Hello Gardeners, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. Fatsia japonica is a tropical looking plant with very large ivy-shaped, dark green leaves. It can grow in multi-trunked stands to ten feet tall. When I was younger, this plant sometimes was killed to the ground if we had a very cold winter and many people grew them in courtyards and protected patios spaces. When my family went to Butchart Gardens last years, in Vancouver, Canada, we saw a magnificently bold grove of fatisa over fifteen feet tall. In Canada! We talk about micro-climates and Butchart Gardens shares the same cold hardiness zone as the midlands of South Carolina. In the summer, however, they do not have the extreme heat and humidity we do so their roses are relatively disease free and their peonies and dahlias flower extravagantly. If I find out they don’t have mosquitoes, maybe I’ll think about becoming an ex pat!
Fatsia Japonica Needs a Protected Space
