Sandankwa Viburnum Viburnum suspensum

Sandankwa viburnum is the smaller leaved of the two evergreen viburnums that do most of the hedging work in Australian gardens. Where sweet viburnum throws out big soft glossy leaves and wants constant cutting, suspensum carries darker, stiffer, leathery foliage on a denser frame, and it stays clothed to the ground. Small pinkish white flower clusters open in late winter with a musky rather than sweet scent, which not everyone wants beside a doorway. Its job is a hedge held at chest to head height.

Warm climate hedging and the frost that limits it

It grows quickly in sun or part shade, takes clipping well, and holds a face better than its larger leaved relative because the leaves are smaller and stiffer. Plant into soil improved with compost, mulch it, and space around 75cm to a metre apart for a hedge. Taper the sides slightly wider at the base than the top so lower growth keeps its light, which is what stops a hedge going bare at the ankles. It suits gardens from the temperate coast north into the tropics, and it copes with salt wind and with heat reflecting off paving.

The limit on this one is cold. Sandankwa is a warm climate plant, and in cold inland districts frost burns the foliage brown around the margins, checks growth in spring, and leaves a hedge patchy along the exposed face while the sheltered end looks untouched. In frost prone gardens choose a position with overhead protection, or plant a hardier species instead. Along the warm coast and through the subtropics it is the more dependable of the pair, holding colour and density through summers that leave other hedges looking tired.

Suspensum between laurustinus and the sweet viburnums

Laurustinus is the cool climate counterpart: finer in leaf, flowering through winter, better in a southern garden, and unhappy in the humid northern heat where suspensum thrives. Emerald Lustre is the plant to choose if you need a screen well above head height quickly, since its leaves are far larger and it grows tall enough to become a small tree; that scale is exactly what makes it wrong for a neat hedge held at chest height. Suspensum sits between them, with advanced stock available where an instant screen is wanted. More in privacy screening.

Two or three cuts a year, and a feeding routine

Trim two or three times through the growing season, starting after the late winter flowers finish so you are not cutting the display off, and take the last cut by early autumn. Once it reaches the height you want, cut back into the plant rather than shearing only the surface. Feed in early spring and again in midsummer with a complete slow release fertiliser and water it in. Mulch after feeding and keep water going through hot spells while the hedge is still filling out. Scale insects bring sooty mould and a grubby cast to the leaves; horticultural oil through the warm months sorts it out.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 5 sizes, from 200mm up to 45L, priced from $29.95 to $389.00 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 fast growing screening plants.