If you garden in winter hardiness zones USDA zones 7 -10, Chinese paperbush (Edgeworthia chrysantha) should be a must-have winter flowering shrub. In my zone 6-b garden, my shrub struggled through its first winter and spring, but paperbush has never disappointed over its past 20 + years. A few gardeners living near me are also enjoying great success. 

Paperbush is not difficult to grow and is fascinating to watch as cold temperatures moderate in early March. The uniquely nodding floral buds are clearly visible on branch tips in early fall. Fragrant flowers open in late February, weather permitting. The tubular clusters of flowers are light yellow on the inside and white on the outside. After a number of years roots may sucker new plants, forming a small plant colony.

Paperbush is a multi-stemmed 4-5 feet tall shrub with lovely greenish blue foliage. The new growth is coated with fur-like reddish brown hairs. Paperbush belongs in a woodsy environment under dappled shade in the summer and protected from prevailing winds.

Summer isn’t a downtime for the paper bush. After it finishes blooming, paperbush cloaks itself with velvety soft foliage reminiscent of tibouchina or plumeria. Long, narrow, blue-green leaves are almost tropical looking and measure up to 10-inches long.

At the start of autumn, new drooping, rounded flower buds are forming, covered with silky, silvery hairs atop of naked stems. When sunlight hits the buds, the paper bush seems to bloom already. The flower buds grow in size and prominence most of the winter. 

By late winter, flower clusters have popped open to reveal pendant clusters of dainty white tubular blooms on the outside, tipped with yellow. Its sweet fragrance reminds you that paper bush is akin to winter daphne. Flowering lasts 4 to 6 weeks, sometimes longer.

Paperbush is hard to find for sale at family-owned garden centers. You definitely should search this collector’s plant at e-commerce nurseries which sell out quickly. A number of cultivars are entering the marketplace, some at steeply high prices.

Cultivars:

• ‘Snow Cream’: Boasting large clusters of highly fragrant, golden-yellow flowers, this variety is supposedly more cold-hardy than regular paper bush (down to 0°F).
• ‘Akebono’ (‘Red Dragon’): This variety features orange-red flowers in late winter and spring and grows slower and more compact than other species. grow 8 feet high and wide. (zones 7b-10).
• ‘Grandiflora’: species with the largest flowers.
• ‘Ruby Splash’: This variety is rare and contains red flowers.