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Geraldton Wax
~ Chamelaucium uncinatum ~
MYRTACEAE
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This much-loved wildflower has risen to fame due to its long-lasting cut flowers, which hold their form and vibrancy for well over a week. The Geraldton Wax has become quite the staple across the country, adorning backyards and bouquets with its delicate and hardy blooms. The rosemary-like leaves can be stripped off the stem and used in cooking, adding a bit of a zing to meals (similar to a kaffir lime leaf or Lemon Myrtle). These little picture-perfect perfumed blooms ooze with nectar and are loved by butterflies and bees.
WHERE TO LOOK
Geraldton Wax is a resident of Noongar Country in Western Australia. Despite its popularity, it can only be found wild on the sandy plains surrounding Perth and on limestone hills in coastal heaths. It will be in the company of other Myrtles, Verticordia and low-lying shrubs.
Locations → WA: Baldivis, Arrowsmith, Kalbarri National Park and King’s Park in Perth.
FEATURES
A slender-branched evergreen shrub standing 2–6m tall, Geraldton Wax will be filled with small, waxy pink and white five-petalled flowers at 1–1.5cm when in bloom. It’s part of the Myrtle family so has deliciously fragrant leaves, which are deep green and needle-like in form. The fruit (or nut) contains one seed and is held within the flower. Once the flower dies, the seed is shed and dispersed.
FLOWERING SEASON
Winter and spring → A perennial shrub, Geraldton Wax gets its bloom on from June to November.
PLANTING
Seeds and tube stock can be found online and plants are available in many nurseries. Geraldton Wax enjoys a sunny position and, although the waxy flowers are only found wild in Western Australia, they can be cultivated in the right conditions throughout the temperate zones of coastal New South Wales, Victoria and South-East Queensland. It makes an incredible garden addition if you can spark up a successful plant, attracting pollinating bees and providing nectar for butterflies and other insects. Keep its soils similar to where it originates: sandy and well drained, and only water when the soil has dried out.
