Pieris japonica Carnaval - Japanese Andromeda

Pieris japonica 'Carnival' is a recent variety of Japanese Andromeda that will charm with its tricoloured foliage at the beginning of the season. This bush is evergreen and interesting throughout the year, primarily because of its shiny young foliage, a beautiful bronze-pink to red when it first sprouts, appearing just before its beautiful flowering in panicles of small white-cream flowers. The rest of the year it displays an elegant glossy foliage, finely edged with white-cream on a green background, and a pretty habit that is rather upright. Superb in a large pot on the terrace or in a shrub bed, always in partial shade and in a non-chalky soil.

Pieris belong to the Ericaceae family, like heathers and rhododendrons. They are shrubs that prefer acidic or at least non-calcereous soil, with evergreen foliage and new shoots that take on pink or coppery hues, accompanied by lovely flowering in pendulous clusters of small bells. Very easy to grow, they appreciate a light, fresh, and acidic soil, in a partially shaded or possibly sunny location as long as it is not exposed to scorching sun. Varieties derived from Pieris japonica are quite hardy once established.

The  'Carnival' variety of Japanese Andromeda is a mutation of the cultivar 'Mountain Fire', selected in 1996 in the Netherlands. It has a slightly upright, bushy habit, reaching approximately 1.5 m (5 ft) in height and 1.25 m (4 ft) in spread at maturity. Its growth is slow. Its small, glossy, lanceolate leaves are initially bright green and then more bluish, with a fine white-cream margin, and are largely tinged with pink in winter, then bronze-coppery-pink in spring. Its cream-white blooms are slightly fragrant, composed of drooping 12 cm (4.5 in) clusters filled with small urn-shaped flowers, and is preceded by highly decorative pink buds in winter. Flowering takes place from April to May.

Slow-growing, pleasantly coloured, and bushy, 'Carnival' does not require pruning, demands very little maintenance, and is perfect for small gardens in pots and containers, in rockeries, or as a border plant. A superb evergreen bush that is a must-have for acidic, moist soil, it will naturally blend with rhododendrons, camellias and heathers, surrounded by a bed of hellebores, ferns, and Pernettya.