The description of Skimmia japonica in The A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plantings put out by the American Horticultural Society says this plant in Zone 8 can grow to a height of 20 feet (I am in Seattle, Washington here in the US). When you look this up on the internet it says the average height is more like 4 feet. Can anyone with experience with this shrub let me know what they have seen?
Typically 2-3m tall, but can reach up to 7m. One of the Chinese Skimmia species gets even larger, making a tree up to 15m tall.
Such astounding height probably based on very old plants elsewhere, such as in the wild or on a British estate garden in a mild district. Similarly, there are amazing relatively big ternstoemia and camellia trees in Japan, the latter said to be hundreds of years old. Never seen a skimmia nearly 20' high here, probably not even head height. Grows mere inches at a time, in the manner of a pieris or dwarf rhododendron, like these latter often mass-planted to form a ground cover. Stock in local outlets tends to be distributed as 'Dwarf Male' and 'Dwarf Female'. Some other cultivar names are sometimes also used here. The white-berried forms are clearly something different from usual, of course. Sunset WESTERN GARDEN BOOK (2001, Sunset Publishing, Menlo Park) calls it a "Compact, slow grower to 5 ft. tall, 6 ft. wide"
I have a skimmia which I planted in a 24inch pot outside about 10 years ago, and now it is only about 30 inches high.
I have had one for about 25 years. It would be every bit of 5/6 feet if I had not trimmed it but certianly not 20 feet. I find it needs pruning to keep it from getting a gangly look.
