Rhamnus Fine Line® Buckthorn

Sometimes you just have to look at a plant once to know that it's going to be a big hit, and Fine Line, a Proven Winners® ColorChoice® Flowering Shrub, was a star at birth! This splendid buckthorn combines airy, ferny foliage with upright, slender growth, so that it looks freshly trimmed yet needs no attention at all to keep its perfect "figure." Happy in containers or the garden, it's easy to grow, almost self-maintaining, and a delight for any setting from the formal to the chaotic.

Reaching about 6 feet high but no more than 2 feet wide, Fine Line looks like a landscape architect's drawing of the perfect accent plant (you know, the kind that never really turn out that way in reality). But this is the real thing—the shape is natural, the foliage TERRIFICALLY divided and cut, like a fern's, and the growth habit rugged and hardy. What more could we ask?

Well, since it's a buckthorn, we could ask for NON-INVASIVE, non-weedy, contained growth; and with Fine Line, that's exactly what we get. If you've had trouble with an older variety throwing itself around the garden like a weed, consider Fine Line an entirely new day for this plant family. It always looks trim and neat, its upright habit keeps its almost military precision, and it looks as fresh in August as it did in April. And it bears very few fruit—and only sterile ones at that—so there's no possibility of volunteers springing up.

Happy in full sun to partial shade in any good garden soil, Fine Line is quite cold- and heat-tolerant within its hardiness range. Small enough for a patio garden but majestic enough for the focal point of even a large setting, this little shrub will delight you for many years to come.

Photo courtesy of Proven Winners® ColorChoice® Shrubs