Burn Baby Burn

Images: Euonymus alatus -aka- Burning Bush -aka- Winged Euonymus (Celastracceae Staff-Tree Family) Whew, that's a whole lot of names for this stunning red bush. A native of Northeastern Asia and Central China.

The Burning Bush is an average looking bush most of the year. It's form is rather loose, slow maturing to 4-5 ft. tall and wide for some varieties and 12-15 ft. tall and wide for others.

It prefers moist, well-drained, slightly acidic soil in full sun. It is very adaptable to full shade, poor and compacted soil, various soil pHs, heat, drought, periodic shearing, and pollution. In the less ideal places, it will grow less vigorous and the fall color is a mixture of pink-red and faded yellow. Some years, according to the weather, they may not be as showy in the fall.

They should not be planted where they need to be pruned as this will eliminate the fall color. It is rated for Zone 4.

Some nurseries consider varieties of the Burning Bush invasive because it can escape to wooded areas by the seeds being carried by birds. Mine have not.

The tiny spring flowers are usually not noticed but birds do like the resulting berries. The leaves are clear emerald green in the summer.

In the summer, the form, lack of showy flowers make it average. But, and here is a huge BUT, in the fall it outstrips all other bushes and most trees for it's shouting red colored leaves.

Since mine turned red, I can't let a day go by without making sure I look at the beautiful red color. Today, when going into Galva, I saw a home with the entire back fence row of the property lined with Burning Bushes. It was stunning!

This week is definitely the week to take notice of yards with Burning Bushes - I'm betting you hadn't even given these bushes a second glance up until now.

When buying bushes for your yard, think about adding a Burning Bush. Plant as a fence row or an addition to your other beds. I don't really care for them as a lone or specimen plant because they don't hold their own most of the year. They are a bit like a spring flowering lilac bush in that regard. When they are doing "their thing" they are the most important bush in your yard.

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” Albert Camus (French author, philosopher, and journalist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957)