{"id":12036,"date":"2020-01-01T12:00:34","date_gmt":"2020-01-01T17:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=12036"},"modified":"2020-01-16T08:41:10","modified_gmt":"2020-01-16T13:41:10","slug":"sun-king-aralia-named-2020-perennial-plant-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2020\/01\/01\/sun-king-aralia-named-2020-perennial-plant-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Sun King&#8217; Aralia Named 2020 Perennial Plant Of The Year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Plants with golden foliage can brighten up almost any drab garden patch. Sun King golden aralia (<em>Aralia cordata <\/em>&#8216;Sun King&#8217;) is no exception, hardy in USDA hardiness zones 3-9. It is also known as Japanese spikenard and mountain asparagus. Under ideal conditions this thornless, rhizomatous, herbaceous perennial grows rapidly to 3-5 feet tall and as wide in a single season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"678\" src=\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Aralia-Sun-KIng-1-1024x678.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12061\" srcset=\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Aralia-Sun-KIng-1-1024x678.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Aralia-Sun-KIng-1-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Aralia-Sun-KIng-1-768x509.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>&#8216;Sun King&#8217; aralia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p> <br>The golden compound foliage emerges in mid-spring and retains its bright color throughout the summer. Growth rate is rapid and dies back to the ground in late autumn. In mid-summer numerous small clusters of tiny white flowers shoot up, borne on 2 feet tall racemes. Lustrous purplish-black berries follow in the fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sun King makes a bold almost tropical statement in a semi-shade garden. Grow it in a compost-rich moist soil and in \u00bd-day sunlight (morning hours preferred). It is adaptable to a wide soil pH range. The foliage may burn in full day sun. In USDA zones 8 and 9, grow only in dappled sunlight to avoid foliage burn. Golden aralia should be kept mulched and irrigated over long summer dry spells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sun King aralia mixes well in large containers planted with green and other brightly colored foliage plants. It combines with variegated Solomon seal, hostas, brunnera (<em>Brunnera macrophylla<\/em>), lungworts (<em>Pulmonaria spp.<\/em>), coral bells (<em>Heuchera spp<\/em>.), and astilbes. Golden aralia is deer resistant and its tiny white flowers attract numerous honeybees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A native of Japan, Korea, and China, &#8216;Sun King&#8217; aralia was introduced to the U.S. by Barry Yinger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Caution: Birds love the tiny berries, but they&#8217;re NOT edible for humans). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Plants with golden foliage can brighten up almost any drab garden patch. Sun King golden aralia (Aralia cordata &#8216;Sun King&#8217;) is no exception, hardy in USDA hardiness zones 3-9. It is also known as Japanese spikenard and mountain asparagus. Under ideal conditions this thornless, rhizomatous, herbaceous perennial grows rapidly to 3-5 feet tall and as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[444,398,1048,1218,747,1319,749,1037,1498,674,645,665,774,853,551,625,843,812,729,777,1210,630,706,646,1452,1,113,455],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12036"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12036"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12345,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12036\/revisions\/12345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}