Privacy Screening Shrub – Northern Bayberry

Morella pensylvanica – Northern Bayberry

Morella pensylvanica (previously Myrica pensylvanica), also known as Northern Bayberry is a semi-evergreen, dense, rounded, shrub that grows 5 to 10 feet tall. The leaves are grayish-green to dark green, leathery, and glossy. The flowers are yellowish-green catkins that are found on separate male and female plants. The female flowers, if pollinated, produce a small grayish-white drupe in late summer that persists until April. The drupes attract birds to your garden in the winter months and have a scented waxy coating that is used to make candles, soap, and sealing wax.

This shrub prefers to grow in full sun to part shade, and an average to dry soil. However it is adaptable and can tolerate salt spray, high winds, and other soil types including moist, peat, or sandy, or acidic soils. Because of it’s low height semi-evergreen nature, bayberry makes an excellent choice for privacy screening. It has a medium growth rate (13″-24″ per year) and is resistant to deer pressure.

Northern Bayberry grown into a hedge