Summer Ice variegated daphne
© Richie Steffen / Great Plant Picks
© Richie Steffen / Great Plant Picks
Fragrant flowers abound on this easy to grow daphne from spring through summer. The olive green foliage, edged with a thin line of ivory-white, forms an attractive, smaller shrub for the garden and the scented, champagne-white flowers, with an apple-blossom flush, are borne in clusters at the branch tips. Generally, semi-evergreen during wintertime, don't be concerned if it becomes completely deciduous in a particularly cold winter.
Plant Type: shrub
Foliage Type: semi-evergreen
Plant Height (10-year): 3 ft. 0 in. (0.91 meters)
Plant Width/Spread (10-year): 5 ft. 0 in. (1.52 meters)
Plant Height-Mature: 4 ft. 0 in. (1.22 meters)
Plant Width-Mature: 6 ft. 0 in. (1.83 meters)
Hardiness: USDA Zones 6 to 8
Flower Color: white
Sun/Light Exposure: full sun to light shade
Water Requirements: occasional watering
Seasonal Interest: spring & summer fragrant flowers
Wildlife Associations: bees, butterflies
Resistant to: deer
This daphne will perform well in sandy or well-drained soil with full sun to light shade. Once established it will only need occasional summer watering. Daphnes do not like to be transplanted and often sulk in containers. Expect plants to be slow the first year or two in the garden but to grow more robustly thereafter. These are generally short lived plants that maintain a nice habit for 10 to 20 years and then need replacement. Growing them with limited fertilizer and in a sunny location can prolong their lives. This daphne is semi-evergreen, but can drop all of its foliage after a cold snap. It will fully leaf out again in the spring. The naturally dense, twiggy habit requires little pruning.
Text and photos ©2025 Great Plant Picks/Elisabeth Carey Miller Garden except where otherwise noted
Funded by the Pendleton and Elisabeth Carey Miller Charitable Foundation, The Seattle Times, and Individual Donors
Administered by the Elisabeth Carey Miller Botanical Garden