Red Escallonia is a large evergreen shrub built for the coast. Native to South America and now naturalized along bluffs and beaches of coastal Oregon and Northern California, it has become a workhorse of seaside planting, tolerating salt spray that would scorch most broadleafs. Growing 10 to 15 feet, it forms a substantial rounded mass and from summer into fall produces clusters of rose-red to white flowers held in reddish-purple, glandular calyces. Bees work the blooms freely.

It is not a plant for inland summers: heat and humidity inland are its limits, and it performs best where marine air keeps temperatures moderate year-round. After flowering is the time to prune, and this shrub can take severe cutting if renovation is needed. Left alone, it can become ragged with age, so building a pruning habit into the first few years pays off in a stronger, more attractive structure over time. Scale and the occasional leaf spot are minor nuisances, not threats.