Daphne × transatlantica ‘Summer Ice’

Summer Ice variegated daphne

  • © Richie Steffen / Great Plant Picks

  • © Richie Steffen / Great Plant Picks

Outstanding Qualities

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.

Quick Facts

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

Culture Notes

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.