Corokia virgata Frosted chocolate

Corokia x virgata Frosted Chocolate is a very beautifully coloured version of a little-known New Zealand bush, locally called 'zigzag bush' due to the tangled appearance of its branches. It has small, shiny, green-purple leaves that develop a beautiful patina of bronze to frosted chocolate in winter, and in spring it is covered with small pale yellow star-shaped flowers that are pleasantly fragrant and attractive to bees. In coastal gardens, the corokia x virgata thrives in flowering hedges, exposed to sea spray. Moderately hardy, it is best planted in a pot that can be protected from severe frost in colder regions. 

Corokia x virgata Frosted Chocolate belongs to the Argophyllaceae or Corokiaceae family, depending on the classification. Its ancestor is native to New Zealand and is a spontaneous hybrid between Corokia cotoneaster and C. buddleioides. 'Frosted Chocolate' is a bushy shrub with fairly dense, slender, and angular branches that become blackish with age. It reaches about 2m (6 ft 7 in) in height and 1.50m (4 ft 11 in) in width, depending on growing conditions. Its foliage is dense and evergreen and consists of small oval and elongated leaves, measuring 2 to 4cm (0.8 to 1.6 in) long. The leaves are a shiny purple-green which becomes more or less brown to bronze in cold weather, with a white felted underside. Flowering occurs in May. It produces small fragrant, star-shaped flowers with five pale yellow petals,  measuring 1 to 2cm (0.4 to 0.8 in) in diameter, appearing either solitary or clustered in groups of four in the axils of the leaves. Once pollinated by insects, these flowers give way to small globular fruits that turn orangish-red in autumn when ripe. Corokia Frosted Chocolate is not very hardy and will perish below -7°C. However, this bush adapts to a wide range of soils, even poor and slightly chalky ones, and it is easy to grow both in the ground and in pots. In a coastal garden, it can be planted in an informal or trimmed hedge, or in a large shrub bed. The Corokia virgata also makes a beautiful specimen to be placed alone, appreciated for its unusual appearance in winter. To accompany it, you can choose, for example, an evergreen Ceanothus Puget Blue, an Olearia scillonensis, or a Leptospermum Martini.