Southern Wax Myrtle Growing Conditions

[L.A.M.]

How much sun does Myrica cerifera (southern wax myrtle) need? Are they juglone tolerant? Will they tolerate clay soil or not, and how drought-resistant are they? Would calcareous soil kill them? They are probably the most tropical plant species we could grow as an evergreen perennial in Tennessee and even have leaves just as lush as our native deciduous trees and actual equatorial rainforest trees tend to, so they'd be an immensely prized possession given my seasonal depression!

[metalfan]

Wax Myrtle is a native plant in Florida. It grows wild practically everywhere around my house. It grows in sand, on the edges of streams and bogs, I would safely say we cannot kill it here

[L.A.M.]

21 hours ago, metalfan said:

Wax Myrtle is a native plant in Florida. It grows wild practically everywhere around my house. It grows in sand, on the edges of streams and bogs, I would safely say we cannot kill it here

Are they in calcareous soil too? Do you find them under or beside walnut and/or hickory trees? Are they in both full sun and full shade?

[metalfan]

Our soil here is sand that has a lot of whatever leftover effect there is from limestone. Yes they do grow in sun and in shade, we don;t have walnut trees here but they grow with oaks, hickory, sweet gums, cedars and pines

[Bill H2DB]

https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/ST410

 

 

[Silas_Sancona]

7 hours ago, Bill H2DB said:

https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/ST410

 

 

Big hiccup w/ the publication i don't think the author noticed before publishing: 





Regarding these, agree 100% w @metalfan ...Would encounter these in pretty much every habitat i'd walk when i lived in FL.. Maybe not right down to the coast, but in the same " just above the tide line " hammocks where you'd encounter Marlberry, various Sideroxylon sps, and Myrsine. 

Is also common as far west as the San Antonio and Brownsville area of TX. May be trying to expand it's reach even further than that.

Not the commonest native plant used in the landscape trade, but would see them in landscapes here and there around Clearwater / areas north of there. 

May have been a one off " odd ball " encounter but noticed that ..at least on one property the landscape company i'd worked for at that time maintained, Wax Myrtle in that particular location were Imported Fire Ant hot spots.. Nests seemed to be concentrated around the bigger specimens..  Not fun trying to weed / lay mulch around these w/ the ants guarding them, lol.

As a side note, roots of Wax Myrtle possess similar nitrogen fixing capabilities as many Legumes.  Berries have been used in candle making for quite some time as well. 

Supposedly ..DON"T recommend trying it myself unless properly educated in it's uses, etc. ... both leaves and fruit can be used as a seasoning.
 

[L.A.M.]

19 hours ago, metalfan said:

Our soil here is sand that has a lot of whatever leftover effect there is from limestone. Yes they do grow in sun and in shade, we don;t have walnut trees here but they grow with oaks, hickory, sweet gums, cedars and pines

By "cedar," do you mean white cypress or the red-wooded Virginian juniper? Both are often called "cedar" and are native to the lowland South, but there are no true cedars native to the Americas. Thanks, though! That seems to indicate that they do tolerate calcareous soil. If they grow under and/or right beside hickory trees, they must be juglone-tolerant too; although walnuts are more infamously toxic, hickory trees (including pecans) also release dangerous amounts of juglone into the soil.

[metalfan]

I dunno dude its just a Cedar tree, and I am allergic to it

[SEVA]

Myrica/Morella cerifera is a common native shrub here in Virginia’s coastal plain and the rest of the Southeast coastal states. I’ve seen it growing in both sand and clay soils, and should be drought tolerant once established. I see it growing on a variety sites mixed with live oak (even when heavily shaded with Spanish-moss), devilwood, yaupon holly, eastern red-cedar, Hercule’s club, sweetgum, baldcypress, under loblolly and longleaf pine stands, along marshes and streams, and occasionally flooded areas. It typically looks fuller/more dense under full sun than partial shade. I’ve never seen it growing under black walnut, but black walnut isn’t the most common tree around here.