Just bought a myrtus apiculata to grow up against a south facing fence. The garden centre sold it to me as hardy but since getting home I've read conflicting comments about its hardiness. I live in Wales UK where the climate is fairly mild in the winter and my back garden where this plant is is a sun trap and gets very warm in the summer. I am also growing an Abelia there (against a wall, facing south west) and that is thriving (it has grown from a tiny plant to about 1.6-1.8m in about a year and a half). Abelia seems to be quoted the same hardiness as the myrtle but having said that last winter was especially mild in Britain. Will the myrtle survive in my garden?
Now classified as Luma apiculata. It should do fine, it is better adapted to Britain's climate than Abelia is. Slow-growing, but eventually fairly large, 5-10m tall; very nice bark.
Thanks for your reply. You said it gets tall eventually, but can I keep it trimmed and confined to a small space against the fence (the gap between patio slabs and fence is very narrow rougly 40cm, maybe a little less)? I have the tiniest of gardens and I am planning to do the same with an eycalyptus and an acer negundo (i.e. prune hard every year to get good leaf colour and to keep them small - about 2 metres high). Also, do you know roughly how long will this myrtus take to reach the top of the fence (about 1.80 m).
Sounds like you may need a smaller-growing shrub for that spot, although these often do start out with a slender shape so you may be able to train it to maintain that habit. I definitely wouldn't expect to be able to successfully hard prune it annually like the other, much more vigorous subjects, this is a different critter entirely.