[John J]

Fleur, how much water do you give your myrtles? How water-retentive is your soil? In the wild in Cyprus they are generally considered to grow in fairly moist areas. So much so that the older generation tended to regard them as a good indicator for the presence of underground water.

[John]

Most of the plants I have seen growing in the wild were in favourable habitats with reasonable moisture. The best sites were in sheltered valleys e.g. the valley to the north of Myrtos, south coast of Crete below the Dikti mountains. Very occasionally it was in an unusual site where it can be stressed. One example is at the back of the beach in dune slacks on the north coast of Crete where it would have had to tolerate at least salt spray and also was growing in standing water which may have been seasonal. Here they only grew to about 1m high.

[John]

So it looks as if we are saying "yes" it needs water! Well enough and isn't really a drought plant.

[Cali]

I'm saying "no" it doesn't need water. All the wild myrtles on my property never get watered and flourish nevertheless. Some of the "nanas"" I've planted in "planned"areas often get some water vicariously just by being near plants that get watered once a week in the summer; they don't look any different from the ones that don't get watered except they grow a bit faster nad need to get more drastically clipped.

[John]

Would you say they get any natural moisture where they grow or do they go through a period of real drought?

[Cali]

No, they don't get any natural moisture, unless the slight (compared to many other parts of Greece which have none at all) humidity of the atmosphere counts as such.

[JTh]

I always believed they needed lots of water, the only bush I have seen around our house grows in a place that seems to be regularly flooded, and I thought the place was constantly moist. John's question made me curious, though, and what I found seems to confirm what Cali writes.

The plant is highly drought tolerant. The soil should be allowed to dry in-between waterings. Tip chlorosis is a problem if the soil does not drain well , see (http://www.plantoftheweek.org/week125.shtml)

Water: requires regular irrigation; once per month or more, (http://ag.arizona.edu/pima/gardening/aridplants/Myrtus_communis.html)

Average Water Needs; Water regularly; do not overwater (http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/54005/#b)

Soil: Moist but well-drained (http://apps.rhs.org.uk/plantselector/plant?plantid=1305)

Finally, Hilda Gildemeister (in Mediterranean Gardening: A Waterwise Approach) writes:
Likes well-drained, humusy soil in sun or shade
 
So my conclusion is: water is necessary every now and then, but not constantly

[Fleur Pavlidis]

I give half an hour drip irrigation once a week. The soil is good on top, dreadful and dry underneath. The best looking, but still stunted,  plant is growing in stony terra rosa which conceivably holds more water than my more usual subsoil mix where the sad ones are. I think unaccomodating might be the best description.

[Alisdair]

I don't think myrtle needs good soil, but it's certainly picky. It also grows much better with summer watering than without, at least for the first few years. In our Greek garden a myrtle that was irrigated for about five years but is no longer is now a magnificent specimen, covered with fat fruit. But cuttings from it (i.e. exactly the same genetic material) which we have grown on and then planted out in the "managed wilderness" part of the garden and which have had deep monthly waterings in their first summer but are now not watered are mostly slower to get going properly - they do seem to eventually. The ones which grow best seem to be the ones which start life with a bit of shade, either from neighbouring plants or from something solid like a wall.
Having said that, none in our hot Greek garden seem to grow quite as lustily as in our Sussex garden in the UK, which is clay on sandstone.
Incidentally, our subsp. communis has exactly the off-white fruits described earlier in this thread by Cali.