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Wax Myrtle
A fast, tough, fragrant evergreen native of the Southeastern coast - the classic quick screen and hedge shrub, tolerant of salt, wet, and drought, whose waxy blue-gray berries feed winter birds and yield fragrant 'bayberry' candle wax.
Safety notes Not a food plant. The waxy blue-gray berries on female plants are the source of fragrant 'bayberry' candle wax and a key winter bird food - they are not eaten. The aromatic leaves do season a dish like bay: infuse the whole leaf and REMOVE it before serving, never eat the leaf itself. No part is notably toxic. Fire: the foliage is resinous and highly flammable, and Southeastern Firewise guidance advises keeping wax myrtle out of the first 30 feet around buildings in wildfire-prone areas.
Overview
Wax myrtle (Morella cerifera, long known as Myrica cerifera) is one of the most useful evergreen shrubs of the Southeastern coastal plain - a fast-growing, adaptable, aromatic native that makes a superb quick screen, hedge, or airy multi-trunk small tree. Its narrow, olive-green, evergreen leaves release a spicy, bay-like fragrance when crushed, and it shrugs off conditions that defeat most shrubs: salt spray, wet or dry soil, sand, and drought.
Quick facts
- Sprouts in
- 90 daysRange: 30–180 days
- Soil temperature
- 70 °FRange: 60–80 °F
- Height
- 15 ftRange: 10–25 ft
- Spread
- 12 ftRange: 8–20 ft
- Cold
- Takes hard frostdamaged below 0°F
- Heat
- Struggles above 100°F
- Life cycle
- Perennial, lives about 30 years
- Save seeds
- About 180 days after plantingRange: 150–210 days
- Self-sows
- Yes, expect volunteers
- Soil
- Tolerates wet soil
- Water
- Medium
- Plant spacing
- 8 ftRange: 4–15 ft
When to plant
Fall sowing is open for 20 more days. Next: spring, Mar 27 to Jun 5.
- Direct sow Oct 11 – Nov 8 Open now · 20 days leftAbout 2 weeks before to 2 weeks after your first frost (Oct 25 here)The waxy-coated seed is slow and erratic (the wax must weather off, or the seed be cleaned and stratified), so cuttings, suckers, or transplants are far more practical than seed.
- Transplant Mar 27 – Jun 5 Opens in 159 daysAbout 2 weeks before to 8 weeks after your last frost (Apr 10 here)Plant container wax myrtle in spring into almost any soil, wet or dry, sandy or salty, in sun to part shade; it establishes and grows very fast into a screen. Plant a female with a male nearby for berries.
- Transplant Aug 16 – Oct 11 Opens in 301 daysAbout 10 weeks before to 2 weeks before your first frost (Oct 25 here)Fall planting is excellent in the warm South, giving roots the cool season to establish before summer heat.
Frost here: last around Apr 10 (Mar 27 to Apr 24 most years), first around Oct 25. Zone averages, your own yard may run a week or two either way.
Life stages
Establish, grow, repeat
Getting established and returning each season are different parts of the story.
Stage 1 of 4 · Getting established
Year 1 - rooting in
Day 0 to 120 after transplanting
Care at this stage
-
Water to establish, then ease off
Water a new wax myrtle to keep the soil moist through its first season. It is fast-growing and adaptable - tolerating wet, dry, sandy, and salty soils alike - and needs little once established, though it appreciates moisture in the heat.
-
Mulch and pick your form and sex
Mulch the root zone. Wax myrtle can be grown as a large multi-stem shrub, a hedge, or a small multi-trunk tree. For the waxy berries (wax and bird food) you want a female plant with a male nearby; it also fixes its own nitrogen, so it needs little feeding.
Months are typical seasonal windows; climate, variety, and plant age can shift them.
Watch out for
3 to know. None are high-risk for Wax Myrtle. 1 is active in October.
No Berries (Dioecious / No Pollinator)Severity Low DisordernowSeason: Oct–DecA healthy, flowering tree that never sets fruit year after year - either a male tree, or a female with no male nearby.
A healthy, flowering tree that never sets fruit year after year - either a male tree, or a female with no male nearby.
Add a male pollinator (or graft a male branch onto a female tree, or plant a self-fruitful cultivar); nothing else will make a lone female or a male tree fruit.
Plant both a male and a female (or a self-fruitful cultivar like 'Meader'); when buying seedlings, expect roughly half to be non-fruiting males, and site a known male within pollination range of females.
American persimmon is usually dioecious - trees are male or female, and only females bear fruit, generally needing a male within a few hundred feet to pollinate them. A lone male, or a female with no pollinator, produces no crop, a common surprise for new growers.
Winter DiebackSeverity Low DisorderSeason: Dec–FebBrowned, killed foliage and dead stems after a severe freeze at the northern edge of its range.
Browned, killed foliage and dead stems after a severe freeze at the northern edge of its range.
Cut dead wood back to live growth or the ground in spring; the plant regrows and fruits on the new wood the same fall.
Site in a protected microclimate near the cold edge of its range, or choose the hardier northern bayberry (M. pensylvanica) instead.
At the cold edge of its range, beautyberry stems can be killed back by a hard winter - but because it fruits on new wood, it resprouts and fruits the same year, so this is a minor cosmetic setback.
Chlorosis (Alkaline or Dry Soil)Severity Low DisorderSeason: May–JulFronds paling to yellow-green while veins stay greener, weak stunted growth, especially in limy or high-pH soils.
Fronds paling to yellow-green while veins stay greener, weak stunted growth, especially in limy or high-pH soils.
Acidify the root zone with organic matter and appropriate soil amendments over time; in strongly alkaline ground, relocate the fern to a more acidic, wet spot.
Plant in naturally acidic soil, amend generously with organic matter, and mulch with acidifying materials like pine straw and leaf mold.
Yellowing between the leaf veins can appear in very alkaline soils, where the plant struggles to take up iron; wax myrtle prefers acidic to neutral ground and rarely needs feeding since it fixes nitrogen.
Good & bad neighbors
Plant nearby
-
Wax myrtle's evergreen screen behind beautyberry's seasonal magenta-berry show combines year-round structure with dramatic fall color, both tough, wildlife-friendly Southern natives.
-
Both tolerate wet feet, so they pair well in a rain garden or pond edge - wax myrtle's evergreen structure and nitrogen-fixing with buttonbush's pollinator flowers.
-
Wax myrtle is a natural fast evergreen understory and edge shrub around live oaks in the coastal Southeast, sharing the sandy, salty conditions and adding a quick screen and bird food.
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Two tough, salt- and drought-tolerant evergreen Southern natives that combine into a dense, fast, wildlife-friendly screen or hedge for the coastal plain, with staggered berry types for birds.
Varieties · 4
You pick one when you add Wax Myrtle to your garden. Its days to maturity set your harvest window.
Southern Wax Myrtle (Morella cerifera)
The wild species: a fast, tough, aromatic evergreen native 10-20 feet tall, tolerant of salt, wet, dry, and poor soil, nitrogen-fixing, and dioecious (female plants bear the waxy bayberry berries).
Variety details for Southern Wax Myrtle (Morella cerifera)
Large multi-stem evergreen shrub with narrow aromatic olive-green leaves and, on females, clusters of waxy blue-gray berries.
speciesnativeevergreenfastThe standard for quick Southern screens, hedges, seaside plantings, and wildlife - grown as a big shrub or limbed-up small tree.
Dwarf Wax Myrtle (Morella cerifera var. pumila / 'Don's Dwarf')
Compact and dwarf wax myrtle selections, typically 3-6 feet, ideal for low evergreen hedges, foundation plantings, and small or coastal gardens where the full-size species would be too large.
Variety details for Dwarf Wax Myrtle (Morella cerifera var. pumila / 'Don's Dwarf')
Low, dense, mounded evergreen shrub with fine aromatic foliage, good for clipped low hedges.
cultivardwarfcompactlow-hedgeSame toughness, fragrance, and salt tolerance in a manageable package.
Northern Bayberry (Morella pensylvanica)
IMPORTANT: this is a DIFFERENT SPECIES, not a variety of wax myrtle, and nothing else on this page is written for it.
Variety details for Northern Bayberry (Morella pensylvanica)
Rounded shrub with aromatic leaves and clusters of waxy gray bayberry fruit, hardier and more deciduous in cold zones.
different-speciesnativehardiersemi-evergreenNorthern bayberry (M. pensylvanica) is a Northeast and mid-Atlantic coastal native, hardy to about zone 3, deciduous to semi-evergreen rather than evergreen, and smaller in habit - so this entry's planting windows (7a-11a), minimum temperature, evergreen stage guidance and winter-dieback advice do not apply to it. It shares the waxy bayberry berries, the salt and poor-soil tolerance, and the nitrogen fixing. If you garden north of wax myrtle's range, this is the plant to buy - just source it and schedule it as northern bayberry, not as a wax myrtle.
Multi-Trunk Small-Tree Form
Wax myrtle trained as an airy multi-trunk small tree by removing lower branches and thinning stems, showing off its smooth pale bark and open canopy while still screening.
Variety details for Multi-Trunk Small-Tree Form
Airy multi-trunk small tree with smooth pale bark, open canopy, and fine aromatic evergreen foliage.
tree-formspecimenlimbed-upscreenA landscape approach rather than a distinct variety, popular for a refined evergreen accent or high screen.
Grower tips
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