Screw Pine Pandanus baptistii variegated

Pandanus baptistii is the spineless one. Where the coastal screw pines carry rows of teeth along every leaf margin, this species has smooth edges, and the variegated form lays broad creamy yellow stripes over blue green leaves that spiral tightly around each stem. It clumps slowly from the base, throws the usual prop roots as it ages, and stays neater in build than the beach species. That combination makes it the screw pine you can use beside a path, a pool surround or a seating area.

The screw pine without teeth

Treat it as a straight tropical plant. It wants full sun to hold the contrast in the variegation, along with heat, humidity and free draining ground, and it takes salt air without complaint, which is why it turns up so often in resort planting along the Queensland coast. Sandy or gravelly soil suits it; heavy clay needs a raised bed or a mounded planting position so water moves away from the base. Water is low to moderate once it has settled, and growth is slow, so the plant you buy is close to the plant you will have for a while. Give it room to clump rather than dropping it into a narrow strip. The failure mode is cold, wet winter ground. In a southern garden the leaves mark with cold damage, the base sits wet in soil that never dries, and the crown rots from the middle out well before spring. Below the subtropics it is a container plant that goes under cover for winter, not a landscape plant.

Choosing between the armed and the unarmed

The other screw pines here are armed. Pandanus pedunculatus is the native coastal workhorse for exposed foreshore positions and carries recurved spines on every margin, and Pandanus utilis Red Edge trades a red leaf margin for the same problem, so both belong in beds people look at rather than walk through. Baptistii is the one for a courtyard, an entry or a pool edge where someone will brush past it, and the variegation gives you light foliage colour against render or dark planting. If you want that touchable architecture outside the tropics, spineless yucca is the safer buy. Note too that this one is offered as a single large specimen rather than a run of matching stock.

Stripping old leaves

There is no pruning as such. Old leaves brown off and hang on rather than dropping cleanly, so pull or cut them away close to the stem once or twice a year, ideally in the warm months when the plant is growing and the wounds close quickly. Take out any damaged growing point at the same time; the clump will push a replacement head from lower down. One spring dose of slow release fertiliser holds it for the season, and the variegation keeps better contrast on a lean diet than a rich one. Keep mulch over the root zone but clear of the stem bases, and rinse the foliage down after storms if you garden on the salt front.

Choosing a size

This plant is supplied in one size, 400L, at $3309.00 per plant. The size shown is the pot it arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to when to plant in Australia.