My sunshine ligustrum is on fire! I simply can’t believe how much it has filled in the space in 11 months!
This plant does incredibly well in sand and the blustery hot weather of central Florida. But be forewarned, if you’re looking for a groundcover (as it appears this is sometimes sold), you will be busy pruning and pruning and pruning.
To be honest, I have only given mine one haircut in a year, but it certainly could have used more. It is nicely compact and doesn’t shoot out unattractive sparse, spikey growth as my kaleidoscope abelias have done.
I love the bright chartreuse greenish yellow growth that lights up the area if grown in full sun. You can tell when plants are shaded out as they become duller and greener but still attractive, nonetheless. These are hardly plants requiring little care, no fertilizer, and very, very drought tolerant once established. I’m sure they can be pruned into little yellow meatballs, but I use a more natural “drop-crotch” approach to pruning.
Originally, I planted to edge around the interior of this semi-circle lawn. I left two openings for paths leading to the back of the studio and to the RV pad. They are planted in front of a dark burgundy backdrop of loropetalum that bursts with fuchsia fringe flowers that complement each other beautifully.
I have since decided to close up one of the openings to join two of the beds together and purchased two more sunshine ligustrums to fill the gap. I also planted three additional plants on the left side in front of the well pump since that area of loropetalum looked naked to me without the pop of chartreuse.
Here are photos of when they were first planted and nearly a year later:
See the start of this semi-circle garden in my blog post here: Add a Chartreuse Pop! with Sunshine Ligustrum from Southern Living : Avant Gardens (transcendcreative.com)
