Grow Mukdenia Crimson Fans for Fall and Spring Color

Virtues: Mukdenia Crimson Fans is a ground-covering perennial that does triple duty in the sun or partly shaded garden. It offers dainty flowers in spring, handsome ground-hugging foliage in summer and vivid fall color when those leaves turn shades of vibrant red.

Common name: Crimson Fans mukdenia

Botanical name:Mukdenia rossii Crimson Fans or ‘Karasuba’

Exposure: Full sun to part shade

Season: Spring for flowers; spring through fall for foliage

Flowers: Small white flowers appear above the foliage in the middle of spring.

Foliage: Round, deeply lobed leaves emerge coppery green in spring and take on some bronze and red streaking in summer, especially at the leaf edges. In fall the leaves turn a more dramatic red before dying back.

Habit: Mukdenia Crimson Fans is a clump-forming perennial that slowly reaches one feet tall and two feet wide. It can be grown en masse as a ground cover.

Origins: This is a cultivar of Mukdenia rossii, a species that grows on slopes and ravines in China and Korea.

How to grow Mukdenia Crimson Fans: Site in full sun to part shade, in fertile soil that has good drainage but does not dry out. Full sun will bring out the richest foliage color, but this plant appreciates light shade in hot regions, especially in the afternoon. Provide supplemental water in times of drought and if the plant is growing in full sun. USDA Zones 4–8.