The Mirror Plant

Most gardens can use an evergreen plant that has striking foliage to keep your garden looking good, whether flowers are in bloom or not. The Mirror Plant, Coprosma repens, is a small tree that takes little care, and has a lot of varieties and hybrids. It comes from Hawaii, New Zealand, Borneo, Java, New Guinea and island of the Pacific Ocean to Australia.

Related to coffee plants, the female has small non-poisonous yellow-orange berries if a male and female are grown close together. It can grow as high as ten feet tall, and six feet wide, unless at the coast where it grows much more compact. Prune twice a year to keep as hedge or windbreak.

The foliage is very waxy and shiny, coming in green and silvery white, cream colored leaves specked in lime green, green leaves with cream blotches and even green leaves with a yellow edge that takes on a pink edging with maturity. It is seaside tolerant and can handle cold down to about 20 degrees F, it likes partial to full sun and regular watering. Photo courtesy of Kim & Forest Starr, Maui, HI.