Purple Coral Pea Hardenbergia violacea White Out

White Out is the white flowered form of the purple coral pea, a twining evergreen native climber with wiry stems and leathery lance shaped leaves. Through late winter and into spring it carries the same dense sprays of pea flowers as the purple Happy Wanderer everyone knows, in clean white, which reads very differently against dark foliage or a rendered wall. Growth is fast and the plant is long lived once its roots are down. It goes on wire fences, mesh panels, lattice and open banks.

Give it something to climb, then stop digging around it

Full sun brings the heaviest flowering, though it will grow and flower reasonably in part shade. It wants free draining soil and is at home on the sandy, low fertility ground of its natural range across southern and eastern Australia, taking frost, dry summers and coastal exposure in its stride. On wire, mesh or lattice it will cover a fence in a couple of seasons; run flat over a bank with nothing to grip, it behaves as a sprawling groundcover instead. Two things end it early. The first is heavy soil that stays wet in winter, which rots the roots. The second is disturbance: it resents having its root zone dug, forked or replanted around, and gardens lose established plants to a weekend of bed renovation more often than to any disease. Plant it into a free draining position, mulch lightly, keep the trowel away afterwards and leave it alone. Growth is fast, so direct it in the first year, spreading stems along the wires rather than letting them pile into one corner. In a pot it will run up an obelisk, though flowering is heavier in the ground where the roots can get down.

Climber, or something that stays on the ground

If the job is a bank, compare it with Forest Rambler. The grevillea is a shrubby spreader that holds ground and stays where it is put, flowering through the cooler months for honeyeaters. White Out is a twiner: give it wire and it goes up and across quickly, which suits a fence, a carport screen or a pergola better than a low border. The two overlap on a sloping bank, where the grevillea is the steadier long term cover while the hardenbergia gives a heavier, shorter display and then settles back to green foliage. Colour decides the rest: white sits quietly against dark hedges, brick and render where the purple can look busy, and it lifts a shaded corner the purple would swallow. Other options sit in the climbers range.

Cutting back the moment flowering finishes

Prune straight after the flowers fade, shortening the spent growth to keep the plant dense and to stop the base going bare while the top gets heavy. Cuts made into leafless old wood later in the year frequently fail to reshoot, so do the work while there is leaf below every cut. On a fence, tie the main stems in early rather than untangling them later. Feeding is barely needed, since this is a legume that fixes its own nitrogen and rich feeding gives soft growth and fewer flowers. Use a low phosphorus native fertiliser sparingly in spring, or none at all. Cut back stems that reach gutters or roof sheeting before they thicken.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 3 sizes, from 140mm up to 300mm, priced from $17.95 to $119.00 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 Australian native trees.