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Ozothamnus coralloides (Coral Shrub) - A slow growing cushion-forming evergreen shrub that can grow to 1 foot tall by 2 to 3 feet wide with thick stems of small diamond-shaped leaves. These leaves are imbricate against the stems so that only their rounded dark green backsides are visible but between each leaf shows through the white wooly hairs present on the side of the leaf pressed against the stem, giving this plant its distinctive bicolored, gray and green, coral-like appearance. The pale-yellow flowers can appear in summer near the branch tips but are sunken in amongst the leaves.
Plant in full sun to light shade in a well-drained soil and irrigate occasionally. It is hardy to 10 to 15° F.
Ozothamnus coralloides comes from New Zealand's South Island where it is an uncommon sub-alpine species found in the Kaikoura Ranges southeast of the Marlborough Strait. It is also called whipcord shrub or Marlborough Helichrysum. We got this plant from Native Sons Nursery in 2012 and while we really loved the look of this plant, it is so slow growing that we found it impractical to continue with and discontinued producing it in 2015.
The information about Ozothamnus coralloides that is displayed on this web page is based on research conducted in our nursery's horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We will also include observations made about this plant as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens that we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We also incorporate comments that we receive from others and welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they share cultural information that aids others growing this plant.
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