Mexican Orange, superb flower shrub

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Little white flowers, as fragrant as those of an orange tree, smother the whole of this dense evergreen shrub. Mexican orange (Choisya ternata) earns its place as a hedge, a standalone specimen or a pot plant on a terrace, and given full sun it flowers generously while never passing 10 feet (3 metres).

Planting, pruning and caring for it are steps you can perform to enhance blooming and growth of this exceptional shrub.

• Read also: our articles and tips about growing Mexican orange tree

Planting a Mexican orange tree

It is best to plant Mexican orange tree in spring or in fall.

If purchased in a pot or in a container, planting is also possible anytime during the year while avoiding frost spells and high temperatures.

Right from the start, water abundantly and regularly, albeit without flooding the roots of the shrub.

• Adding fertilizer upon planting at the bottom of the hole helps increase rooting, regrowth and development of the Mexican orange tree.
• Follow our shrub planting guidelines

Propagating Mexican orange tree

The best technique to multiply Mexican orange tree is cuttings. This method is both simple and easy to perform.

You can prepare Mexican orange tree cuttings best in summer, on wood that is not bearing flowers.

• Sample 6-inch (15 cm) cuttings from midsummer to early autumn, on semi-hardened wood (not yet hard)
• Remove lower pairs of leaves, keeping only one or two pair(s) at the tip
• If possible, dip the base of the cuttings in powdered rooting hormone
• Plant the cuttings in special cutting soil mix and keep cuttings near light, but not in direct sunlight
• Keep the substrate a little moist and water less in winter
• Protect your cuttings in winter, bringing them in a cool spot but keeping them out of the cold. Ideal temperatures range from 40°F to 50°F (5°C to 10°C)

• Read also: how to correctly prepare shrub cuttings

Caring for Mexican orange tree

What you’ve got here is a an evergreen shrub that only requires little care, but for which a little attention will increase growing and blooming.

If your Mexican orange tree flowers only a little or not at all, or that leaves stay abnormally small, your soil is probably lacking some type of nutrient.

Proper Mexican orange tree care

• Provide flower shrub or tomato plant fertilizer in spring.
• In case of an extended dry spell, water as soon as the soil is dry, especially over the first year after planting.
• Amend the soil in fall with fertilizer of the “Manure and seaweed” class.
• Mulch the ground in summer in order to retain soil moisture.

Pruning Mexican orange tree

A Mexican orange tree, whether standalone, part of a hedge or in a flower bed doesn’t require any particular pruning.

But it is often nicer to succeed in giving it a nice shape, especially when it is part of a hedge.

• If you’re hoping to reduce or balance the branches, avoid pruning at the end of winter, or you’ll be altering the blooming.
• Always wait for the end of the blooming season to prune, preferably in early summer.

• In repeat-flowering plants such as catmint, hardy geraniums and remontant roses, trimming as the main flush fades can prompt a second, lighter bloom, though once-flowering species will not respond.
• An old, leggy or bare-based Mexican orange takes hard pruning well and will reshoot from old wood.
• On Choisya, including golden-leaved cultivars such as ‘Sundance’, prune with secateurs rather than hedge shears, since shears slice through leaflets and the cut edges brown, remaining visible until new growth covers them.
• For many woody shrubs and roses, use clean secateurs to cut just above an outward-facing bud or leaf joint, though the best technique and timing vary by species, so check plant-specific guidance.

Mexican orange task calendar

Most of the work on a Mexican orange comes down to doing a handful of simple jobs at the right moment. Here is when each one falls and what it involves.

Skip the pruning altogether and the shrub still behaves, since it never outgrows its allotted height.

Choosing between the main Mexican orange varieties

Beyond the plain green species, Mexican orange comes in golden-leaved, narrow-leaved and compact forms that suit very different spots in the garden. The table below sets out the ones most commonly found on sale so you can match foliage, size and flower colour to your plan.

All there is to know about Mexican orange tree

A very elegant shrub with a dense shape and magnificent blooming, the Mexican orange tree, as its name shows, is native to that North American country.

Varieties such as ‘Aztec Pearl’ or ‘Sundance’ and others make for very easy growing and Mexican orange has the advantage of never growing taller than 6 to 10 feet (2 to 3 meters) tall, which means regular pruning isn’t necessary.

Even if you let the shrub grow without ever pruning it, it will never grow higher than 10 feet (3 meters) high.

The flowers, similar to those of an orange tree, are very fragrant and this shrub adapts very well to direct growing and to growing in pots on a terrace or balcony.

Special Mexican orange tree varieties

Mexican Orange ‘Sundance’	Aztec Pearl Mexican orange	White Dazzler Mexican orange

Read more about shrubs and their use in the garden:

• Setting up a flowered hedge
• Growing an evergreen hedge
• A calendar showing when shrubs bloom
• Creating a mixed hedge

• Plant lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) beside a path or doorway, where brushing against the leaves bruises them and releases the lemony scent of their essential oils.
• A shrub in a pot dries out far faster than one in open ground, so keep watering container plants through dry spells however well established they are.
• Cold drying winds can blacken evergreen foliage, and cutting the scorched shoots back to healthy wood usually helps, though whether the plant reshoots readily from older wood depends on the species.