October 2, 2026 Justin Lewis

Golden Tree Daisy for Screening & Privacy | A Fast-Growing NZ Native Screen

If you need an evergreen native plant to create privacy without the rigid appearance of a formal hedge, Golden Tree Daisy (Shawia solandri, traditionally known as Olearia solandri) is well worth considering.

Naturally dense, tolerant of exposed conditions and capable of developing into a substantial shrub, Golden Tree Daisy can be used to screen neighbouring properties, soften fences, provide separation around outdoor living areas and add evergreen structure to new or established gardens.

The important difference is how you grow it.

Rather than repeatedly clipping the plants into a formal hedge, a privacy screen can be allowed to develop into a taller, looser and more natural form. This makes Golden Tree Daisy particularly useful where you want privacy and shelter without creating a perfectly straight green wall.

Why Golden Tree Daisy Works as a Privacy Screen

A good screening plant needs to do more than simply grow tall.

It needs enough foliage to interrupt sightlines, sufficient height to provide useful separation, and enough resilience to continue performing in the conditions found around boundaries and exposed residential sites.

Golden Tree Daisy offers a useful combination of these characteristics. Once established, it develops into a dense evergreen shrub with a naturally branched structure. It can tolerate wind, dry periods and coastal exposure while also performing well in many cool South Island gardens.

For screening, it can usually be allowed to reach around 2–3 m tall, depending on the site and the amount of pruning it receives.

That is significantly larger than the 1–1.5 m maintained height we generally suggest for a clipped Golden Tree Daisy hedge, but smaller than plants allowed to develop into large rural shelter, where they may eventually reach 4–5 m.

Privacy Screen or Hedge?

Although the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, there is a useful practical difference.

A hedge is normally planted and regularly clipped to create a controlled height, width and shape. For Golden Tree Daisy, that might mean maintaining plants at approximately 1–1.5 m.

A privacy screen is generally taller and less formal. Instead of continually cutting the entire outside surface, you can allow the plants to develop their natural branching structure and selectively trim them when necessary.

The result is softer and more natural.

This can also be useful when you don't need complete visual separation at ground level. For example, you may simply need enough height to interrupt the view between neighbouring windows, decks or outdoor living areas.

Screening Neighbouring Properties

One of the most obvious uses is along residential boundaries.

A row of Golden Tree Daisy can gradually obscure neighbouring houses, windows, driveways or outdoor areas while keeping a softer appearance than fencing combined with a tightly clipped hedge.

You don't necessarily need to create a completely solid wall.

Slight differences in plant height and shape can make a screen look considerably more natural while still interrupting the important sightlines.

This approach works particularly well on larger suburban sections, lifestyle properties and gardens where a formal hedge would look too rigid.

Screening New-Build Properties

Privacy can be particularly difficult on new subdivisions.

Sections are often relatively open, neighbouring houses can be close, and young landscaping initially provides very little visual separation.

Golden Tree Daisy can provide evergreen structure while the rest of the garden develops.

Rather than planting a complicated mixture of shrubs along every boundary, a relatively simple screen can create the main structural planting, with smaller native plants added in front where space allows.

The screen doesn't have to be perfectly straight either. Where there is sufficient room, slight changes in spacing or alignment can produce a much less institutional appearance.

Screening Fences and Utility Areas

Not every screen needs to separate you from a neighbour.

Golden Tree Daisy can also be useful for softening visually dominant parts of a property, including:

long timber fences
sheds
utility areas
water tanks
parking areas
driveways
service areas around rural or lifestyle properties

In these situations, maintaining some natural variation between plants can actually be an advantage.

Instead of replacing one hard visual barrier with a perfectly rectangular hedge, the foliage can break up the structure and help it sit more naturally within the landscape.

Screening Around Outdoor Living Areas

Privacy screening doesn't always have to follow the property boundary.

A shorter run of Golden Tree Daisy can be positioned around a deck, patio or outdoor living area to block a particular sightline.

This can reduce the amount of planting required and can be especially useful where the property is overlooked from one direction.

Before planting, stand or sit in the area where privacy matters and identify exactly where the unwanted view originates. You may find that a strategically positioned group or short screen achieves the result without surrounding the entire garden.

How Far Apart Should Golden Tree Daisy Be Planted for Screening?

Spacing depends on how quickly you want the plants to interact and how natural you want the finished screen to look.

For a relatively continuous residential screen, approximately 1 m centres is a useful starting point.

Closer spacing will generally close gaps sooner but also creates more competition between plants as they mature. Wider spacing allows individual plants more room to develop their natural shape but takes longer to create continuous visual coverage.

Unlike a tightly clipped hedge, a natural privacy screen doesn't necessarily need every gap to disappear.

The objective is often to interrupt the view, rather than create an impenetrable wall of foliage.

Allow Enough Room for Mature Plants

One of the easiest mistakes with screening plants is judging spacing and clearance from their size when purchased.

Golden Tree Daisy is a shrub, not a narrow column.

A screen allowed to grow naturally can become substantially wider as well as taller, so avoid planting immediately against buildings, paths or structures where future width will become a problem.

Consider where you ultimately want the outer edge of the mature foliage, rather than simply positioning the young plant where you want the screen today.

Leaving adequate room also allows the plants to retain a more attractive natural form instead of requiring constant corrective pruning.

Sun, Wind and Exposure

Golden Tree Daisy performs particularly well where screening is needed in exposed locations.

It is useful in windy gardens and performs well in many coastal situations, making it a good candidate for boundaries where more delicate screening plants may struggle.

Full sun is generally preferable for dense, healthy growth.

It is also reasonably drought tolerant once properly established, although newly planted screens still require reliable watering while their root systems develop.

Screening in Cold South Island Gardens

Golden Tree Daisy is also valuable because screening isn't limited to warm northern gardens.

It is a frost-hardy native and can be useful through many cooler parts of New Zealand, including exposed South Island locations.

As with any plant, very severe frost pockets or combinations of cold and persistently wet soil can create more difficult growing conditions. Good establishment and sensible site selection remain important.

Establishment Matters

The long-term performance of a privacy screen is heavily influenced by what happens during its first growing seasons.

Prepare the planting area properly, remove competing grass and weeds, and make sure each plant is watered thoroughly after planting.

We generally recommend adding approximately 3–4 slow-release fertiliser tablets per plant at planting. These provide a gradual nutrient supply during establishment and can continue feeding the plant for up to approximately two years.

In particularly poor soils, additional tablets can be used where appropriate.

Keep the area immediately around each plant free from grass and weeds. Competition from established grass can substantially reduce the water and nutrients available to a young plant.

Water deeply during dry periods while the root system is developing rather than relying on frequent light surface watering.

Pruning a Golden Tree Daisy Privacy Screen

A natural screen generally requires less formal pruning than a hedge.

Rather than repeatedly clipping every surface, concentrate on controlling excessive height or width and removing individual shoots that extend well beyond the overall screen.

Occasional selective pruning encourages branching while retaining the natural texture of the plant.

If you want a denser, more formal result, Golden Tree Daisy can also be clipped more regularly. At that point, however, you're effectively managing it as a hedge rather than a natural privacy screen.

A Screen Doesn't Have to Look Like a Wall

One of the advantages of using Golden Tree Daisy naturally is that you don't have to create a perfectly uniform row.

On properties with sufficient room, plants can be staggered slightly or combined with lower native planting toward the garden side.

The Golden Tree Daisy provides the main evergreen screening structure while the foreground planting creates additional depth.

This is particularly effective in larger gardens where a single straight hedge might otherwise dominate the landscape.

Hedge, Privacy Screen or Shelter?

The same plant can perform quite different jobs depending on how it is spaced, pruned and maintained.

As a simple guide:

Maintained hedge — approximately 1–1.5 m
Best where you want a controlled, formal boundary or low screen.

Natural privacy screen — approximately 2–3 m
Best for screening neighbours, fences, outdoor living areas and residential boundaries while retaining a softer shrub form.

Larger shelter planting — potentially 4–5 m
Best where the objective shifts toward substantial shelter on exposed rural or lifestyle properties.

These aren't rigid limits. Site conditions and pruning will influence eventual size, but thinking about the intended use before planting makes it much easier to choose appropriate spacing and ongoing maintenance.

Is Golden Tree Daisy Right for Your Privacy Screen?

Golden Tree Daisy is particularly useful if you want an evergreen NZ native screen that can cope with conditions that aren't always easy for conventional screening plants.

It is well suited to sunny, windy, coastal, dry and many cold-climate sites, while its ability to be either clipped or allowed to grow naturally gives you considerable control over the finished result.

For residential privacy, allowing plants to develop into a 2–3 m natural screen can provide a useful middle ground between a formal hedge and a large shelter planting.

The result is practical screening with a distinctly NZ native character — without necessarily turning the boundary into a perfectly clipped green wall.

Shop: Golden Tree Daisy - Shawia solandri

Golden Tree Daisy, Shawia solandri and Olearia solandri

You may see this plant sold or described under several names.

We use Golden Tree Daisy as the everyday name and Shawia solandri as the current botanical name. Many gardeners, nurseries and older references know the same plant as Olearia solandri.

If you've been searching for Olearia solandri for screening, hedging or shelter, you're looking at the same useful New Zealand native shrub.

Shop: Golden Tree Daisy

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