Winter weather has arrived and everything in the landscape is covered with a 2″ layer of white stuff. Some of the shrubs have been sculpted into snow topiaries. They’ll bounce back when this current snowfall melts, but those few snow topiaries remind me of the real one I had this past summer.

“Eugenia 2-Ball Topiary” is all the tag read. It was sold at every box store and grocery store around here last spring. I don’t know too much about the eugenia species. I know it’s related to the myrtle and that it can reseed readily but certainly not in New Hampshire. I thought the topiary would look great in my large urn out front giving me a touch of formality at the entrance.  The price was right so I bought one… my first topiary.

I came home and immediately googled eugenia and found its hardiness zone is 10-11, a semi-tropical shrub that could reach 15 to 20 feet in height and can serve as a bushy hedge in the right zone. It’s readily available in box stores and nurseries, potted and sheared as a topiary form into interesting shapes like balls, spirals, or cones. The leaves are small and delicate and respond very well to trimming. The small flowers produce red berries that attract birds but there’s a warning that berries do stain walkways. The good news is that these are much more affordable than the perennial boxwood topiaries.

It simply thrived in our entry urn with sedums filling in to cover the soil. The emerging new leaves were an attractive shiny bronze shade. After several weeks into the heat of summer, the plant actually bloomed! It never developed red berries as it does in warm climes but it seemed to be quite happy at our 70-80 degrees in partial sun.  I snipped off uneven growth all summer to maintain the ball shape.

As soon as fall weather arrived and temperatures dropped, it was time to say goodbye to the eugenia. If I had a nice greenhouse, I would definitely choose to overwinter it. All I have for overwintering tender plants is a garage that stays fairly mild during winter. And that’s where I’m trying to save our eugenia. It’s repotted and placed in the sunniest garage window.  Alas, it may not be enough. The plant is alive but the leaves are beginning to wither and drop. It’s not in the best of health, but I’m not giving up on it yet.

Most websites advise bringing the plant indoors in cold weather but our forced air vents beneath almost every window would have the plant dropping leaves all winter. I loved the plant enough that just may end up buying a fresh one every spring.

*Eugenia blooms photo: Forest & Kim Starr