I must admit purple is not one of my favourite colours and when clients specify purple flowers I often come up a blank and can only think of Hardenbergia, which is completely ridiculous as there are Brachyscome, Scaevola, Patersonia and soooo many Melaleucas have purple flowers, silly me. This one is one of my favourites Melaleuca nesophila or Showy Honey-Myrtle, which it is indeed, absoletely covering itself in bright purple flowers through the Summer months.

Melaleuca nesophila is a naturally occuring large shrub or sometimes small tree local to southern Western Australia. It grows happily on poor sandy soils, and can withstand exposed coastal conditions. Because of its hardiness it has unfortunately been declared a weed in some areas of coastal Victoria, so please do your local research with your council before planting.

The pom pom like flowers begin as a deep purple and slowly age to a pale mauve, giving the shrub a wonderful varied colour palette.

Melaleuca nesophila can grow up to 4 metres high and around the same wide, this makes it an excellent screening or hedging plant. Like all Melaleucas this species should be pruned after flowering to help maintain a dense and tidy habit.

I have seen this species made into a small feature tree, simply under prune from a young age to lift the canopy. They develop an attractive twisted trunk similar to that of Leptospermum laevigatum.

There is also a dwarf form of Melaleuca nesophila called ‘Narrow Nessie’ which is said to only get to 3 metres tall by 1metre wide, making it a great candidate of screening and hedging.

So if you don’t live in coastal Victoria and have a garden with relatively low humidity and a well drained soil, why not plant a Melaleuca nesophila for the bees, oh did I mention it is also frost tolerant?