Escallonia Show Stopper

The 'Show Stopper' hybrid Escallonia, with its modest growth, large semi-spreading branches, and fine light green foliage, naturally forms a superb decorative dome of vegetation even in winter. The bush also offers extended and abundant summer flowering in bright pink and white, which is highly visited by bees. It forms a charming ground cover and can also be planted in a border or a large bed, and it creates a sensation in a container on the terrace. It is an excellent plant for mild climates and well adapted to coastal areas. If your climate allows it, plant Escallonia, these rewarding bushes grow quickly, are floriferous, often fragrant, and really undemanding!

Escallonia 'Show Stopper' ('Pmoore20') is a recent horticultural creation by British breeder Peter Moore. It is characterized by a low, divergent, semi-spreading, and very dense habit, as well as abundant and well-coloured flowers. Escallonias are excellent garden plants in mild climates and belong to the Escalloniaceae family. These bushes are native to the temperate regions of South America and Chile. In the wild, they grow among the shrubs that cover hillsides or on coasts exposed to sea spray.

Show Stopper forms a rounded, branched, bushy dome, slightly wider than tall. It has a moderately fast to fairly slow growth rate and will reach about 1.10m (3 ft 7 in)-1.20m (3 ft 11 in) in height and 1.50m (4 ft 11 in) in spread at maturity. The long, almost horizontal branches bear small, leathery, ovate leaves with dentate margins, in a bright, vivid, and glossy light green. They are densely arranged, mostly towards the end of the branches. Flowering occurs from June to August, for about two months, earlier or later depending on the climate, sometimes as early as May in warm climates. A second bloom can occur in September-October. Beautiful clusters composed of numerous small flowers with five petals, shaped like tubular bells, in bright pink with a rosy-white throat, enclosed at the base in a purple calyx, are born at the tips of the branches.

Escallonias are a great alternative to Weigelas in mild climates and coastal areas, as well as in dry gardens. 'Show Stopper' forms a beautiful ground cover at the front of shrub borders or hedges. Its small stature is well suited for small gardens, but it can also be grown in containers for terrace and balcony ornamentation. Well-known to Breton, Irish, and English gardeners, Escallonia is also happy in Mediterranean climates, after careful planting and regular watering during the first two or three years. It is not averse to heat, dry summers once established, or slightly chalky soils, and manages to bloom even in scorching or shady situations. It is essential in coastal gardens: its flowering, just like that of Olearias, brightens up the grey foliage of Atriplex, and harmonizes with the flowering of Correa alba rosea. It can be associated with ceanothuses (persistent and compact varieties), brooms (Cytisus scoparius), Loropetalum chinense, and more.