Salt-Tolerant plants that thrive in coastal areas

Salt. Don’t fight it! Embrace it! Any gardener that lives within a few miles of a large body of salt water understands the challenges that come with cultivating a garden of salty soil. However, it is possible to have beautiful coastal gardens if you choose plants with high salt tolerance. This article will introduce you to plants that tolerate salt in coastal areas.

Gardeners looking to create an oasis for the local hummingbird population have to contend with a multitude of environmental challenges. Blowing sand, salty soil, high temperatures, and excessive drainage all play a role in whether a plant will thrive or not in a coastal area. However salt spray is probably the most significant factor often plaguing coastal gardens.

Why is salt harsh on plants?

Much like in humans, salt dehydrates plants and will cause leaf burn, leaf drop, or plant death. When waves break on the beach, they throw droplets of salty water into the air creating salt spray. Sea breezes then carry the salt-laden air inland, depositing droplets on plants along the way.

Factors affecting salt tolerance

Salt tolerance is based on a plant’s ability to grow under specific circumstances based on four factors. The tolerance of a plant to salt may be affected if any of the conditions become extreme and could lower the plant’s ability to thrive.

• High winds
• Salt spray
• Alkaline soils
• Infertile and sandy soils

Levels of salt-tolerant plants

Highly Salt-Tolerant: Plants, such as a daylilies tolerate direct salt spray and exposure and thrive in areas with direct salt exposure. 

Moderately Salt-Tolerant: Plants tolerate some salt spray but, for instance, tropical lantana grows best when protected from direct salt exposure.

Slightly Salt-Tolerant: Plants have little tolerance for salt and always need to be protected from direct salt spray. Fountain grass is an example of an ornamental grass that needs protection from direct salt exposure.

What plants tolerate salt well?

Perennials and annuals

Blanket Flower or Firewheel 

• Annual or short-lived perennial
• Oblong greyish-green leaves
• Daisy-like red, yellow, and brown flowers
• Attracts birds and butterflies
• Full sun
• Water: Dry to well-drained soil
• Low-maintenance
• Use in borders, masses, and naturalizing on dunes

Beach Evening Primrose 

• Perennial
• Grey- to blue-green leaves
• Yellow flowers that open for one day
• Attracts butterflies and bees
• Full sun
• Water: Dry to moist soil
• Low-maintenance
• Use for erosion stabilization and ground covers

Seaside goldenrod 

• Perennial
• Long, thick, dark green leaves
• Large, yellow flower spikes
• Attracts birds, bees, and butterflies
• Full sun
• Water: Dry to moist soil
• Low-maintenance
• Use in borders, wildflower gardens, and masses

Grasses 

Muhly grass 

• Warm-seasonal perennial
• Glossy, wiry, thread-like dark green leaves
• Tall purple-pink airy flower spikes in the fall
• Grows in clumps
• Full sun
• Water: Moist to dry soil
• Low-maintenance
• Use in perennial borders, accent, masses, and naturalized areas

Saltmeadow Cordgrass 

• Warm-season perennial
• Long, narrow, cylindrical leaves
• Purple flowers with wheat-like seeds on one side of the stalk in the summer and fall
• Full sun
• Water: Wet to moist soil
• Low-maintenance
• Use for shoreline protection, tidal marsh restoration, and dune erosion stabilization

Bitter Panicum 

• Warm-season perennial
• Bluish-green, thin leaves
• Narrow, white blooms emerge in late summer through fall
• Spreads slowly by rhizomes
• Full sun
• Water: Dry to medium soil
• Low-maintenance
• Use on dunes for erosion stabilization, accent, masses, and borders

Trees 

Magnolia 

• Evergreen
• Alternate, simple dark green leaves, often with brown pubescence beneath
• 60 to 80 ft. tall x 30 to 50 ft. wide
• White fragrant flowers
• Red seeds borne in cone-like structures in the fall
• Full sun to partial shade
• Water: Medium soil
• Medium-maintenance
• Use as a specimen, screen, or hedge

Live oak 

• Evergreen
• Alternate, simple leaf
• 40 to 80 ft. tall x 60 to 100 ft. wide
• Long-lived
• Full sun
• Water: Medium to wet soil
• Low-maintenance
• Use as a specimen shade tree for large areas

Southern red cedar

• Evergreen conifer
• Scale-like leaves
• 30 to 65 ft. tall x 8 to 20 ft. wide
• Full Sun
• Water: Dry to medium soil
• Low-maintenance
• Use as a specimen or screen 

Palms 

Dwarf palmetto 

• Evergreen
• Large, fan-shaped leaves up to 3 ft. across
• 6 to 10 ft. tall
• Cream flowers in the late spring
• Brown to black fruits in the fall
• Most cold tolerant sabal palm
• Full sun to partial shade
• Water: Medium soil
• Medium-maintenance
• Use as a specimen or in groups

Cabbage palm or palmetto 

• Evergreen
• Deeply cut, curved leaves that radiate from a midrib
• 40 to 50 ft. tall
• Creamy white, showy flower stalks in the summer
• Green to black fruit in the fall
• Full sun
• High drought tolerance after established
• Medium-maintenance
• Tolerant of hurricane damage
• Use as a specimen, in groupings, and along streets

Saw palmetto 

• Evergreen
• The palmate leaf is divided into 25 to 30 segments, sharp petioles
• 5 to 10 ft. tall
• Small white flowers in the late spring
• Black malodorous fruit in the fall
• Full sun to partial shade
• High drought tolerance after established
• Low to medium maintenance
• Use as a specimen or as an underplanting for larger plants or trees

Shrubs 

Oleander 

• Evergreen
• Opposite or whorled, simple leaves
• Flowers in a wide range of colors
• All parts of the plant are toxic
• Full sun to partial shade
• Water: Medium soil
• Low-maintenance
• Use as in foundation plantings, hedges, screens, and borders

Dwarf Yaupon holly 

• Evergreen
• Alternate, simple leave
• White fragrant blooms in the spring
• Translucent scarlet berries in the fall
• Dioecious-female and male plants
• Full sun to partial shade
• Water: Medium to wet soil
• Medium-maintenance
• Use as a foundation plant, low hedge, or border

Southern waxmyrtle

• Evergreen
• Alternate, simple leaves
• Insignificant flowers on female plants in the late spring
• Grayish-white waxy fruit in the late summer
• Dioecious
• Attracts birds
• Full sun to partial shade
• Water: Dry to medium soil
• Low to medium maintenance
• Use as a specimen, topiary, hedge, or screen

Structuring a salt-resistant garden

Ensure your more delicate native plants are protected from the sea’s harsh salt spray by structuring your garden to protect plants. Build it away from the sea and protected by your home. You can also grow a layer of highly salt-tolerant plants such as a rugosa rose shrub or Virginia creeper that blocks salt spray from your more delicate hibiscus, adding more protection to your coastal garden.

Man-made protection

• Use your home to block the salt spray by keeping your less salt-tolerant plants on the side of the house facing landward. 
• Fences or any physical barrier you can put between the ocean and your garden will minimize exposure to direct salt spray, further protecting your coastal landscape. 
• Frequent irrigation rinses are another way to help reduce the harsh impact of salt on your daffodils.

Natural protection

• Use salt-tolerant shrubs in your garden. Insulate your plants with lower salt tolerances by planting foliage with a high salt tolerance such as rosemary or yucca around the edges of your garden. The shrubbery even pulls double duty and acts as a wind barrier helping to further protect your blossom’s from the harsh winds of a hurricane. 

• Mix mulch into the soil to conserve moisture and lower the soil temperature. This increases the soil’s ability to hold moisture, improving your plant’s life and growth. 

• Mature plants tolerate salt spray better than young one. When structuring your garden, keep younger plants better protected.

FAQ

The final word

Choosing landscaping plants that thrive in difficult conditions can be the difference between a beautiful yard and a dead one. Need help? Contact a Lawn Love landscaping professional.

Main photo credit: Wikimedia | CC-BY-3.0