Some plants are just plain tough: Melaleuca ‘Ulladulla Beacon’

Bird attracting, Coastal, Drought hardy, Groundcover

I seem to be on a bit of a Melaleuca tangent of late so I am just going to go with it, Melaleucas are tough and perform beautifully under a range of conditions especially in a heavier clay soil, this is one of the many reasons I love Melaleuca hypericifolia ‘Ulladulla Beacon’.

Melaleuca ‘Ulladulla Beacon’ is a prostrate form of Melaleuca hypericifolia, it has a naturally soft weeping habit and makes a dense, quick growing mounding or carpeting shrub.

It also prunes beautifully, in the image above you can see it pruned formally into a striking low hedge.

‘Ulladulla Beacon’ flowers in spring, producing large bright orangey red flowers that are attractive to birds and nectar seeking insects. It is a great plant for attracting honeyeaters such as wattlebirds especially.

But my favourite feature of this plant is its interesting foliage and they way it works so well as a spill over on walls, rocks and garden edges, without ever missing a beat, it is super hardy!

Posted

25/10/2017

Bird attracting, Coastal, Drought hardy, Groundcover

Kath Gadd

Tags:

bird-attracting, carpeting ground cover, clay soils, Honeyeater, Melaleuca hypericifolia ‘Ulladulla Beacon’, Red flowers, water logged soils, Wattlebird, weeping habit, wildlife habitat, wind tolerant

Comments

4 responses to “Some plants are just plain tough: Melaleuca ‘Ulladulla Beacon’”

Chris Byrne

04/10/2021

Is there any evidence for or against ‘Ulladulla Beacon’ potentially being invasive? I’m from the US where in the south and west M hypericifolia is very much a noxious invasive weed. But I also garden a block next to remnant bushland in the Mt. Lofty ranges. We have a difficult slope where this would make a wonderful addition, but our only locally native bottlebrush is Callistemon sieberi (I think that’s now M. paludicola). While not threatened in the environmental sense, I don’t want to be That Person –the one who starts growing the next invasive weed.

Reply
1. Kath Gadd
  
  01/11/2021
  
  Hi Chris,
  
  Great question. As ‘Ulladulla Beacon’ is a low growing form of M. hypericifolia I wouldn’t plant it in your area as it probably has a reasonable chance of becoming invasive. ANAPSA mentions hypericifolia’s potential weediness here: http://anpsa.org.au/m-hyp.html
  
  Best of luck,
  Hannah
  
  Reply
Chloe Foster

22/01/2024

Hi,

I’ve seen a cultivar called ‘Snapper Point’, do you know what the difference/s are between these two?

Chloe 🙂

Reply
1. Kath Gadd
  
  24/01/2024
  
  Hi Chloe, There is a Banksia spinulosa ‘Schnapper Point’, I have not heard of a Melaleuca cultivar of the same name, do you have an image?
  Thanks
  
  Reply