If you garden near the coast or in a challenging wet spot, Iva frutescens (Marsh Elder) is a reliable native shrub that takes salt spray, brackish conditions, and periodic flooding in stride. You get dense, upright, gray-green foliage and airy late-season flower clusters that blend naturally into shoreline plantings and restoration-style gardens.

Give it full sun for best performance. In open sites it forms a broad, rounded mass over time, typically reaching about 36-72 inches tall with a wide spread, so allow room for it to fill in. It is especially useful where soil stays consistently moist to wet or where tides, storm surge, or saline runoff make other shrubs struggle.

Plant in well-drained sand, coastal loam, or heavier soils that remain wet. Water regularly during establishment; once rooted, it is generally low maintenance. Prune in late winter or early spring to shape and to encourage fresh, bushy growth. Use it in naturalized borders, shoreline buffers, rain-garden edges that stay wet, and other sunny sites where salt and moisture are part of the conditions.

Specifications

• Cold hardiness zone: 5-9 (-20 degrees F) - Contact your local extension to confirm hardiness if you are in a fringe zone (we cannot guarantee hardiness in fringe zones)
• Light: Full sun
• Growth rate: Moderate
• Mature height: 36-72"
• Spread: 36-72"
• Tolerant of: Salt

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