Melaleuca linariifolia: is a member of the Myrtaceae family and is known as Snow-in-Summer.
Melaleuca linariifolia is a small tree that may reach a height of ten metres. Leaves are linear to narrow-elliptical and dark green. Flower heads are terminal or almost so. Often new growth comes out from the top of the flower head. Blooms are profuse, conspicuous and white. Plants are crowned, spring and summer, with masses of flowers (hence the common name).
Snow-in-Summer could be grown as a specimen plant or incorporated in shelterbelts and windbreaks.
Melaleuca linariifolia is found from south-eastern Queensland to south-eastern New South Wales. There is also an isolated population on the Blackdown Tablelands in central Queensland.
Snow-in-Summer is common, in the bushland, along the F3 Freeway between Sydney and Gosford.
The species usually grows along the margins of wetlands and watercourses. In cultivation, Melaleuca linariifolia, will survive and thrive in dry situations.
Plants grown from seed will take a number of years to flower and become rather large. Cutting grown plants, from mature specimens, will flower sooner and will be shorter. The plant illustrated is growing in the gardens at Yallaroo. It is a cutting and first flowered in the spring of 2006 when the plant was less than two metres tall. With judicious pruning we intend to keep this plant at about this height.
There is a dwarf form known as “Claret Tops”. This form is not as vigorous or as free flowering as the “conventional” form.
Propagate from seed or cuttings (see above).

Plants