PlantFiles: Forest Bell Bush
Mackaya bella

This is a very handsome small to medium sized evergreen shrub, ideal for growing in partial to full shade beneath trees or much larger growing shrubs. The very glossy, deep green leaves provide a perfect backdrop to its clusters of lavender tinted, white flowers in spring and early summer. It appears quite hardy here in coastal south Devon (UK) and remarkably tolerant of my rather poor, very sharply drained (AKA known as bone-dry) soil. Kept well watered in summer and mulched heavily with compost in spring, it is doing very well and even manages to put out a second flush of flowers in autumn. Mine was planted out 3 years ago and has grown to approx. 1m. high and across. It is early days yet to pronounce upon its hardiness for the UK, but so far Mackaya shows great promise for milder areas at least.

Origin: South Africa - genus Mackaya was named after James Townsend Mackay, author of Flora Hibernica and the specific epithet bella is Latin for beautiful in reference to its attractive flowers.