Other Names:  Manuka, New Zealand Tea-Tree

Description:

A fast growing shrub with a graceful, weeping habit; makes a great hedge or utility plant; copper new foliage matures to deep maroon, especially in full sun; an explosion of white flowers in summer; prune to avoid seed from spreading; drought tolerant

Ornamental Features

Starry Night Tea-Tree features showy lightly-scented white flowers along the branches from late spring to mid summer, which emerge from distinctive coppery-bronze flower buds. The flowers are excellent for cutting. It has attractive burgundy-variegated deep purple foliage with hints of black which emerges coppery-bronze in spring. The small narrow sprays of foliage are highly ornamental and remain deep purple throughout the winter.

Landscape Attributes

Starry Night Tea-Tree is a dense multi-stemmed evergreen shrub with a rounded form and gracefully weeping branches. It lends an extremely fine and delicate texture to the landscape composition which can make it a great accent feature on this basis alone.

This is a relatively low maintenance shrub, and should only be pruned after flowering to avoid removing any of the current season's flowers. Gardeners should be aware of the following characteristic(s) that may warrant special consideration;

• Suckering
• Self-Seeding

Starry Night Tea-Tree is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Mass Planting
• Hedges/Screening
• General Garden Use
• Container Planting

Planting & Growing

Starry Night Tea-Tree will grow to be about 7 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 7 feet. It tends to be a little leggy, with a typical clearance of 1 foot from the ground, and is suitable for planting under power lines. It grows at a fast rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for approximately 20 years.

This shrub does best in full sun to partial shade. It prefers dry to average moisture levels with very well-drained soil, and will often die in standing water. It is considered to be drought-tolerant, and thus makes an ideal choice for xeriscaping or the moisture-conserving landscape. This plant will benefit from an application of bonemeal and/or mycorrhizal fertilizer at the time of planting. It is not particular as to soil type or pH. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution, and will benefit from being planted in a relatively sheltered location. This is a selected variety of a species not originally from North America.; however, as a cultivated variety, be aware that it may be subject to certain restrictions or prohibitions on propagation.

Starry Night Tea-Tree makes a fine choice for the outdoor landscape, but it is also well-suited for use in outdoor pots and containers. Because of its height, it is often used as a 'thriller' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination; plant it near the center of the pot, surrounded by smaller plants and those that spill over the edges. It is even sizeable enough that it can be grown alone in a suitable container. Note that when grown in a container, it may not perform exactly as indicated on the tag - this is to be expected. Also note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.