cinnamon girl distylium companion plants DISTYLIUM Cinnamon Girl FE #3 — Master Landscape Supply

Every once in a while, maybe once in a decade, a new plant comes along that has everything we look for in a hardy and reliable evergreen flowering shrub. Very adaptable, Distyliums, also known as Evergreen Witch Hazel, grow well in sun or part shade and will tolerate dry or wet soils when established, which can't be said about many shrubs. Heat and humidity don't phase the plants. We've seen no problems with insects and disease and deer turn their nose up to it. In landscape design, Distyliums are a great alternative for boxwood, laurels, holly and juniper in sunny to partially shaded home foundation plantings, landscape borders, and as a soil stabilizer on embankments and slopes.

Cinnamon Girl is a small leaf Distylium selection with plum-purple new growth that turns a blue-green as the leaves mature. The small leaves and compact growth give this plant a more refined look than the species. A member of the witch hazel family, petite red flowers appear along the ends of the stems in the winter. 

Update:  Cinnamon Girl has also shown slightly more cold hardiness showing less burn to foliage during what was an unusually cold 2014-15 winter. Definitely the most cold hardy Distylium to date. We hesitate to say, but it should be hardier at least a half zone further north (to 6b) than other varieties.