Hardiness zones
Sunset 4-24 (2 and 3 with cold protection)
USDA 7 (with protection), 8-11 (difficult in arid regions)

Landscape Use: New foliar accent shrub, informal hedge, background, screen, small flowering tree standard for mesic and oasis landscape design motifs

Form & Character: Evergreen large shrub to small tree, robust, clean, colorful

Growth Habit: Moderate, though increased by more frequent watering and fertilizers

Foliage/Texture: Elliptic entire leaves with serrate margins to 3 to 5" long, broadly cuneate at base, medium texture

Flowers & Fruits: Showy small white flowers in corymbs, musty fragrance, fruit inconspicuous

Seasonal Color: White flowers in late February and March, bright red new foliage most common during spring and early summer.

Temperature: Tolerant

Light: Full sun to partial shade, avoid southwest and western exposures in Phoenix

Soil: Foliar chlorosis in alkaline soils

Watering: Regular water in Phoenix required

Pruning: Shearing during growing season promotes foliar color. In time, Fraser photina can be trained into a colorful accent standard.

Propagation: Cutting

Disease and pests: Entosporium bacterial leaf spot, fireblight, powdery mildew

Additional comments: Under right conditions, spectacular bright red new foliage and colorful spring flowers. Fraser photinia is not very common in Phoenix. In central and northern California it is often seen as a small standard tree. In the SE US Fraser photinia was once incredibly popular as a large hedge plant; however, entosporium leaf spot has become such a regional problem because of the humid summers that it's popularity is now waning.