Shrub · Deer-resistant
Wax Myrtle
Morella cerifera
Also called: Southern Bayberry, Southern Wax Myrtle
Updated 2026-09-23
A fast, dense, aromatic evergreen that makes an ideal privacy screen and fixes its own nitrogen. Waxy blue berries feed yellow-rumped warblers and other birds through winter.
Wax myrtle grows fast into a dense, aromatic evergreen screen, and it does something most privacy shrubs can't: it fixes its own nitrogen in the soil as it grows. Crush a leaf and the sharp, resinous scent explains the historical use of its waxy blue berries in candle-making, the source of its old bayberry name.
Growing & care
Grows quickly into a screen or small multi-trunk tree. Takes sun to shade, wet to dry. Shears well; thin occasionally to show off the trunks.
Where wax myrtle grows in Texas
The Native Plant Society of Texas lists it across the East Central Texas Plains, Gulf Coast Prairies and Marshes and Western Gulf Coastal Plain, including the Bastrop Lost Pines and Northern Post Oak Savanna. It grows in moist forests, marshes, stream banks, swamps and coastal dunes, tolerating clay, loam or sandy soil from poor to well drained, including saline ground.
How to plant wax myrtle
Plant container stock in fall or spring, in full sun, part shade or even full shade, since it's genuinely flexible about light. Give it room for its mature 10 to 20 foot height and 8 to 15 foot spread.
Watering wax myrtle the first year
Keep it consistently moist while it establishes; once it's rooted in, it tolerates a much wider range of moisture, from wet to dry. Growth is fast, so a screen fills in within a few seasons.
Wax Myrtle care through the seasons
It shears well for a formal hedge, or can be thinned occasionally to show off its light gray trunks if a more open, tree-like form is wanted instead. It forms colonies by suckering in favorable conditions, which is easy to manage by removing unwanted sprouts.
Common wax myrtle problems
It's dioecious, meaning individual plants are either male or female, so a lone plant may never produce the berries that make it valuable for birds; several plants together improve the odds of fruit. Otherwise it's a tough, low-problem shrub across a wide range of soil and moisture conditions.
Wildlife value of wax myrtle
It's a larval host for the red-banded hairstreak butterfly, and the waxy blue berries that female plants produce feed yellow-rumped warblers and other birds through winter, when food is otherwise scarce.
Using wax myrtle in the garden
Use it as a fast, dense privacy screen or hedge, or let it grow into a small multi-trunked tree as a specimen. It also suits a rain garden or low spot given how well it tolerates wet, poorly drained ground.
Wax Myrtle FAQ
Does wax myrtle produce berries every year?
Only female plants produce the waxy blue berries, since the species is dioecious with separate male and female plants. Planting several together improves the chances of getting fruiting plants for birds.
How fast does wax myrtle grow as a screen?
Quickly. It's one of the faster-growing native evergreen shrubs on this site, typically filling in as a dense privacy screen within a few growing seasons.
Can wax myrtle handle wet soil?
Yes, it tolerates a wide range of moisture from wet, poorly drained ground to dry soil once established, making it a good fit for a rain garden or low spot that stays damp after rain.
Bloom season
In bloom: Mar–Apr · Colors: green
Where to buy
Look for wax myrtle (Morella cerifera) at: native Texas nurseries, local garden centers.
Guides featuring wax myrtle
Sources
Range, nomenclature, and the USDA symbol above come from the federal plant record for this species. Check it yourself:
Good for
Plant it with
Natives that pair with wax myrtle
Same conditions, same uses — species that share wax myrtle's growing requirements and belong in the same bed.
Yaupon Holly
Ilex vomitoria
An adaptable evergreen holly that takes sun or deep shade, wet or dry, and covers itself in translucent red berries that hold all winter for the birds.
American Beautyberry
Callicarpa americana
Grown for its show-stopping clusters of electric-purple berries in fall — a feast for mockingbirds and dozens of other birds — on a graceful arching shrub..
Crossvine
Bignonia capreolata
A vigorous semi-evergreen climber that covers a fence or arbor in orange-red trumpets in early spring — timed for the first returning hummingbirds.
Possumhaw Holly
Ilex decidua
Drops its leaves in fall to reveal branches packed with scarlet berries that glow through winter and feed cedar waxwings and robins in late season..
Inland Sea Oats
Chasmanthium latifolium
The rare ornamental grass that thrives in shade, dangling flat, papery seed heads that shift from green to bronze and rustle all winter.
Cardinal Flower
Lobelia cardinalis
Spikes of the most intense scarlet of any native flower, rising from moist shade in late summer.