Endemic to New South Wales and Queensland in Australia this attractive evergreen shrub has narrow stiff leaves and produce 3 to 6cm long bright red flower spikes usually in late spring to early summer. Despite spring and summer being their usual flowering time the bottle brush like blooms can appear at any time of year in the UK.

Probably the hardiest of the bottlebrushes surviving all but the very hardest winters in the UK if given a nutrient poor, acid to neutral, well drained soil. Very drought resistant when grown in the ground and can be trained as a hedge, standard or left to grow into a natural looking large shrub to small tree, reaching up to 4 meters in height.

Sent as a young plant in a 9cm pot.

Photos by H. Zell,Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz