We’ve grown shrubs in the genus, Cleyera for well over three decades, and still find them virtually underknown, underappreciated…and usually misnamed. 99% of the plants in the trade as Cleyera, are actually an allied genus, Ternstroemia. If that wasn’t confusing enough, Cleyera was long considered a Camellia relative, in the same family, Theaceae. Having grown both plants, I’d often wondered about this classificatoin, but recent DNA tests have concluded that Cleyera is actually be a member of the Pentaphyllaceae family, along with genera like Ternstroemia, Eurya, and Adinandra, and a few other seriously obscure genera.
The most commonly grown species in the genus, is Cleyera japonica. Most gardeners in temperate climates don’t grow it because it’s historically been listed as only winter hardy to Zone 9. Most of the information about it’s hardiness most likely came from a single collection. With a native range of Nepal, Assam, Myanmar, China, Korea, and Japan, it’s hardiness has been greatly underestimated until recently. We’ve grown clones that didn’t make it through 20 degree F, while others sail through 0 degrees F, without foliage burn.
One of our favorites is the geen leaf clone pictured below, that we originally acquired from Woodlanders Nursery in the 1990s. The thicker leaves and greater cold tolerance tell us that’s its most likely from the colder part of its natural range. Although there is no way to be sure, we feel this plant represents Cleyera japonica var. wallichiana. The photo below was just taken after a night at 15 degrees F.
In early August, the plants put on a amazing show of insanely sweetly fragrant flowers. There are few shrubs in our garden that can rival this incredible fragrance.
For the first time we’ve noticed, our plant has set an amazing crop of fruit. We’ll be sure to add this to our upcoming Garden member seed distribution. Since the parent clone is so exceptional, we’ve given it the cultivar name, Cleyera japonica ‘Sweet Dreams’. Our oldest, 28 year old specimen has matured at 12′ tall x 12′ wide. We’ve grown it successfully in both light open shade, as well as in half day full sun. We hope members will try these seedlings out in both Zone 6 and 7, and see how far north this has the potential to grow.
Does the cv Sweet Dreams have reddish-bronze new growth? Supposedly the cv ‘Clemson Hardy’ can survive -8F, so zone 6 sounds doable.
We’ll have to check in the spring, but they could wind up being the same clone.