Duranta, Dew Berry, Golden Dew Drop, Pigeon Berry, Sky Flower 'Cuban Gold'

I've just planted 3 in a West Palm Beach garden. This is a gold-leafed cultivar of the Jamaican form, which is said to grow just 2' tall,...Read More unlike the species, which is a small tree. It is spreading-mounding in habit, and I'm using it as an evergreen groundcover.

I read that the gold-leafed forms don't flower well. The ones I see here in the landscape are sheared continually and hardly bloom at all.

In my Zone 7A garden in Petersburg, Virginia, I have been growing a Duranta erecta plant for about five years, bringing it indoors to win...Read Moreter over. I do have a question which someone here may be able to help me with: I don't know if my plant is 'Cuban Gold' or 'Gold Mound.' It is variegated, and I see that included in the description of 'Cuban Gold' here, but not for 'Gold Mound." Other internet sources also describe 'Gold Mound' as growing to only two or three feet, but the "Dave's Garden" description of it claims that it gets as tall as 4 - 6 feet.
My 'Cuban Gold' (if that's really its name) was in a four inch pot when I bought it at the bedding plants display at a supermarket where it was described as an annual that would reach eighteen inches. At the end of the first summer, I brought it indoors, and it continued to grow. I put it in a larger pot, and it grows up to five feet tall and four feet wide before I prune it back each year. I don't know how big it would get before the first frost if I planted it in the ground. During most of the year, when there's no frost, it sits in its large pot in full sun beside my dark purple front door and really sets if off. I've rooted some from cuttings, and I recommend it as a plant that is worth bringing in for the winter.

This is my first winter with Duranta erecta Cuban Gold in Montgomery TX. About 6 plants in back bed, full hot sun and looked lush and bri...Read Moreght all summer. But I didn't cover them the first freeze (not hard). About 30 degrees not even overnight. Covered them the next night at 34 degrees. Some stems looked very peaked and I trimmed. More cold coming. How do I protect?

I grow this as standards and as shrubs. wonderful plant. Mine are planted inground in bright shade. I've seen them grown in full butal ...Read MoreTX sun.

UPDATE Feb 2015: I could not maintain my duranta tree form. It died during a cooler than average winter. It did come back from the roots and I decided to let it grow as a multi stem shrub. It seems to do much better during the cold, as if multiple branches shield each other better than a single trunk.

None of my durantas in standard form have tolerated cold but shrubs do. Maybe one day I will experiment by covering the trunk to see if it survives.

UPDATE Sep 2016: since winters in 2015 and 2016 were mild, I pruned 2 Cuban Golds into standards and they are doing well. Trunks are 1.5" dia. So perhaps they will survive an ave. winter. They sure are beautiful as small trees. See pics.