Landscape Plants That Are Salt Tolerant for New Jersey

Wax Myrtle

• Southern New Jersey's coastal areas are the northern range of wax myrtle (Myrica cerifera), a small tree that loses its foliage during the winter. Wax myrtle resists salt spray and adapts to numerous soil conditions. You can trim wax myrtle into a hedge, screen or utilize it as a specimen plant. Wildlife will employ wax myrtle as a source of shelter, and the berries the tree produces will nourish them during fall and winter. Wax myrtle grows to 30 feet and is not difficult to locate in nurseries, according to Floridata.

Sugarberry

• Sugarberry (Celtis laevigata) is a New Jersey native renowned for its tolerance to salt. The tree grows to 70 feet and possesses a rounded crown. The fruit ripens to a blackish-red shade, and the sweet fare is food for many types of birds. Sugarberry will grow in full sun or partial shade. The branches tend to be weak; you need to take care not to damage the bark when mowing close to this tree. Otherwise, you open it up for the possibility of trunk rot, notes the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. Avoid placing sugarberry in soil with a high alkaline content.

Seaside Goldenrod

• One of the better aspects of seaside goldenrod (Solidago sempervirens) is that this perennial does not spread through rhizomes (roots), so you can control it without worrying about invasive tendencies. Seaside goldenrod, as its name implies, will tolerate salt spray. The plant grows to 8 feet, with its bright yellow flowers blooming at the top of the plant from August through October. Seaside goldenrod develops arching branches when it matures to full size. The plant is a native species as far north as Newfoundland, southward to Florida, and then west to Texas.

Creeping Juniper

• Creeping juniper (Juniperus horizontalis) will withstand contact with salt spray and roadside salt, allowing you to use it as a ground cover in places where such exposure occurs. Other uses for this 1- to 2-foot-tall shrub include as a container plant, as a deterrent to erosion and as part of mass plantings, according to the University of Connecticut Plant Database. Creeping juniper is evergreen, with green to greenish-blue needles. Easy to transplant, this member of the cypress family grows in nearly every soil condition imaginable. Cultivars available include Blue Chip, Mother Lode and Plumosa.