'James Roof' garrya, also called silk tassel bush, is a large shrub that covers itself with eye-catching, long-lasting catkins from winter to early spring. A cultivar of a coastal California native, it is tolerant of poor soils and, once established, drought. This unique evergreen shrub makes a Wonderfull screen or hedge, but it is also a prime candidate for espalier, a technique that trains a tree or shrub to grow horizontally, often against a wall. This really showcases the catkins.
Common name: 'James Roof' garrya, silk tassel bush
Botanical name: Garrya elliptica ‘James Roof’
Exposure: Full sun to part shade
Flowers: Drooping, silvery catkins appear in late winter to early spring. Garrya is a dioecious genus, meaning that male and female flowers are produced on separate plants. Male cultivars have showier blooms, and 'James Roof' is a male cultivar and considered the most dramatic.
Related: Read about another winter-blooming shrub, Banana Split daphne, this one with striped foliage.
Foliage: Evergreen, leathery and medium green.
Habit: Upright shrub reaching 8 to 12 feet tall and as wide.
Origin: The species Garrya elliptica is native to coastal California, from San Luis Obispo county north to Oregon. 'James Roof' was first found as a chance seedling growing at the Tilden Botanical Garden in Berkely, Calif., in the early 1940s. It was named after one of the garden's founders/designers.
How to grow it: Site in full sun or part shade. Part shade is important where summers are hot. Provide evenly moist soil while it is getting established. Later, it can tolerate drought. It can grow well in clay soils as well as soils low in calcium and nitrogen and high in magnesium—these are the conditions of its native soil. If pruning is desired, do so after it flowers. USDA Zones 7–9.
Image credit: Flower detail by PaleCloudedWhite/CC BY-SA 4.0/Wikimedia Commons. Plant habit by Sean A. O'Hara/CC BY 2.0 DEED.
