Aucuba japonica

Aucuba Japonica, also known as ‘Gold-leaf Plant’, is an evergreen shrub of family Cornaceae. The front side of its leaf is in dark-green, while the back of the leaf is in pale green. The plant has beautiful golden spots on the leaf, so people name it as ‘Gold-leaf Plant’. 
In winter, the bright red fruit clustered in a conic shape, being very suitable for garden decoration. Gold-leaf Plant grows in warm and humid environment, but could not tolerate drought or high temperature climate. In summer, remember to avoid strong light exposure towards it. When temperature is above 24℃, you may spray some water to the plant leaf surface, or placed it on the wet stone, in order to increase air humidity.
This plant is not resistant to cold, so you need to keep temperature above 10℃ and reduce the water supply in winter. It needs to be planted in loose loam with good drainage. The root system of this plant is not very developed, so there is no need to change the pot every year. 
Gold-leaf Plant is a dioecious plant, so male and female plants need to be cultivated together to get more seeds. We can also carry out cutting propagation to get new plants. In spring, place 10-15 cm branches in a small basin, cover plastic film and keep it at normal room temperature.
For the varieties which are difficult to survive, we can graft seedlings to another tree trunk. The survival rate was more than 95% by selecting the 15 cm long branches growing half a year with 2 leaves.
Gold-leaf Plant is relatively easy to grow and rarely suffers from pests or diseases. A mixture of peat (2 parts) and coarse sand (1 part) can be used for cultivation, and a small amount of base fertilizer should be applied. During the growth period, liquid fertilizer needs to be applied every 3-4 weeks. You can also add phosphorus and potassium fertilizer 1-2 times in autumn. 

3-6 hours of sun per day, with protection from intense mid-day sun

Water moderately, allowing the top 3cm to dry out between watering.

Aucuba Japonica

Aucuba japonica

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