sparks’, which grows to about 3 feet tall.

Mock Orange: You Can Grow That!

The video was produced by Washington Gardener Magazine as part of our Plant Profile series for Mid-Atlantic USA gardeners.

Video, audio, and text by Kathy Jentz

Editing by Madison Korman

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