Photo: Jason Hollinger, CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Sand Myrtle

Kalmia buxifolia

Also called sandmyrtle, mountain myrtle, Leiophyllum buxifolium.

A low, dense evergreen with tiny glossy leaves that turn bronze in winter, smothered in pink buds and white starry flowers in spring.

EvergreenShowy flowersRareWinter interest

Type: Shrub
Mature height: 1–3 ft
USDA zones: 6–8
Growth rate: Slow
Sun: Full, Part
Soil moisture: Average
Grows wild in: Rocky ground, sandy barrens and the Appalachians
Native range: 7 states, north to Pennsylvania, south to Georgia and west to Tennessee
List all 7
Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Tennessee
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Sand myrtle is a small evergreen shrub of two worlds: the rock outcrops and summits of the southern Appalachians, and the sandy pine barrens of the Carolina coastal plain and New Jersey. Long kept in its own genus, Leiophyllum, it is now placed with our mountain laurel in Kalmia. Its tiny, glossy leaves turn bronze-red in winter, and its pink buds open to white, starry flowers with pink-tipped stamens. Georgia lists it as threatened, and it is gone from Pennsylvania. Use it as a low, slow evergreen at the front of a border or in a rock garden, where its spring bloom can be seen up close.

Size, growth and what to expect

Sand myrtle grows slowly, and our growth estimator treats it as slow, about a foot a year. It makes a dense, rounded shrub 18 inches to 3 feet tall and 4 to 5 feet wide, and on exposed rock it can lie nearly flat.

Crowded clusters of 6 to 8 small flowers open at the branch tips from late March into June, rosy pink in the bud and white when open. Each is about a quarter inch across, with ten spreading stamens tipped in pink. The small capsules ripen in September and October.

It grows wild on mountain rock outcrops and summits in the Carolinas, Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky, and on a few Piedmont monadnocks. It also grows in sandy pinelands, sandhills and pocosins of the Carolina coastal plain and the New Jersey Pine Barrens.

How to grow Sand Myrtle

Sand myrtle does best in part shade, and it takes sun where the soil stays moist. It needs a moist, acid soil that drains well, sandy or peaty and rich in organic matter. It does not stand drought or soggy ground. Set plants 4 feet apart and keep them 3 feet from a wall. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them in spring or fall, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and mulch with pine needles each spring to hold the moisture. The seed is tiny and wants a mist tent or a clear cover. Sow it on the surface of a moist, acid mix at room temperature, uncovered, in good light. Seed of its relative sheep laurel needs no chilling.

Water through dry spells in the first two summers. Its low branches root where they touch the soil, so it slowly thickens into a mat. Prune only after flowering, since next year's flowers form on old growth.

Each flower carries both male and female parts, and small bees, honeybees and flies pollinate it. Its close relative Carolina bog laurel sets fruit with its own pollen, so one plant should bear seed alone. No serious pests or diseases trouble it. Its relatives mountain laurel and sheep laurel are highly poisonous if eaten, so treat it the same and keep it from grazing animals.

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

Sources (11)