I want to plant a privacy hedge this spring and was originally planning on using Portuguese Laurel, however I have decided not to use this plant because of it's invasiveness.

After reading a few forum threads it seems that Pacific Wax Myrtle might be the shrub for me.

Will this plant thrive in the Vancouver BC climate with it's native origin being California/ Oregon? I do not live right on the water but a mile or so inland and a few hundred yards above sea level, enough so that it might be a couple degrees colder in my yard than on the shore in the winter.

Also does anyone know how readily available this plant is in my local gardening stores/ nurseries?

If planted close to a fence (2-3ft) will it pose a danger to damaging the fence in the long term like Laurel?

Is it possible to grow Pacific Wax Myrtle over 8ft tall while keeping to around 3-4ft wide?

Thanks

This can get to be a good sized shrub (10-15' tall, 5-8' wide) so site/space accordingly. While it can be sheared as a hedge, it has a better look if allowed to grow naturally. Because it has a smaller leaf and a lacier texture than do laurels, it shouldn't pose a problem with a fence.

Wax myrtles are an excellent choice for a low maintenance privacy screen/hedge. I use them often in landscape designs for just this purpose. The single specimen in my own garden is tall (8'+), lush and well covered with glossy evergreen foliage and never blinked at the very low temps we experienced in early December. And it's growing in a lot more shade than it would prefer but still looks great.

At the moment the biggest issue with the PW Myrtle for me might be trying to find someone who sells it. I have called two shrub/tree sellers near me, one had never heard of it?! And the other knew of it but had never carried it (They are part of a big garden center chain). Their buyer even checked the order list from an Oregon nursery they dealt with and it wasn't available for order. Of course their are lots of other nurseries that I can call in the surrounding area but things don't look promising at the moment.

So barring that my remaining choices seem to be the Portuguese Laurel or more Emerald Cedars which I already have a row of. The issue is a combination of space (width), money and wanting to achieve privacy as soon as possible.

I can say we sell them by the truckload at my nursery but that's not going to help you much :-) I'd keep looking if I were you - the myrtles are a much better choice than the other two.

I had one for about ten years; kept it to 16 feet tall through repeated toppings, and tried to pick most of the berry clusters off while still green. It was 4 feet from a fence and still went way over.

When I drove by there a year or so ago it looked like the planting had been removed.

A Pacific wax-myrtle at Seattle Pacific University was 30' tall, with an average crown spread of 30' 4-5 years ago. If you use this species you can expect to be doing some pruning of it as well.

Daniel
Gardens by Twig
www.gardensbytwig.com

I like wax myrtle more so than the two evergreen cherries because it is native and has smaller leaves. But it has its problems. The wood is brittle breaking under heavy snow loads and with Vancouver B.C being at the mouth of the Frazier River with Artic flows coming down that valley, you get lot more snow than on Vancouver Island. The fall/winter of '10/11 caused a lot of damage to our myrtle with leaf kills, even whole stems, and the snow flattened the bushes. That spring we had to go in an remove all the broken and dead branches. Something that doesn't happen with the two cherries. Portuguese Cherry doesn't get as big as the English Cherry. Its leaves are not that much bigger than the myrtle's. I also noticed that it doesn't have any where near the invasive seedlings that the English cherry has. It might also be found at local nurseries more so than myrtle.

I do agree that the wax myrtle is not such an everyman of a plant suitable for wide use as is being made out here, being confined in the north to extreme outer coastal locations, going inland much only much farther south. I have seen it with discoloring of the foliage which appeared to be due to cold exposure and it often has a leaning, flopping habit even in presumably prime habitat where it is abundant and tall-growing, such as the Darlingtonia Wayside site near Florence.