The KSL Greenhouse Show’s plant of the week: Daphne
Feb 26, 2026, 11:50 AM | Updated: 12:07 pm
A detail of a Daphne bholua alba plant. (Photo by Matt Cardy, Getty Images)
(Photo by Matt Cardy, Getty Images)
Salt Lake City — The Carol Macknie Daphne bush have a reputation as finicky, often short-lived shrubs.
The KSL Greenhouse Show hosts Taun Beddes and Maria Shilaos spoke about the shrub on Saturday and how to take care of it in Utah.
KSL NewsRadio edited the following transcript for brevity.
More than just a pretty plant
BEDDES: “Daphnes, in general, there are two or three species in the market that you can sometimes find. The primary one we grow in Utah is the Latin name is Daphne X, which means hybrid Burkwoodii. The seedling of this Burkwood Daphne that grew from it, they found a chance branch spore. It was discovered by a lady named Carol Macchi, hence the name Carol Macchi-Daphne.”
SHILAOS: It has this variegated leaf, and the flowers are amazing. When it’s in bloom, and it blooms for quite some time, it smells incredible. That’s why I have it right in front of my courtyard, right by the front door.”
BEDDES: “The fragrance is something you need to experience, because it is so pleasant. If you have three or four of them, it can actually make your whole yard in the spring smell really nice.”
Care they need
BEDDES: “In Utah, they need afternoon shade, especially during the winter, and having them up against a building will help, because they do like that. They’re naturally
evergreen. If it gets too cold, they will shed some of their leaves. Because they’re naturally evergreen, they do want to be someplace protected. They’re going to
want well-drained soil, so you can’t have them sitting in water all the time. And they benefit from some bark mulch to help protect the soil from freezing … Once you get it set, and it’s in a home that it seems to be happy, don’t move it.”
SHILAOS: “You have to remember to kind of keep it pruned the shape you want, because you can’t go in and do wholesale pruning on it.”
BEDDES: “You’re actually going to use a technique called renewal pruning, where you’re taking 20%-25% of the branches out from the base, where you’ll go in as far as you can and find the oldest, and sometimes leggiest, branches … It’s not naturally a leggy shrub, but it can become so if you don’t prune it. But find those oldest branches and just take out about 20%-25% of the total canopy of the shrub every year.”
SHILAOS: “If you don’t do that, it can kind of take over the area. Then you think, oh, I’m going to prune it back severely. And it does not
like that … I let it get out of control, and then I tried to cut it back, and it was a terrible plan.”
BEDDES: “When you’ve moved from your start home and your second home, and you’re finally thinking, okay, I’m here. That’s when you want to plant your Daphne.”
What about water?
BEDDES: “It’s not super drought-hardy, but it doesn’t want to be in a swamp. So if you have bark mulch over it with afternoon shade, once it’s established, I’m thinking probably once a week, especially with two or three drip emitters around it. If you have a little bit heavier soil, maybe every 10 days … In the spring, you can fertilize it lightly, but over-fertilization will reduce the number of flowers and make it really leggy. With the Daphne, just once it’s kind of established and happy, it’s almost, besides the pruning, just best left alone.”
Listen👇 to the full podcast episode
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