Golden Tree Daisy for Dry Gardens & Drought-Prone Sites
Dry gardens can be surprisingly difficult places to establish shrubs. Free-draining soils, exposed positions, summer heat and periods without useful rainfall can all place plants under stress, particularly while they are young.
Golden Tree Daisy – Shawia solandri, formerly widely known as Olearia solandri – is a hardy New Zealand native shrub that can be particularly useful in dry and exposed situations. Once established, it has good tolerance of dry periods and can provide permanent structure, shelter and greenery where plants requiring consistently moist soil may struggle.
It is not a plant that should simply be planted and forgotten during its first summer. Like most shrubs, Golden Tree Daisy needs moisture while its root system develops. The difference becomes more apparent once the plant is established, when it can cope with considerably tougher and drier conditions.
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Why Golden Tree Daisy works in dry gardens
Golden Tree Daisy naturally has relatively small, narrow leaves and a tough, twiggy growth habit. Rather than producing large, soft leaves and lush growth that demand constant moisture, it develops into a hardy woody shrub capable of coping with exposed conditions.
Its tolerance of wind is also important in dry gardens. A site does not need to have especially low rainfall to behave like a dry site. Persistent wind can continually remove moisture from foliage and soil, creating drying conditions even in parts of New Zealand that receive reasonable annual rainfall.
This combination of wind tolerance, established drought tolerance and an ability to grow in exposed situations makes Golden Tree Daisy useful across a range of difficult garden environments.
Complete Golden Tree Daisy Growing & Planting Guide
Drought tolerant does not mean no water
One of the most important distinctions with drought-tolerant plants is the difference between a newly planted shrub and an established shrub.
A young Golden Tree Daisy still has a relatively small root system confined largely to the area immediately surrounding the original root ball. If that soil dries completely during establishment, the plant has limited ability to find moisture elsewhere.
Regular watering during dry periods in the first growing season helps the roots move out into the surrounding soil.
As the plant establishes, its dependence on supplementary watering generally reduces considerably.
The aim should therefore be to establish the plant properly first, then take advantage of its natural toughness later.
What is a dry site?
A dry garden can mean several different things.
It might be a naturally dry part of New Zealand, but it could equally be:
- a north-facing bank exposed to sun
- a windy hillside
- a free-draining sandy or gravelly soil
- a raised section of garden
- a new subdivision with limited shelter
- a rural property exposed to drying winds
- a coastal garden where wind continually dries the soil
- a garden that is difficult or impractical to irrigate regularly
Often several of these conditions occur together.
Golden Tree Daisy is particularly useful where dryness and exposure overlap.
Read More - Golden Tree Daisy for Windy Gardens
Good drainage is an advantage
Golden Tree Daisy generally suits soils that drain reasonably freely.
This makes it useful on banks, slopes and other positions where water naturally moves away rather than remaining around the roots.
A dry site should not, however, be confused with extremely poor soil. Very compacted ground can prevent both water and roots from penetrating properly, while an extremely thin layer of soil may simply provide too little moisture-holding capacity for good establishment.
Where necessary, improving the planting area before planting can make establishment considerably easier.
Planting Golden Tree Daisy in a dry site
Preparation is particularly worthwhile when planting into dry ground.
Clear competing grass and weeds from around the planting position. These can take a surprising amount of moisture from the soil and compete directly with a young shrub.
Dig a planting hole large enough to comfortably accommodate the root ball and loosen surrounding soil where it is heavily compacted.
Plant at approximately the same depth as the plant was growing in its pot rather than burying the stem deeply.
Once planted, water thoroughly. A proper deep watering is much more useful than lightly wetting the soil surface.
Mulch can also be very useful. A layer around the planting area helps reduce evaporation and suppress competing weeds, but keep mulch slightly clear of the main stem.
Read More - Golden Tree Daisy for Windy and Exposed Gardens
Watering during establishment
There is no useful one-size-fits-all watering schedule because soil, rainfall, temperature, wind and season all affect how quickly a planting dries.
Instead, monitor the soil around the young plant.
During prolonged dry weather, give the plant a thorough watering that penetrates into the root zone. Then allow the soil to begin drying rather than repeatedly giving it small amounts of surface water.
A plant established this way is being encouraged to develop a useful root system rather than depending permanently on frequent shallow watering.
The first summer is normally the period when the most attention is required.
Read More - Complete Golden Tree Daisy Growing & Planting Guide
Once established
Once Golden Tree Daisy has developed a substantial root system, it becomes considerably more self-sufficient.
Established plants can tolerate periods of dry weather and generally do not require the constant summer watering expected by more moisture-dependent garden shrubs.
That makes them useful for lower-input gardens, larger properties and areas where regularly dragging a hose around the garden is unrealistic.
Extremely prolonged drought can still stress established plants. Drought tolerant should always be understood as tolerant of dry conditions, rather than completely independent of water.
Dry banks and slopes
Banks are a particularly good example of where Golden Tree Daisy can be useful.
Water drains away quickly, soil can be shallow, and sloping ground is often exposed to both sun and wind. These conditions can make maintaining conventional ornamental planting difficult.
Golden Tree Daisy can be planted individually or in loose groups across a bank, depending on the effect required.
Its naturally irregular, layered form is particularly suited to this type of planting. Rather than trying to create perfectly uniform shrubs, allowing individual plants to develop slightly differently produces a much more natural-looking landscape.
On larger slopes it can be combined with other hardy New Zealand natives to create a varied planting rather than a single-species block.
Dry rural and lifestyle properties
Larger rural properties often contain areas where irrigation simply isn't practical.
Driveways, paddock edges, boundaries, banks and exposed garden areas may be some distance from a convenient water supply.
Golden Tree Daisy can be particularly useful in these situations because the intensive watering requirement is concentrated mainly around establishment.
Once established, plants can be allowed to develop naturally into considerably larger shrubs.
In an open rural situation where they are not being continually clipped, Golden Tree Daisy can eventually reach around 4–5 m. This is quite different from the 1–1.5 m height commonly maintained when the same plant is grown as a clipped residential hedge.
Allow enough room for the intended use from the beginning.
Read More - Golden Tree Daisy for Shelter & Shelterbelts
Dry urban gardens
Golden Tree Daisy does not need a large rural property.
It can also be useful in dry urban gardens, particularly on exposed boundaries, sunny banks and difficult areas around newer houses.
In these situations it can be kept substantially smaller through pruning.
A maintained Golden Tree Daisy hedge or screen can commonly be held at around 1–1.5 m, while a less restricted garden specimen may be allowed to develop to approximately 2–3 m.
Regular light pruning encourages denser growth and makes controlling the final size much easier than allowing the plant to become very large before cutting it back heavily.
Read More - Golden Tree Daisy as a Native Hedge
Using Golden Tree Daisy to create better growing conditions
One of the most useful features of Golden Tree Daisy is that it does not only tolerate difficult conditions – it can also help modify them.
A group, screen or larger shelter planting can reduce wind movement on the protected side.
That can reduce the drying effect of persistent wind and create a more forgiving microclimate for other plants behind it.
This is particularly useful on exposed lifestyle blocks, open subdivisions and larger gardens where the initial site has little existing shelter.
Golden Tree Daisy can therefore form the tough outer structure of a garden, with more vulnerable plants positioned in the improved conditions behind it.
Choosing companion plants for dry native gardens
Golden Tree Daisy works well as part of a mixed native planting rather than having to dominate the entire garden.
The aim is to choose companion plants suited to the same general conditions.
Depending on the site and region, this might include hardy Coprosma, Corokia, native grasses and other tough shrubs capable of coping with exposure and periods of dry weather.
Mixing foliage colour, height and plant form helps avoid the repetitive appearance that can result from planting one species throughout an entire landscape.
Golden Tree Daisy can then provide some of the larger evergreen structure while smaller shrubs and grasses create variation around it.
Shop - Natives for Tough conditions
Dry does not necessarily mean hot
It is also worth separating dry conditions from hot conditions.
Many dry gardens are actually cool, windy environments. An exposed South Island hillside, for example, may experience low soil moisture during parts of summer while also being subjected to significant frost in winter.
Golden Tree Daisy's usefulness in these environments comes from its broader toughness rather than drought tolerance alone.
It can cope with wind and frost as well as periods of dry weather, making it particularly useful where several challenging conditions occur together.
Severe frost pockets – particularly where cold combines with persistently damp soil – should still be treated cautiously.
Dry coastal gardens
Coastal gardens often combine wind, salt exposure and drying soils.
Golden Tree Daisy is particularly well suited to this combination and can be used as a specimen, screen, hedge or larger shelter planting depending on the available space.
For a more detailed look at these conditions, see our Golden Tree Daisy for Coastal Gardens guide.
Read More - Golden Tree Daisy for Coastal Gardens
Dry and windy gardens
Wind can dramatically increase moisture loss and is often one of the main reasons a site behaves as though it receives less rainfall than it actually does.
If wind is the dominant problem, our Golden Tree Daisy for Windy Gardens guide looks specifically at using the plant in exposed landscapes and creating shelter for more vulnerable planting.
When Golden Tree Daisy is not the right choice
Golden Tree Daisy is tough, but that does not mean it is suitable everywhere.
It is not the first plant we would choose for permanently waterlogged ground or sites where water sits around the root zone for prolonged periods.
Likewise, planting a young shrub into extremely dry soil and providing no establishment watering is asking a drought-tolerant plant to perform before it has developed the root system required to do so.
The best results come from matching its strengths to the site:
good drainage, reasonable establishment care, and then increasingly tough conditions as the plant matures.
Hedge, garden shrub or natural shelter?
How Golden Tree Daisy is maintained makes an enormous difference to its eventual size.
Maintained hedge or screen
Usually kept around 1–1.5 m through regular clipping or pruning.
Garden specimen
Often allowed to develop to approximately 2–3 m, producing a looser and more natural shrub.
Natural or farm shelter
Where space permits and plants are largely left alone, Golden Tree Daisy can eventually reach around 4–5 m.
These are better ways of thinking about its size than assigning one universal "mature height" to a plant that responds so strongly to how it is grown.
A useful native for lower-input landscapes
The real value of Golden Tree Daisy in a dry garden is not that it never needs water.
It is that after good establishment, it can become a tough, relatively self-reliant part of the landscape.
That makes it particularly useful for gardeners who want native planting that does not require constant summer irrigation, as well as for larger landscapes where maintaining moisture-loving shrubs across the entire property simply isn't practical.
Combined with its tolerance of wind, exposure and coastal conditions, Golden Tree Daisy can provide permanent structure in some of the more demanding parts of a New Zealand garden.
A note about the name
Golden Tree Daisy has long been widely known as Olearia solandri and you will still see that name used by nurseries, gardeners and in older reference material.
Its current botanical name is Shawia solandri.
We predominantly use Shawia solandri in our newer guides while retaining references to Olearia solandri so people familiar with the older name can still easily find the plant and the information they need.
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If you are establishing a dry, exposed garden, bank, hedge or shelter planting, see our Golden Tree Daisy – Shawia solandri plants and available pack options.
Greenmachine plants are supplied in our standard 7 cm square pots, making them economical to ship and practical for establishing larger plantings throughout New Zealand.