This popular evergreen shrub has brilliant red, glossy young foliage and clusters of small, white flowers in mid to late spring, sometimes followed by spherical red fruit. A compact and colourful variety it can also be used to make a fabulous informal hedge. It prefers a sunny site but will tolerate partial shade and although frost hardy young plants should be protected in winter. It will do well in any well drained soil.
Photinia, or Christmas berry, is a genus of Asian and North American shrubs, which includes a group of evergreen hybrids grown specifically for their colourful young foliage. Most are forms of the garden hybrid P. x fraseri, with glossy dark green adult foliage, and variable red tinted young leaves, especially as they just unfold. 'Red Robin' is one, a choice form with eye-catching juvenile growth the colour of sealing wax, similar to a pieris.
It develops clusters of small white flowers in mid and late spring, sometimes followed by red fruit - but it is the spring foliage that sets this hedging shrub apart. Its growth rate is average, growing approx 30cm each year.
