Escallonia Iveyi

Few evergreen shrubs carry white flowers through the warm months and still stand up to salt laden wind off the water. Iveyi does both. It is a hybrid escallonia, taller and more upright than the pink Apple Blossom most people know, with glossy dark leaves that smell faintly resinous when clipped and panicles of small white tubular flowers that bees work over steadily. Left informal it thickens into a screen on its own; clipped, it takes a dense formal face, which is why it is used along boundaries and driveways.

A cool coastal shrub, honestly described

Climate is the honest caveat with this one. Escallonia is at its best in the cooler, drier coastal gardens of Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and southern New South Wales, where it handles wind, salt spray and light frost without trouble. Give it free draining soil; it is not fussy about type and will take sand, loam or improved clay, but it does not want ground that stays wet for days after rain. Plant 600 to 800mm apart for a clipped hedge, or around a metre for an informal screen. The failure mode is humidity. Through a wet subtropical summer the leaves pick up fungal leaf spot, drop from the lower half of the plant, and the hedge looks moth eaten by autumn, which is exactly when you want it looking its best. It is not a shrub to gamble an entire boundary hedge on in Brisbane or the northern rivers. Where you do try it in a warmer district, space the plants wider than usual, keep the interior open so air moves through, and water at ground level rather than over the foliage.

Against the other flowering hedges here

The closest alternative in this batch is Coleonema album, which also carries masses of small white flowers, but at a much smaller scale and with fine aromatic foliage; take the coleonema for a low edging hedge and Iveyi where you need real height and a solid boundary. The other direction is Callistemon Mauve Mist, which is the one to choose if your summers are humid and wet, since it grows well in exactly the conditions that leave escallonia looking tired. Iveyi is the pick for a cool coastal garden that wants white flowers and a clipped face. See the full hedging range.

Clip after flowering, and not too hard

Trim straight after the main flush of flowers, taking the soft growth back to shape. A formal hedge can be clipped two or three times a season, but every clip removes flower buds, so decide early if the hedge is being grown for a crisp face or for the white panicles. Older, leggy plants take a harder cut back into two or three year old wood in early spring and reshoot reasonably well. Feed in early spring with a complete slow release fertiliser along the hedge line, water it in, and mulch to keep the root zone even; a second light feed after the first trim helps a young hedge close its gaps faster.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 5 sizes, from 140mm up to 330mm, priced from $16.95 to $149.00 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. These are younger plants, priced for planting in quantity, and they establish quickly once in the ground. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to hedging plants for Australian conditions.