This hardy plant requires no special care. Good, enriched soil, full sun or semi-shade and plenty of water, will ensure rapid, healthy growth. It has excellent waterwise properties, and once established it will tolerate fairly heavy drought.

It is ideal as a specimen plant grown to brighten up any patch in your garden. It is a lovely container plant and it will also do well in a mixed border, providing attractive flowers and/or foliage all year round. The 'Southern Shores' selection grows very well in rockeries, on slopes, terraforce walls and any well-drained, sunny garden position providing a beautiful display. As it grows naturally next to the sea it is also an ideal small shrub for coastal gardens.

Polygala fruticosa is freely self-seeding and small plants will appear around the parent plant after the first flowering season, and these will transplant easily. Seed is typical of Polygala being a small, hard, oval, black seed. Treat seed with hot water for better germination. Light scarification and treatment with pre-emergence fungicide will give optimum results, but is not necessary for good germination.

Polygala fruticosa can also be propagated vegetatively using tip or heel cuttings, preferably taken during spring or autumn.

Pruning is not necessary as it retains a compact habit, but when cultivated in bags they may be pruned and will readily resprout from medium to hard pruning done on the young wood.

Other recommended species are:

Polygala myrtifolia, the September butterfly bush, is a hardy, quick-growing coastal shrub with lime-green leaves producing masses of purple-pink flowers, mainly from spring to summer.

Polygala virgata, purple broom, is a sparse shrub with arching branches, bearing graceful sprays of deep purplish pink flowers.