Kodiak Green® Diervilla

Light Needs

Part Sun to Full Sun

(5+ Hours Direct Sun)

Mature Height

3-4 Feet

Mature Spread

3-4 Feet

Growing Zones

3 to 8

Electric chartreuse growth sets Kodiak Green® Diervilla apart from every other green shrub in the border. Diervilla × splendens ‘SMNDSA’ develops into a spreading 3- to 4-foot shrub, covered with abundant yellow-chartreuse flowers during summer. Burgundy flower bracts remain into fall, extending the color display after the blooms have finished. Unlike Lonicera bush honeysuckles, this North American native is well behaved and non-invasive. 

This North American native shrub is part of the Kodiak® series and was selected for distinctive foliage, strong flowering, and adaptable landscape performance. Bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and other pollinators visit the tubular summer flowers, and the dense stems contribute cover within wildlife plantings. It handles clay, alkaline soil, partial sun, and periods of dryness once established, making it useful on slopes, along woodland edges, and in naturalized areas. Its spreading habit also works well for low hedges, foundation beds, and large-scale mass plantings if dependable coverage is needed.

Kodiak Green® Diervilla Care

Grow Kodiak Green® Diervilla in full sun to partial sun, with several hours of direct light producing the strongest foliage color and heaviest flowering. It adapts to clay, loam, sandy, and average garden soils as long as the site drains well. Soil pH can range from mildly acidic through alkaline, giving this shrub more flexibility than many flowering landscape plants. 

Water regularly during the first growing season, soaking the root zone when the upper few inches of soil begin to dry. Established plants tolerate dry periods well, though supplemental water during prolonged drought helps maintain a fuller canopy. Fertilizer needs are modest, so apply a controlled-release shrub fertilizer in early spring only when growth has become noticeably weak or sparse. No special winter treatment is generally required within USDA zones 3 through 8.

Kodiak Green® Diervilla flowers on new wood, allowing shaping to be done in early spring before active growth begins. Every three to five years, remove about one-third of the oldest, thickest stems at ground level to renew the shrub and encourage younger flowering wood. Because it spreads through suckers, unwanted shoots can also be cut at the base when a tighter outline is preferred.

Kodiak Green® Diervilla Spacing

Space shrubs 3 to 4 feet apart for a solid mass or give each plant room to mound individually. Use a container at least 18 to 20 inches wide for a young shrub, with open drainage holes and a quality potting mix that does not remain saturated after watering.

Kodiak Green® Diervilla Companion Plants

Goldenrod and asters make excellent landscape companions because they continue the pollinator season after the diervilla’s summer flowers and accept many of the same sun and soil conditions. Switchgrass adds upright form behind the spreading shrub and handles both average and periodically dry ground. Let the Diervilla branches spill along a stone wall beneath coneflowers for a layered pollinator border, or plant against dark evergreen holly to intensify the foliage color. In a large sunny container, lantana can add lower seasonal flowers in well-drained soil.

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