How do you recognise Fuzzy deutzia (Deutzia scabra)?

Leaf

Krzysztof Golik, Wikimedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Fuzzy deutzia

Deutzia scabra Thunb.

Also known as: Rough deutzia, Fuzzy pride-of-Rochester

Family: Hydrangeaceae

1.5 to 3 m tall

Widely planted in flowering hedges

Flowering: May – June

Full sun

Part shade

Very hardy, to -25°C

❓ How do you recognise this plant?

Leaves as rough as sandpaper to the touch — a simple identification clue when not in flower. Slender deutzia is a smaller, more compact version of the classic deutzia, also with white bell-shaped flowers, but a lower, spreading habit.

🍃 Leaves

Opposite, ovate, rough to the touch like sandpaper

🌸 Flowers

White to pinkish, in dense upright racemes

🍎 Fruits

Small dry capsules

🪵 Bark

Brown, peeling in strips

🗺️ Distribution

China, Japan; widely grown in France as an ornamental shrub, not wild.

🐝 Value for pollinators

White to pink flowers in racemes, rich in nectar, visited by bees in spring and summer.

✂️ Horticultural uses

Planted in a border or flowering hedge for its abundant spring flowering.

⚠️ Possible toxicity

No known toxicity.

🌱 Known cultivars

'Plena'

This variety produces double flowers, white strongly flushed with pink-mauve on the outside of the petals, whereas the typical species has simple white flowers with five petals.