Florida Hobblebush

Description

Botanical Name:      Agarista populifolia

Common Name:      Florida Hobblebush, Pipestem, Agarista, Coast Leocothoe, Florida Leocothoe, Florida Doghobble

Description:     Looking for an evergreen shrub for the part sun, part shade, or shade areas of your garden? Well, Florida hobblebush may be what you need.

This Florida native shrub matures at 5 – 15 feet tall x 5 – 8 feet wide. Its showy white flowers bloom early to mid spring. The flowers are bell-shaped and fragrant. It has a graceful arching habit with the flowers blooming on the underside of the branches. The new growth is a very pretty reddish-bronze that turns light green and then matures to a glossy dark green. The leaves are 2- 3 inches long. This does tend to spread by suckers. The stems/trunk of mature plants have exfoliating or peeling strands of reddish-brown bark. I love that exfoliating look on plants. It’s so pretty!

Has a moderate to fast growth rate of 12 – 18 inches per year after becoming established.

Grow in sand, clay, loam, or organic acidic soils that are usually moist. Does not like extremely dry conditions. Its native habitat is in seepage areas, moist hammocks, swamps, and river floodplains. Would be good in your rain garden because it can handle temporary flooding. Is not considered drought tolerant.

Its flowers attract bees, butterflies, and pollinators. Birds and other critters like to eat the fruit. Is highly deer resistant because of the toxins in its leaves.

Poison Garden Alert! Its leaves are poisonous to humans and some animals if eaten because they contain andromedotoxin. Does not cause problems if touched.

It is not tolerant of inundation by salty or brackish water. Low to no tolerance of salty wind or direct salt spray.

This plant in 3-gallon containers is 1.5 – 2.5 feet tall.

This plant in 7-gallon containers is 3 – 5 feet tall.

Plant Lore:   As the only member of the genus in the USA, its nearest relatives are likely species in Mexico (Judd 1984). It gets its common names of “doghobble” and “hobblebush” because Its arching branches form colonies that make it difficult to walk through.

Florida Hardiness Zones 8 – 9