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Ornamental shrub growing guide
Duranta (golden dewdrop, sky flower) is a fast, evergreen tropical shrub with violet flowers and golden berries, widely used for hedges. Sow cleaned seed shallowly in warm conditions, grow it in full sun and remember that the berries are poisonous.
Each golden berry (5-14 mm) contains four pale brown nutlets 4-5 mm long. If you collect your own, pick fully coloured berries, wear gloves, squash off the pulp, rinse the nutlets and sow them fresh or dry them for short storage. Bought seed is already cleaned.
Not needed in normal practice. Birds eat the berries and pass the seed, but no checked source shows that home growers need to nick or sand the nutlets.
Not needed. Duranta is a tropical shrub; cold treatment does not apply.
Not needed. A short soak in water only helps to soften any pulp left on home-collected seed.
Sow in spring or early in the warm season. In India and other frost-free climates seed can be sown outdoors in a shaded nursery bed or tray; in cold climates sow indoors in warmth.
Press the nutlets into the mix and cover them with a thin layer about as deep as the seed is long.
Loose, fertile, well-drained seed mix, such as garden soil, compost and sand in equal parts.
Keep evenly moist. Covering the tray with film or glass, as the old method suggested, holds moisture well; remove the cover as soon as seedlings appear.
Keep trays in a bright place out of harsh midday sun until seedlings are established.
Not well documented and often irregular. Keep the tray warm and moist and do not discard it after the first seedlings appear.
Prick seedlings out into individual pots when they have a few true leaves. Plant out after any frost risk, into soil dug and enriched with compost or humus, as the old guide advised.
For single shrubs allow 2-3 m (6-10 ft) between plants, as the old guide recommended; plants grown as a clipped hedge are set much closer.
Pinch the tips of young plants to make them bushy. Duranta grows fast in full sun and well-drained soil and can be trained as a hedge, a standard or a small tree.
Fruits and leaves are poisonous to people, dogs and cats; birds eat them without harm. Do not plant duranta where small children or pets play, and wear gloves when cleaning seed. Older stems can carry thorns.
Trim in spring or after flowering, as the old guide advised. Regular trimming keeps hedges dense; occasional hard renewal pruning rejuvenates old shrubs.
Seedlings vary. To copy a favourite plant, root 10-15 cm (4-6 in) softwood or greenwood cuttings with the lower leaves removed, or layer a low branch into the soil.
Birds spread the seed, and duranta invades disturbed bushland in Queensland. Do not plant it next to natural vegetation and do not dump prunings with berries.
Raise a flowering duranta hedge from seed in a warm, sunny garden.
Yes. The berries and leaves are poisonous and have caused deaths in children and pets. Birds eat them without harm.
Yes. It grows well in a large container in full sun, which is the best way to keep it in climates with frost: move it indoors to a bright window for winter.
Not always; flower colour and vigour vary. Use cuttings or layering to copy a particular plant exactly.
