Better know amongst nurseries and professional garden designers than it is with many gardeners, Photinia Camilvy is a strong growing and upright variety of Photinia selected by a Dutch Nurseryman who then named it as a portmanteau of his two daughters names – Camily and Ilvy.
Photinia Camilvy has slightly larger foliage than other varieties with the bright red young growths appearing from Early Spring, older plants will also produce attractive corymbs of white flowers in early Summer.
We grow and sell many thousands of Photinia Hedging shrubs every year and have to say that this is the best of the larger growing ones. Customers ask for Photinia Red Robin by name and its a very colourful and useful shrub, but Photinia Camilvy has a tidier and more upright habit and the red growths are a nicer, deeper red that often appear time and again in new flushes of growth through the season. This plant also has a rather stronger constitution in our experience.
There are many uses for these beautiful shrubs, not just as hedges (keep them at any size from 120-250cm high so they can be small and decorative or tall and privacy-providing), back of border evergreens, as all year specimens in generous sized containers and topiary specimens/pleached.
They grow well in most garden soils, just ensure good drainage from the outset as these are not a shrub that enjoys having ‘wet feet’ in the Winter. They do well in full sun or partial shade and in most environments except very hostile and exposed where you would be better choosing from our list of plants for windy and exposed sites.
Prune or trim Photinia Camilvy hedges and shrubs in early Spring. When planting the young shrubs we recommend adding Rootgrow to the planting holes to give them the very best start.
How to grow Photinia Camilvy
Position: Sun or partial shade
Foliage: Evergreen shrub, leaves stay on the shrub all year.
Soil and site: Any well drained soil.
Flowering time: May and June
Growth rate: moderate/fast
Ultimate height and spread 300cm high x 200cm wide.
Hardiness: Fully hardy.
Aftercare: Water regularly after planting and for the first season. Prune or trim in late Spring to encourage more of the colourful new growth.
