Rice Flower ‘White Horse’

Rice Flower 'White Horse' (Ozothamnus diosmifolius) is the native shrub that covers itself in clouds of tiny white buds each spring, thousands of them, like grains of rice held above fine aromatic foliage. It grows to about 1.8m tall and 1.2m wide, tolerates poor soil, salt and frost, and it is one of the best cut flowers any Australian garden can produce. The stems also dry beautifully, holding their form for months indoors.

Why you'll love it

• A spring display you can pick. Cut stems last well in a vase and dry successfully, so the garden keeps giving after the flush finishes.
• Genuinely tough. Frost hardy, drought tolerant, salt tolerant and happy in poor soil, which covers most difficult Australian sites.
• Fast to fill a gap. An eastern Australian native that reaches useful size in two seasons, so a bare bed does not stay bare.
• Alive with insects. Bees and butterflies work the flower heads heavily, making it a genuine contributor to a habitat garden.

Where it works best

Mass planting and native borders. Plant 1m apart. At that spacing the shrubs merge into a low informal bank that reads as a single drift of white when it flowers.

Coastal gardens. Salt tolerance and a wiry, wind resistant frame suit exposed beachside blocks where softer flowering shrubs burn.

Feature planting and cutting beds. A single plant near a path carries the spring display on its own, and a row at the back of a working garden gives you flowers to pick without touching the ornamental beds.

Growing rice flower in Australia

Position and climate. Full sun, always. Shade produces a sparse, leggy plant with few flowers. It suits subtropical, warm temperate, cool temperate and Mediterranean gardens, and being frost hardy it handles tableland and southern winters without protection.

Soil. Poor, sandy or gravelly ground is fine and often better than rich soil. What it will not take is heavy wet clay, so plant on a raised mound if drainage is doubtful.

Water and feed. Water weekly through the first summer, after which it is properly drought tolerant. Use a low phosphorus native fertiliser only, applied lightly in early spring. Standard garden fertilisers can damage the roots.

Pruning. Prune immediately after flowering, taking off about a third of the plant, and do it every year. Rice flower goes woody and open if left alone, and it does not always reshoot from bare old wood, so never cut back into leafless stems.

What to expect when it arrives

It is grown here in two sizes: tube stock, and 140mm pots in packs of ten for larger plantings. Both arrive as young plants with fine needle like foliage and no flowers, since flowering follows establishment rather than the other way round.

The wiry stems travel well. Expect steady growth through the first warm season and a genuine flowering display in the second spring. Be aware this is a relatively short lived shrub, around five to seven years with annual pruning, so plan on replacing it eventually. Plants are delivered Australia wide, with delivery from $29.95. Every plant carries our 30 day healthy plant guarantee.

Plant care guides and related reading

• Plants that cope with poor and shallow soil
• Browse the Australian native shrub range
• Compare coastal and salt tolerant plants
• Designing a native garden that attracts wildlife

Common questions

How far apart should I plant it?

One metre apart for a massed planting or an informal low screen. Wider spacing at 1.5m keeps each shrub as a distinct rounded specimen with room to show its shape.

When does it flower?

Spring is the main flush, usually across several weeks. The buds are the display as much as the open flowers, which is why the picking window is long.

How do I stop it going woody?

Prune every year straight after flowering, removing about a third of the growth while there is still leaf on the stems. Skipping a year or two is what turns a good plant into a bare framework.