Japanese Snowbell, Snowdrop, or Storax
Styrax japonicus (STYRACACEAE)
Planting and Growing Japanese Snowbell Trees
You’ll find everything you need to know to plant and grow Japanese snowbell, snowdrop, or storax trees in the accompanying table’s tabs:
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- Flowers, foliage, and fruit of Japanese snowbell, snowdrop, or storax trees
- Growing conditions for Japanese snowbell, snowdrop, or storax
- When to plant Japanese snowbell, snowdrop, or storax
- How to plant Japanese snowbell, snowdrop, or storax
- How to prune Japanese snowbell, snowdrop, or storax
- Watering, fertilizing, and care of Japanese snowbell, snowdrop, or storax
- Landscape uses of Japanese snowbell, snowdrop, or storax
- Pest and disease control for Japanese snowbell, snowdrop, or storax
Growing Japanese Snowbell Trees
Several cultivars of medium- to slow-growing, upright, spreading, deciduous shrubby trees, to 30 ft. (9 m) tall, often with multiple trunks, with shiny, deep green, lance-shaped, pointed, veined leaves, to 3 in. (75 mm) long, turning red, yellow in autumn, and with smooth, gray, fissured bark.
Fragrant snowbell, Styrax obassia, is a closely related species with similar care needs.
Japanese Snowbell Planting and Care Guide
Flowers and Fruit
Many showy, sometimes fragrant, yellow, bell-shaped flowers, to 3/4 in. (19 mm) long, in early summer, borne in dangling clusters, to 8 in. (20 cm) long, form mealy, berrylike fruit, to 1/2 in. (12 mm) long, containing seed, in autumn.
Best Climates
U.S.D.A. Plant Hardiness Zones 5–9. Protect from cold until established, zones 5–7.
Soil Type and Fertility
Moist, well-drained soil. Fertility: Rich–average. 5.5–7.0 pH.
Where and How to Plant
Full to filtered sun. Space 15–20 ft. (4.5–6 m apart).
Proper Care
Moderate. Allow soil surface to dry between waterings until established. Fertilize annually in spring until established. Prune to shape after bloom, remove suckers. Avoid transplanting. Propagate by grafting, layering, seed.
About This Species
Good choice for accents, backgrounds, beds, containers, paths, walls in Asian, formal, small-space gardens and lawns. Pest and disease resistant.