Actinidia kolomikta

Actinidia kolomikta, Hardy Actinidia is a vigourous woody climber from Eastern Asia - including Eastern Russia - with variegated foliage splashed with pink and white markings. It is the hardiest of the genus and was first described by Franz Josef Ruprecht and Carl Johann Maximowicz before being moved to the genus Actinidia by Maximowicz in his Primitiae Florae Amurensis of 1859.

Actinidia kolomikta is usually grown as an ornamental although its fruit are edible but smaller than Actinidia delicosa (Kiwi Fruit) and are smooth and green turning orange when mature. It is dioecious and both a male and female plant are needed before fruit will set. There is however no way of telling the gender of plants other than by studying their highly fragrant flowers. (Male flowers have a proliferation of long pollen-bearing stamens and female flowers have very prominent white stigmas with shorter sterile stamens)

Actinidia kolomikta is very easy in cultivation and requires the support of a trellis or pergola or planted up against a sunny south-facing wall. It does best in a moist but well-drained, humus-rich, slightly acidic soil.