Plant Care Guides / Outdoor & Coastal / Medium shrubs
Indigenous | Easy Care | Medium shrubs
Plumbago is possibly the most widely planted indigenous shrub in South Africa, and for good reason. It produces masses of soft, sky-blue flowers over an incredibly long season, from spring right through to late autumn, and in a mild coastal garden like ours it barely stops.
The pale blue is one of the most useful colours in the garden, cooling down hot beds and mixing beautifully with almost everything. There is also a white form (Alba). It is a scrambling, arching shrub that can be grown as a hedge, a screen, a filler, or left to clamber through other plants and over structures. It handles wind, salt air, coastal exposure, poor soil and drought, and it grows fast. The one downside: the flowers leave a slightly sticky residue on your clothes if you brush past, and the calyx tubes can be mildly annoying.
2 to 3 m tall and wide. Can be kept much smaller with pruning.
Fast.
Hedge, screen, border, scrambler, mass planting, bank cover. One of the most versatile shrubs for a coastal garden.
Full sun for the heaviest flowering. Tolerates semi-shade but with fewer flowers.
Any soil, including poor, sandy and alkaline coastal conditions. Not fussy at all.
Drought-tolerant once established. Water while settling in, then it needs very little. It looks better with an occasional deep soak through summer.
A feed in spring with a balanced fertiliser gives a stronger flowering season, but it performs well even without it.
Prune hard in late winter, cutting back by about half, to encourage dense new growth and heavy flowering. Without pruning it becomes a leggy, tangled mess. It responds well to hard pruning and recovers quickly.
Ask about availability. WhatsApp us to check what is currently in stock, or visit the nursery and we will help you choose the right plant for your spot.
