Plants suitable beside a pool in Melbourne

marjencait · Aug 13, 2010 9:28 pm

We have just installed an inground salt chlorinated swimming pool here in Melbourne but we are at a loss as to what plants are suitable for beside it i.e. shallow root system, salt tolerant etc. Can anyone provide any advice? We would like some taller shrubs to hide a timber fence and provide some privacy from the house next door.

mecha-wombat · Aug 13, 2010 10:31 pm

What style are you wanting to achieve or is purely to hide the fence and privacy?

There is always the old staple Murraya I have seen it grown next to a pool plenty of times

Frangipani, Banksia integrefolia ummmm..... thats all I have in my little brain atm

I hope that helps

TheGardenWhisperer · Aug 14, 2010 8:35 pm

Don't overestimate the salt factor with pools. It really amounts to nothing and you know what, browse the soil prep advice I have posted in the Lawn sticky and you are very much on the way to giving almost any plant a better chance

For you, cert organic soils or close to cert organic soils, talk to http://www.baag.com.au/ for some ideas about what to get

Plant choices, well some rippers mentioned already and the Murraya is a ripper because the frosty Melbourne mornings will help naturally prune this wonderful native. The poster earlier today with the idea of Leucodendron and Leucospermum species is tops!
We have the Banksias which are related to them

Vibernum Emerald Lustre or the tougher Odouratissima.

What about Dodonea or a Hop bush as some call them

Photinia is another good choice, Red Robin a common variety.

Hedge up a wonderful Grevillea and the Qld tropical varieties are lots of fun with the bird life they attract. Misty Pink is a fav of mine

*For Sandgropers reading this we have much better WA options that grow well and support native wildlife far better

TheGardenWhisperer · Aug 14, 2010 8:35 pm

Oh and a hedge of citrus too!

mecha-wombat · Aug 14, 2010 11:50 pm

You really want that citrus hedge dont you Fu

TheGardenWhisperer · Aug 15, 2010 12:19 am

I can't do it here just now

It will work! It bloody will!

$10 to the first person who sends me a pic of the citrus hedge they planted up ! Maybe I'll throw in a Chock Wedge ice cream as well!

* I may not actually have $10 to give but will an IOU do? Maybe payment in the form of two boxes of weetbix?

TheGardenWhisperer · Aug 15, 2010 1:03 am

Crap but this punk gets nothing! NOTTTHHIINGG!
http://c0013454.cdn1.cloudfiles.rackspa ... x2_2519bc4
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Front obelisk Bay hedges, Left Calamondin Cumquat Hedge underplanted with Chilean Guava, Rear Bay hedge

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TheGardenWhisperer · Aug 15, 2010 1:10 am

BenMitchell@growingfree

Must check it out. Will send you some really good pics of the hedge, really good example. Picking kgs of fruit per week at the mo

marjencait · Aug 15, 2010 11:18 am

Thanks for the tips! We do have Marayu in the front garden and were doing them along a brick wall elsewhere in the garden. I am hesitant to put them right along the pool due to the small flowers on them and it gets very windy where we are and assume i would finish up with more flowers in the pool than anywhere else. We do have some hop bushes elsewhere in the yard but they don't last and look straggly after a while. Someone also suggested a Magnolia (can't think of the variety they said at the moment though), any thoughts on that? I wouldn't pin your hopes on getting the citrus into my pool area though...LOL.

TheGardenWhisperer · Aug 15, 2010 6:41 pm

The Magnolia would be a no in my opinion, they are often used in upmarket designs but only around reo concrete pools. They will be far messier than the Murrayas. What you need to accept is that the nature of plants is to reproduce. To do that all plants must flower (or in the case of more primitive species they produce spores and a few other types too) So at some point no matter what plant, it will have some flower or produce dropped leaves of some sort. The frequency of this is what will vary.

to stop the Hop Bushes going straggly (or any plant) we must clip them fairly often. They will also stay much tidier and produce less mess (other than when clipping

)