Plant Care Guides / Outdoor & Coastal / Trees
Indigenous (cultivar of an indigenous species) | Easy Care | Large shrub / small tree
The purple sand olive is one of the most useful and underrated plants for coastal gardens. It is a compact, fast-growing, evergreen shrub or small tree with striking purple to bronze foliage that holds its colour year-round, intensifying in cooler weather.
It handles wind, salt spray, drought, sandy soil and poor conditions without missing a beat, and it has soil-binding roots that make it excellent for stabilising sandy banks and exposed sites. It clips beautifully into a hedge or screen, and left to grow naturally it develops into a neat, dense small tree with attractive papery, reddish seed clusters. The indigenous green form (Dodonaea viscosa var. angustifolia) is found wild right along the South African coast; the purple cultivar adds a dash of colour that works brilliantly as a contrast in a mixed indigenous border.
2 to 3 m tall and about the same wide. Can reach 5 m if left unpruned.
Fast.
Hedge, screen, windbreak, dune stabilisation, feature shrub, mixed border colour contrast. One of the best hedging plants for exposed coastal sites.
Full sun to semi-shade. The purple leaf colour is most intense in full sun.
Grows in almost any soil: sandy, loamy, clay and poor soils. Handles the alkaline coastal sand here easily. No special preparation needed.
Very water-wise. Water while establishing, then it needs very little. Properly drought-tolerant once settled.
Minimal. A little compost at planting is enough. It thrives on neglect.
Clips well into a formal or informal hedge. Prune in spring to shape. Left alone, it forms a naturally dense, rounded shrub.
Ask about availability. We keep a changing range of trees and large shrubs. WhatsApp us to check what is currently in stock, or visit the nursery and we will help you choose the right tree for your spot.
