The best native plants for hedging and screening in New Zealand

Picture the hedge you actually want. A green wall that gives you your back yard back - no more waving at the neighbours over your morning coffee. Shelter from the wind that comes straight off the hill. A bit of birdsong first thing. The kind of green that just sits there, quietly doing its job, year after year.

That's the dream. The reality is that most of the heartbreak in hedging comes from picking the wrong plant for the spot - and you don't find out for two or three years, by which time you've watered it, fed it and grown fond of it.

This happened at our neighbour’s place – they had a lovely hedge of Griselina planted, and for the first year it looked wonderful. The plants were only small, but they seemed to be happy. Then, after a wet spring, they started drooping. One by one they were dying. Not all of them, but enough to make the hedge look very patchy. Replacements were planted, but the same thing happened. Eventually, the whole edge was pulled out and they started again. The soil was clay, and the roots were not breathing.

So before you order a single plant, let's sort out what actually works.

What makes a good hedge plant in the South Island?

A hedge plant earns its keep on three things: it has to be hardy enough for your patch, it has to take a trim without sulking, and it has to knit together into a solid screen rather than a row of lonely shrubs.

Down south, hardy comes first. A plant that's bulletproof up in Auckland can turn to brown porridge after a hard Invercargill frost. Grow south, plant north - stock raised in cold ground travels well; the other way round, less so.

The best native hedging plants for New Zealand

Here's the short list I'd put my name to - with some notes on each one.

Pittosporum (kohuhu / tawhiwhi) - the workhorse. Small glossy leaves, takes a clip beautifully, and fast enough that you feel like you're getting somewhere. Tight varieties like 'Stephens Island' stay neat and short; the species tenuifolium gives you height. Honest catch: a really brutal frost can knock the soft new growth, so Stephen’s Island is the one I’d choose for best frost hardiness.

Griselinia littoralis (kapuka / broadleaf) - the classic. Big, lush, apple-green leaves, dense as you like, and quick once it's away. The downsides: they can get frost-burnt in a hard southern winter - grand in milder coastal spots, riskier in a frost pocket. More on that below. They also hate wet feet, as I alluded to above.

Corokia - the tough one. Wiry, small-leaved, shrugs off wind and cold like it was built for it. 'Geenty's Green' for a denser green wall, or the cotoneaster types for that wiry grey look. Downsides: slower, and a touch more open than Griselinia, so not your pick if you want a solid screen yesterday.

Coprosma - the small leaf ones. The larger leaf shiny ones (repens types) are tender - for a South Island frost pocket you want the hardier options like C. propinqua, virescens, or ‘Lobster’.

Kanuka (Kunzea ericoides) - the local hard case. Fine, feathery, and genuinely at home in Southland cold and wind, and the bees adore it. Honest catch: it's more of a loose, natural screen than a sharp formal hedge. Clip it if you like, but it's happiest a bit shaggy.

Olearia (e.g. Olearia traversii) - the coastal shelter pick. Salt and wind off the sea barely register. Downsides: it's coarse - a workhorse for shelter, not a show pony for the front path.

What about the tender ones - Griselinia and Pittosporum?

Both get planted everywhere, and both can disappoint in the wrong spot. If you're in a frost pocket, think twice. They'll look a picture for a few mild winters, then one savage frost browns the lot and you're staring at a patchy wall wondering where it went wrong. In a milder, coastal garden they're hard to beat. It's not that they're bad plants - they just can be the wrong plant in the wrong place, and that's still the wrong plant.

How many will I need, and how far apart?

Rule of thumb: plant at half the desired height, for your spacing. For example, if the clipped height will be 1m, plant at 500mm spacing. 1800mm height – 900mm spacing. But for a quick, solid screen, plant closer; if you're patient and watching the budget, space them out and let time do the work. Grade matters too. A bigger grade like a 2.5L or PB18  gives you a head start; a smaller root-trainer is cheaper by the metre but obviously takes longer to establish.

How long until it actually looks like a hedge?

Honest answer: it depends on the species and the starting size, but most will take a good 2-3 years. Pittosporum will feel like progress inside a couple of seasons; Corokia and Coprosma ask for a bit more patience. The old line holds - the best time to plant a hedge was years ago. The second best is now.

So which one should I pick?

If I had to call it: Pittosporum for most people who want a tidy, faster screen; Corokia or Coprosma if you're somewhere cold and exposed and you value tough over lush; Griselinia only if your spot's well drained enough to look after it. Kanuka is a great option for farm shelter on dry, exposed sites. There's no single right answer - it's about matching the plant to your patch, your patience and your budget.

If you've got a line to fill and you're not sure what'll handle your conditions, that's exactly the sort of thing worth a quick conversation. Tell us your site and what you're after, and we'll point you at the stock that'll actually thrive.

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