Corokia X Virgata ‘Sunsplash’ (Wire Bush)

‘Wire Bush’ doesn’t sound inspiring but go with us on this one. It’s a charming and compact upright bush, with the tiniest little leaves sprinkled onto and into their deep denseness like confetti on a Brillo. These leaves are variegated: dipped chartreuse highlights on a pleasant greeny-grey.  It’ll be plastered in tiny yellow star shaped flowers in Spring and these teensy five-pointed blooms are followed by oodles of bright orange berries. We’ve a few Corokias in our nursery now: this one gets about 1.5metres in height so it’s at the smaller end of things.

As with so many of the shrubs and oddities from the Antipodes, their slight strangeness and ‘otherworld’ qualities are what make them so arresting in our UK gardens. There’s the vaguest whiff of Coprosma to these plants (another champion New Zealand native) but they’re far more reliable in terms of hardiness.

This shrub has a dense tangle of intricate (yes, wiry) stems that will form neat-ish mounds and hillocks if left alone. Their thatchy barnets can be easily neatened and primped with shears, and they respond well to a regular trim if you’d like to fuss over a few and make fun shapes. However, if allowed to roll and billow, planted en masse and left to ramble, they can look tremendous as undulating blocks of mono planting or swept up against a warm wall like a cresting wave.

Position in full sun to dappled shade in a south or west facing position and protect them from cold winds. Wholly unfussy about the soil you plonk it in, and can make a characterful choice for a pair of big pots, placed somewhere you can pause and get lost in the fractal complexity of their stems.

N.B. When clipping several plants with the same tool, have a bucket containing a 5% bleach solution and swish your blades around for 30 seconds between plants to sterilise them. This will help avoid the chance of cross contamination of disease.

As with all woody plants, plant high, exposing as much of the taper at the base of the trunk as possible. Allowing soil to accumulate round the base of a tree can be fatal. Keep very well-watered when first planted.