| Description | Diabolo Ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius) is a tough, hardy, large shrub. Has reddish purple foliage, white flowers followed by ornamental red seed pods. |
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| Pronunciation | (fi-so-KAR-pus)(op-u-li-FO-li-us) |
| Plant Type | Shrubs Deciduous, Site author's observations |
| Hardiness Zone | 2-7 |
| Sunlight | full produces darker colored foliage, in shade color will fade to green/green purple |
| Moisture | Seems to tolerate dry (not drought) conditions, prefers average moisture. |
| Soil & Site | average, dry to medium wet soils. |
| Flowers | small pinkish white, five petaled, in dense flat rounded clusters (corymb). |
| Fruit | red, drooping inflated seed capsules with 3-5 follicles |
| Leaves | 3-5 lobes, serrated, dark purple but may turn to shades of purple green to green during hot weather, gets a bronze cast in the fall |
| Stems | bark on the older stems is exfoliating revealing layers of inner reddish to light brown |
| Roots | fiborus |
| Dimensions | Ones in my yard are about 10 years old and are 10 by 10 and still growing. Space 6-8 feet on centers. The size makes it hard to use in small foundation plantings. Best used in borders, berms or in corner plantings. (update) From 2001 to 2012 it reached 10 feet tall by 10-12 wide. Cut it back to around 24" and is now about 5 feet tall (2014). Update 2018 is now 8 plus feet tall again. |
| Maintenance | Produces flowers on wood produced after flowering,. Yearly pruning after bloom, can keep this plant to a smaller size. They can be cut back hard if needed. Pruning will eliminate some of the ornamental seed pods. Has a tendency to get Powdery Mildew. Probably won't kill the but just disfigure the leaves. Can be sprayed with a fungicide to help prevent the mildew from starting and spreading. If any green branches occur cut them out as close to the main stem as possible. They can over take the shrub. |
| Propagation | cuttings |
| Native Site | The common Ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius) native from the east coast to the states just west of the Mississippi and up through Canada. |
| Misc Facts | Genus name comes from the Greek physa meaning a bladder and karpos meaning fruit, referring to the inflated dry fruits of the plant. |
| Author's Notes | This is fast growing shrub. Has lots of good attributes but the presence of Powdery Mildew may start to limit it's use. Some of my landscaper friends said they have problems with the shrub reverting back to all green. I have only seen this a few times. |
| Notes & Reference | #01-Manual of Woody Landscape Plants (Michael Dirr) |
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