Description

Family Myrtaceae
Originating from Australia

• Vigorous, open, and airy arching stems bear evergreen rosemary-like leaves.
• Rich purple bottlebrush flowers are borne in summer and sporadically in autumn.
• Hardy and easy to grow in full sun and most soil types.

We are excited to bring you this rare variety of bottlebrush, sold to us by a collector who knew we would propagate it, rather than lose it to UK horticulture. We have successfully produced new generations and are happy, as the sole UK stockist (according to the RHS Plantfinder), to make these plants available to our customers.

Classy yet charmingly loud, with an opulent and abundant display of flowers in early summer. Its wide-spreading, cascading stems create a framework for the floral display, making a firework-like exhibition of the blooms. Its slender olive-green leaves are pointed at the tips and held rigidly on the branches, standing upright at their tips and gradually becoming more horizontal further down the stems. They are aromatic, as is the entire plant, and their evergreen richness in color ensures an outstanding display throughout the year. It rapidly establishes a stout branching structure, and the plant can be pruned back hard to that structure to maintain its compactness if desired. Nevertheless, when allowed to grow naturally, it forms a fantastic spectacle of abundant fountain-like growth.

The early summer display of deep purple flowers, beloved by all pollinators, makes this variety the star of the show. The central upright branches carry the flowers vertically, while the wide, arching older stems present them horizontally and pendulously, creating an explosive haze of deep lustrous purple blooms. The flowers are crowned by soft and silky new leaves as the fresh growth continues to shoot beyond the blossoms. Beneath them are seed pods from the preceding season, characterized by a tough and woody oval shape firmly attached to the branches, awaiting a bushfire to trigger germination. Late-season sporadic flushes of flowers can occur during hot periods.

One of the hardier and more resilient Callistemons, it is a rare and robust variety, easy to cultivate, excelling in pots, thriving in full sun, and adapting to most soil types except heavy wet soil.

Height and spread after 5 – 10 years 2.5m x 2.5m.