Brush Cherry Syzygium australe Plum Magic (Eugenia australis)

Plum Magic flushes deep plum purple over the older green foliage and repeats it through the warm months every time the plant pushes, which on a compact cultivar means the colour is never far above knee height. It is dense and low branching rather than upright, so it does its screening at border and low hedge height instead of standing as a privacy wall. Colour on a small frame is why it turns up as a clipped edge along paths, in mass planting under windows, and in pots either side of a doorway.

Sun deepens the purple

Compact brush cherry grows right along the eastern seaboard, from south east Queensland through New South Wales and the ACT into Victoria, and through the milder South Australian gardens and coastal Western Australia. Sun deepens the purple, while shade takes it muddier and greener and opens the growth up to match. Give it free draining soil with some organic matter dug through, mulch after planting, and set plants 500 to 750mm apart for a low hedge, which is closer than you would space a full sized screening cultivar because there is less plant available to fill the gap.

The failure is heat at the roots, not at the leaves

Compact lilly pillies end up exactly where a full sized one will not fit: pots, planter boxes, and the narrow strip between a west facing wall and a paved path. Every one of those positions cooks the root zone through a summer afternoon, and the plant reports it from the bottom up. Leaf margins brown, the purple flush comes through weak and short lived, and the base thins while the top still looks passable. Watering more often makes it worse, because a shallow daily sprinkle keeps the roots up in the top few centimetres, which is the part that gets hottest. In a hot reflected position, take the largest container you can live with rather than a neat one, mulch the surface even in a pot, and water long and infrequently so the roots follow the moisture down.

Height decides between these

Height decides this one. Big Red and Resilience will both hold a face above fence height, and pinning either of them at knee height means constant cutting and a permanent supply of soft growth for psyllid. Plum Magic reaches low hedge height and stops, so it keeps its shape with far less intervention and takes container culture that the tall growers outgrow within a couple of seasons. Take Plum Magic for borders, low dividers, mass plantings and pots, and one of the taller two when the point of the planting is to block a view. Both ends of that range sit in hedges.

Clipping and feeding

Trimming is what keeps the colour coming here, since every cut triggers a fresh purple flush, so tip prune lightly and often through spring and summer rather than making one hard cut a year. Ease off as autumn cools so soft growth is not left exposed. In the ground, feed at the start of spring and again in mid summer with a controlled release fertiliser suited to natives. In pots, cut the rate and feed more often instead, because container plants are watered harder and lose nutrients out the bottom. Leave two or three of the shoots that come from the base each year; they are what thickens the bottom of a low hedge.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 4 sizes, from 200mm up to 400mm, priced from $35.95 to $199.00 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. The smaller pots hold younger plants that cost less each and establish quickly, which suits hedges, screens and mass planting where the plant count adds up. The larger sizes carry several more years of growth on the farm and give height and presence straight away, which is what you want for a single feature position or a screen that cannot wait. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to choosing a lilly pilly.