Fernleaf Buckthorn 'Fine Line'

'Fine Line' was one of the plants that I worked with in Central Illinois, and it did very well there. One of it's evil parent plant, Rhamnus 'Aspenifolia' is considered an invasive species, but this cultivar was developed to have very few fruits produced on the plant and any that are produced have not been found to be viable (information from Spring Meadow Nursery Inc.) It has also retained the ferny look of the 'Aspenifolia' parent plant, while adding the form of 'Columnaris'.
The established plant I worked with under this name had no fruit to be seen at all, and was planted on either side of a bench against a large stucco wall. The soft texture of the plant against the wall and the chunky design of the bench was amazingly beautiful in contrast. The soft, graceful form of the Rhamnus framed in the bench and kept an excellent form which did not interfere with those who might want to sit on the bench.
I rarely see this plant used, but it has the potential of adding such a great textural design to an existing landscape and is a fairly hardy plant.
Rhamnus are very common and in general are very tolerant of many kinds of conditions. Fine Line is in the same way; very tolerant of poorer soils and easy to transplant, low maintenance, and takes full sun to part shade (full sun equals 6 hrs or more of full sunlight per day).
One of my personal reason for loving this plant is because it is such a splendid texture that is hard to find in the garden. A comparable soft textured plant is a Cut-leaf Japanese Maple, but those are so blasted expensive, who can afford to make an entire hedge row out of them. Only the very wealthy I would suppose, but these Buckthorns, Fine Line, to be specific, can usually be purchased in the range of $15-20 each for one to two year plants locally (Kansas City). Online I've found them as cheap as $12 per plant (does not include shipping). It is also not as slow growing as the Japanese Maples. Thank goodness for that!
Yet the size of the plant is very manageable. They can be used as shrubs, trimmed to control their height as a hedge, or their lower branches can be trimmed up to make them into small trees in a smaller scale garden.

As for pests or illness prone to these plants, I have not experienced any on the ones I worked with up against the stucco wall. It was a rather protected spot, but from all I have read, these are suppose to be pretty tough plants. A true test of their toughness though, would be to plant one in the wide open spaces of Kansas during the winter and see how they handle it, only the most rugged would survive that. Has anyone tried that with a Rhamnus 'Fine Line', I would love to hear how it did? I would suspect maybe some freeze crack and a bit of tip die back in the spring (from dessication by winter winds), but otherwise I think it would survive.
Some other Rhamnus species to check out would be perhaps the close cousin, Rhamnus frangula (Glossy Buckthorn) or Rhamnus 'Columnaris' (Columnar Buckthorn) or even Rhamnus 'Aspenifolia' (Cut Leaf Buckthorn).
Photo of Rhamnus 'Fine Line' compliments of shrubsource.com - and I believe they got it from the Proven Winners website (hence logo in bottom corner of photo).
Quick plug for Proven Winners plants, they are a group of plants that have been selected for superior qualities and form. It is a trademark name (PW), but if you want to know if a plant is going to meet your standards, this is a good brand to start with. I personally worked with this brand of plants a lot when I worked at the nursery in Illinois and was never disappointed. Only draw back, you pay for their brand name in the price of the plant, so they are a bit expensive sometimes, but I still think its worth it in some cases. One of those cases is if you are new to gardening, Proven Winners are going to be a good first bet for you to start with....