Wax Myrtle Plant – Myrica cerifera (Southern Wax Myrtle, Live Starter Shrub)

The Wax Myrtle plant (Myrica cerifera), also known as Southern Wax Myrtle or Southern Bayberry, is one of the fastest, toughest, and most useful native evergreens you can plant. This salt-tolerant evergreen shrub forms a dense, fragrant screen in record time — making the Wax Myrtle plant a favorite for privacy hedges, windbreaks, and coastal landscapes. Its aromatic, olive-green leaves release a pleasant bayberry scent when crushed, and growth runs about 3–5 feet per year, so a young plant fills in quickly.

Why Grow a Wax Myrtle Plant?

• Fast-growing privacy screen – dense, evergreen foliage and rapid 3–5 foot-per-year growth make it ideal for hedges, windbreaks, and property-line screening.
• Incredibly tough & adaptable – thrives in wet, dry, sandy, poor, and salty soils alike; tolerates heat, humidity, wind, and urban conditions.
• Outstanding salt tolerance – a top choice for coastal and seaside gardens, salt spray, and roadsides.
• Fragrant, useful foliage – aromatic leaves with the classic bayberry scent; the waxy berries on female plants were historically used to make bayberry candles and soap.
• Native & wildlife-friendly – native to the southeastern U.S., it feeds songbirds, supports pollinators and butterflies, and even fixes nitrogen to enrich poor soil.

Looking to build a living privacy screen? Explore more options in our Shrubs & Bushes and Outdoor Plants collections.

Plant Specifications at a Glance

• Botanical name: Myrica cerifera (also classified as Morella cerifera; known as southern wax myrtle, southern bayberry, candleberry)
• Plant type: Fast-growing, native, evergreen shrub or small tree
• Plant family: Myricaceae (the bayberry family)
• Mature size: commonly 10–15 feet tall and 8–10 feet wide (can reach 20+ feet as a small tree, or be kept smaller with pruning)
• Growth rate: Fast — roughly 3–5 feet per year
• Foliage: Aromatic, olive-green, evergreen leaves; blue-gray waxy berries on female plants
• Notable traits: Salt-tolerant, wind-tolerant, nitrogen-fixing, deer-resistant
• Cold Hardiness Zones: 7–11 (semi-evergreen in the colder end of its range)

Wax Myrtle Care & Growing Guide

The Wax Myrtle plant is famously easy to grow. Follow these simple guidelines:

• Sunlight: Full sun to partial sun. It grows densest and produces the most berries in full sun, but tolerates part shade well.
• Water: Water regularly to establish a strong root system. Once mature, it needs only occasional watering, with more regular water during prolonged drought. It also tolerates wet, occasionally flooded soil.
• Soil: Prefers moist soil but adapts to a very wide range — sandy, loamy, poor, wet, or dry. Slightly acidic to neutral pH is ideal.
• Cold Hardiness Zone: 7–11.
• Pruning: Prune once per year to maintain your desired shape and density. It tolerates heavy shearing for formal hedges, or can be limbed up into a small multi-trunk tree. (Berries form on older wood, so lighter pruning preserves the wildlife-friendly fruit.)

Good to know: wax myrtle foliage contains aromatic, flammable oils. In fire-prone regions, avoid planting it right up against your home’s structure.

Ways to Use Wax Myrtle in the Landscape

• Fast-growing privacy hedge, screen, or windbreak
• Coastal and seaside plantings (excellent salt tolerance)
• Erosion control on banks and slopes
• Rain gardens, pond margins, and streambanks
• Wildlife and native gardens, or limbed up as a small specimen tree

Wax myrtle pairs well with other dense evergreen shrubs for layered screening. Gardeners often combine it with Viburnum Spring Bouquet, Viburnum Densa, or Sinense Ligustrum to create a fuller, more varied living fence.

What You’ll Receive

These are live Wax Myrtle starter plants grown and shipped by Carlos Plant Farm. Plants are less than 12 inches tall when we ship them. The photos in this listing depict mature plants of the correct species so you can see how they will look as they grow. Choose your preferred plant bundle size using the options above.

Due to different state laws, we reserve the right to charge extra fees in order to comply with those laws if necessary.

Terms of the Sale

Please read the following terms of the sale completely. The customer agrees to all of the following when purchasing from Carlo’s Plant Farm:

• All sales are final. All orders are insured against damage or loss.
• The customer assumes all risk of loss or damage once USPS takes possession. If the order is damaged in any way during shipping, the customer agrees to file an insurance claim. Carlo’s Plant Farm agrees to assist the customer in filling out the form.
• Once your order is shipped, we offer no cancellation refund at all.
• We reserve the right to delay shipping due to extreme heat or cold.
• If you are unhappy with your order for any reason, you agree to contact us as soon as possible. The customer agrees not to publish a negative review before contacting us. If you post a negative review before contacting us, we will ask you to take down the review and remind you of this terms of sale agreement.

In purchasing from Carlo’s Plant Farm, the customer acknowledges, understands, and agrees with all the above terms of the sale.