Golden Tree Daisy Landscaping Ideas – Where & How to Use It
Golden Tree Daisy (Shawia solandri, formerly Olearia solandri) is one of those New Zealand natives that can perform several quite different jobs depending on how it is planted and maintained.
It can be kept as a relatively compact 1–1.5 m hedge or screen, allowed to develop into a 2–3 m garden specimen, or planted more loosely and ultimately grown into a 4–5 m natural shelter plant.
That versatility makes Golden Tree Daisy particularly useful where the garden needs more than decoration. It can provide structure, screening, shelter and evergreen cover while coping with the wind, exposure, coastal conditions, dry periods and cold weather that make many New Zealand sites difficult.
This guide looks at the different ways Golden Tree Daisy can be used in the landscape — and how changing its spacing, position and pruning changes the result.
Read More: Golden Tree Daisy (Olearia solandri) – The Complete NZ Growing & Planting Guide
Start with the job the plant needs to do
The easiest way to design with Golden Tree Daisy is to decide what you want from the plant before deciding its spacing.
The same plant can produce very different landscapes.
Close planting combined with regular trimming creates a relatively compact hedge. Give the plants more room and less pruning and they become individual shrubs. Increase the spacing again and allow them to develop naturally and they can eventually form substantial shelter.
A useful guide is:
| Landscape use | Typical maintained/natural height | Typical spacing |
|---|---|---|
| Lower hedge or compact screen | 0.5–1 m | 50–70 cm |
| Residential hedge | 1–1.5 m | 70 cm–1 m |
| Individual garden specimen | 2–3 m | Allow substantial individual space |
| Informal screen | 2–3 m | Approx. 1–2 m depending on desired effect |
| Natural shelter / shelterbelt | 4–5 m | 2–3 m centres |
These are landscape guidelines rather than rigid rules. Soil, exposure, pruning and the amount of time available for plants to fill their space all affect the final result.
How to Plant Golden Tree Daisy | Spacing & Establishment Guide
1. Use Golden Tree Daisy as a residential hedge
One of the simplest applications is a native hedge along a driveway, lawn, fence or residential boundary.
Golden Tree Daisy responds well to trimming, but it does not need to be turned into a perfectly geometric wall. In many gardens it looks better when maintained at approximately 1–1.5 m with a slightly irregular surface that retains some of its natural fine-textured character.
For most medium-height hedges, spacing plants somewhere between 70 cm and 1 m apart is practical. Lower hedges generally benefit from closer spacing.
Regular light trimming while the plants are developing encourages branching and helps neighbouring plants gradually connect.
Read more: Golden Tree Daisy as a Native Hedge
2. Create an informal screen rather than a formal hedge
Not every screen needs to be clipped.
Where there is more room, Golden Tree Daisy can be planted as an informal evergreen screen and allowed to retain much more of its natural shape.
This works particularly well beside outdoor living areas, between neighbouring properties, along larger driveways or where a conventional clipped hedge would look too formal.
Individual plants remain partially visible, but their foliage overlaps sufficiently to create privacy and background structure.
The result is softer than a hedge and requires considerably less shaping.
3. Grow Golden Tree Daisy as an individual specimen
Golden Tree Daisy does not have to be planted in a row.
Given sufficient space, an individual plant can develop into a substantial 2–3 m garden shrub with a loose, layered and somewhat uneven outline.
Its fine foliage provides a useful contrast against broader-leaved natives and the architectural foliage of flax, Astelia or native grasses.
This is also one of the best ways to appreciate the plant's natural form. Instead of repeatedly trimming it into a predetermined shape, allow the branches to develop at different heights and widths.
4. Use several specimens to create evergreen structure
A garden does not necessarily need a continuous hedge to gain structure.
Three or five Golden Tree Daisy plants positioned irregularly through a larger planting can create repeating evergreen structure while leaving room between them for lower shrubs, groundcovers and grasses.
Avoid equal spacing when trying to create a naturalistic result. Plants positioned in small groups or at changing distances tend to look considerably more established than a row of identical shrubs.
Variation in eventual size is useful too. Some plants can be allowed to become substantial while others are lightly maintained.
5. Put Golden Tree Daisy on the exposed side of the garden
One of the most useful landscaping principles with Golden Tree Daisy is simple:
Put the tougher planting where the conditions are toughest.
On a wind-exposed property, Golden Tree Daisy can occupy the outer edge while more vulnerable planting sits farther inside the garden.
The aim is not necessarily to create an impermeable wall. A substantial but somewhat permeable planting can reduce exposure while retaining a natural appearance.
This is particularly useful around lawns, courtyards, decks, vegetable gardens and more ornamental native planting.
Golden Tree Daisy for Windy Gardens – A Hardy Native for Exposed Sites
6. Use it to shelter outdoor living areas
A well-positioned planting can make the difference between an outdoor area that looks attractive and one that is actually pleasant to use.
Golden Tree Daisy can be positioned on the prevailing-wind side of a patio, barbecue area, deck or lawn. Close to the living area it can be maintained at a moderate height; farther away it can be allowed to grow larger.
This creates a useful transition from garden-scale planting into more substantial shelter.
It can also avoid the visual harshness of constructing solid screening around every exposed outdoor space.
7. Create natural shelter on lifestyle blocks
As properties become larger, Golden Tree Daisy can be allowed to behave less like a garden hedge and more like a genuine shelter plant.
Read More: Golden Tree Daisy for Shelter & Shelterbelts
For this use, plants can be spaced approximately 2–3 m apart and allowed to become much larger.
Over time, individual shrubs broaden and begin to overlap. Different heights and widths create a shelter line that is visually softer than a formal hedge and generally more appropriate to a rural landscape.
Left substantially natural, Golden Tree Daisy can eventually reach around 4–5 m.
Read more: How to Plant Golden Tree Daisy | Spacing & Establishment Guide
8. Use Golden Tree Daisy along rural driveways
Long rural driveways often need planting that can tolerate exposure without requiring intensive maintenance.
Golden Tree Daisy can work particularly well along selected sections of a driveway rather than necessarily lining its entire length.
Small groups can screen utility areas or neighbouring properties, define an entrance, provide shelter around the house end of the drive or visually connect a domestic garden with the surrounding landscape.
Leaving occasional gaps also preserves views and avoids creating a tunnel effect.
9. Plant exposed banks and slopes
Golden Tree Daisy can also be useful on open banks where a substantial evergreen shrub is required.
Rather than planting a slope as a repetitive grid, scatter plants at irregular intervals and combine them with a restrained selection of other suitable natives.
As the Golden Tree Daisy develops, its larger mass gives the slope structure while smaller plants fill some of the spaces between.
It is particularly suited to reasonably free-draining slopes. It should not be treated as a solution for permanently wet ground simply because the site is difficult.
Golden Tree Daisy for Dry Gardens & Drought-Prone Sites
10. Build a simple mixed native garden around it
Golden Tree Daisy works particularly well when the planting palette is kept relatively restrained.
It can provide the larger evergreen structure while Corokia, hardy Coprosma, flax, Astelia or native grasses provide differences in foliage, height and texture.
There is rarely a need to combine every available native species into one border.
Repeating a small number of compatible plants usually creates a stronger landscape, particularly when Golden Tree Daisy provides the main structural framework.
11. Use it in coastal gardens
Coastal landscapes often need plants that can provide genuine bulk without immediately deteriorating under repeated exposure.
Golden Tree Daisy is well suited to many coastal situations and can be used as an outer structural layer, screen or informal shelter planting.
On a strongly exposed property, position Golden Tree Daisy toward the seaward or prevailing-weather side and use the more protected space behind it for plants requiring slightly gentler conditions.
Even here, avoid assuming that every coastal site is identical. Salt exposure, wind strength, soil depth and drainage can vary dramatically over short distances.
Golden Tree Daisy for Coastal Gardens – A Tough Native for Wind & Exposure
12. Use it in cold South Island gardens
Golden Tree Daisy is also valuable where exposure occurs alongside winter cold.
In many South Island gardens it can provide permanent evergreen structure while surrounding grasses and deciduous vegetation change markedly through the seasons.
Site selection still matters. Avoid unnecessarily placing young plants in the coldest, dampest frost hollow when a slightly higher, better-drained position is available.
Once established, the combination of cold tolerance, wind tolerance and useful size makes Golden Tree Daisy particularly valuable on exposed southern properties.
Golden Tree Daisy for Frosty & Cold-Climate Gardens
13. Combine screening with a view
Screening does not have to mean blocking everything.
Where a property has an attractive outlook, use Golden Tree Daisy selectively.
Larger shrubs can screen neighbouring buildings, roads, utility areas or the prevailing weather direction while intentional gaps preserve the best views.
This is often more useful than planting one continuous hedge around the entire property.
It also allows Golden Tree Daisy to develop into more attractive individual forms rather than constantly forcing every plant into the same dimensions.
14. Transition from maintained garden to natural landscape
One of the strongest ways to use Golden Tree Daisy on a larger property is to change the way it is managed as the planting moves away from the house.
Immediately beside the home, plants can be kept around 1–1.5 m and lightly shaped.
Farther into the garden, allow them to reach 2–3 m and retain their individual forms.
At the outer boundary, they can be allowed to become much larger natural shelter plants.
Because the foliage remains consistent, the different forms still visually belong together. The result is a gradual transition from maintained residential garden to a much looser rural landscape.
Don't make every Golden Tree Daisy identical
Natural variation is an advantage with this plant.
Golden Tree Daisy naturally develops differences in width, branching, density and overall outline. Those differences become especially attractive in informal screens, specimen groups and shelter plantings.
Repeatedly cutting every shrub into exactly the same shape can remove much of that character.
Where a formal hedge is required, trim accordingly. Everywhere else, consider allowing individual plants to express slightly different forms.
This is particularly effective in larger native gardens where an overly repetitive row can quickly look artificial.
Give young plants the best possible start
The landscape ideas in this guide depend on one thing first: getting the young plants established.
Greenmachine Golden Tree Daisy plants are supplied in 7 cm square pots, so they are deliberately small plants rather than expensive advanced specimens.
Prepare the planting area properly, remove competing grass and weeds, plant at the correct depth, water thoroughly and maintain a weed-free area while the root system establishes.
We also recommend approximately 3–4 slow-release fertiliser tablets per plant at planting under normal conditions. On extremely poor sites we may use around 10 tablets per plant, distributed through the surrounding soil, to provide a substantially larger nutrient reserve during establishment.
Once established, the plants can begin doing the job they were planted for — whether that is becoming a hedge, specimen, screen or substantial shelter plant.
How to Plant Golden Tree Daisy | Spacing & Establishment Guide
Think about the eventual size before planting
Perhaps the most important landscaping decision is simply giving Golden Tree Daisy enough room for the job it is expected to perform.
A plant intended to remain a 1 m hedge can be positioned quite differently from one expected to become a 4–5 m shelter shrub.
Planting at hedge spacing and then deciding later that the plants should become a natural shelter can produce unnecessary crowding. Equally, widely spaced plants will take much longer to create a compact low hedge.
Decide on the eventual role first, then choose the spacing and pruning regime to suit it.
That is the key to getting very different results from the same plant.
One native plant, many landscape roles
Golden Tree Daisy is useful because it does not force the garden into one particular style.
It can sit comfortably beside an ordinary suburban house, form an informal screen around a lifestyle property, occupy a dry bank, protect a coastal garden, provide structure in a cold South Island landscape or eventually become part of a substantial rural shelter planting.
The important distinction is how much space it receives and how much control you place on its growth.
Keep it closer and trim it and you have a hedge.
Give it more room and you have a substantial garden shrub.
Plant it farther apart and allow it to develop naturally and you have shelter.
For detailed information on soil, drainage, frost, coastal exposure, growth, pruning and general cultivation, see our complete Golden Tree Daisy growing guide.
Golden Tree Daisy (Olearia solandri) – The Complete NZ Growing & Planting Guide
Shop Golden Tree Daisy – Shawia solandri
Botanical name note
Golden Tree Daisy has traditionally been widely known as Olearia solandri. Its current botanical placement is Shawia solandri. Both names are still encountered in New Zealand horticulture, plant references and online searches, so you may see both used across Greenmachine content.