River Wattle Lime Magik Acacia cognata Lime Magik

Lime Magik is a lime green selection of river wattle that keeps the species' weeping habit and small tree scale, and the colour is the point: fine, narrow phyllodes in bright lime green hanging in long curtains from arching branches, which gives the plant a soft, willow like outline. It is not the low mound most people know from the dwarf cognata selections. Given room, it builds into a small tree whose canopy sweeps close to the ground, and it is usually planted as a single feature or as a loose screen where a hard green hedge would look too heavy.

Pale lemon balls are scattered through the foliage in late winter and spring, soft rather than showy; what you plant it for is the way the lime curtain moves in a breeze. Expect a working life of a decade or two.

A creek bank plant that still needs drainage

River wattle grows wild along creeks and gullies in south eastern New South Wales and eastern Victoria, and that background explains what this selection wants: moist, well drained soil and a bit of shelter. It is happiest in full sun to dappled shade, and in hot, dry districts it looks cleaner with protection from afternoon sun, which can bleach and scorch the lime foliage during a heatwave. It accepts sand, loam and clay across a wide pH range and takes light frosts. Coastal gardens suit it as long as it sits out of the full blast of salt wind. Underplant it with creek bank companions such as lomandra and tea tree, which share its taste for moist, drained ground and sit with it in Australian Native Plants.

Moist but drained is the line to hold. Its creek bank origin is easy to misread: there, water runs through the soil rather than sitting in it, and a raised or sloping bed is the garden version of that. On clay, mound the position before planting, water deeply every week or two rather than a little every day, and leave a ring of bare soil around the base of the trunk, because collar rot is what kills it. Unlike an inland wattle, it still wants a soak through long dry spells once established.

Lime, dark green or silver: three weeping wattles

Bower Wattle, the dwarf Limelight form of the same species, stays a low, rounded cushion for the front of a bed or a pot; Lime Magik is the height plant, with a hanging crown for the background, the end of a view or the edge of water. For a weeping wattle in dark green, Sticky Wattle makes a denser screen that takes clipping. Acacia pendula offers a similar hanging habit in silver grey for hot inland gardens where this one would struggle, and the two rarely compete for the same site: pendula wants dry heat and goes backwards in a wet, humid summer, while Lime Magik wants the moisture and shelter that pendula dislikes.

Shaping the curtain

Little and often is the pruning rule here. Trim the tips lightly once flowering is over to keep the foliage dense, and lift the lowest branches over a few seasons if you want to walk or mow beneath the canopy. Cuts into leafless wood seldom shoot again, so an oversized plant cannot be rescued by cutting it back hard; give it room for the full weeping spread at planting. A single stake for the first year steadies a young tree, and it should come off once the trunk is firm. Feeding is rarely needed; if new growth comes up pale on thin sand, a handful of controlled release food made for natives, spread under the edge of the canopy at the start of spring, corrects it. Steady summer water keeps the curtain full and the plant out of trouble.

Choosing a size

This plant is supplied in one size, 100L, at $389.00 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 Australian native trees.