Bottlebrushes

[thyerr01]

A couple of my seed grown bottlebrushes have flowered for the first time this spring, all about 3.5 years old. Callistemons are clearly one of the best groups of Australian plants for the Gulf Coast/US Southeast, although only a few varieties are commonly available. I'm curious if anyone else is having success with any other species, or related genera like Melaleuca/Kunzea/Calothamnus. In addition to the ones below I also have C. montanus about to flower. Our two most recent freezes in late 2022 and early 2024 killed all of my Kunzea baxteri and various seedling Melaleucas did not survive their first summer last year when my irrigation stopped working briefly. I'll start some more of those off this year.

C. linearis

C. pinifolius - Basically a smaller version of C. linearis with very fine leaves. Possibly all one species along with C. rigidus. Most of the flowers aborted and this is the only one left, which I was expecting to be orange...

C. vimminalis 'Boyette' - Purchased from Caldwell Nursery 2 years ago. This is an excellent cultivar and repeatedly flowers throughout the year.

[Palmarum]

Nice collection and photos.

As the few Callistemon we have here in S. Florida do so well, I always wanted to try other species, as there are so many.  Some of them have extraordinary blooms. They do not appear in cultivation here or on sale lists, etc. I will keep an eye out for them if they ever do show up.

The fact that the genus has been lumped in with Melaleuca does not help with the species' popularity. It might also restrict their entry into S. Fl. as the common Melaleuca has been an introduced menace here for so many years. The name has become a bad word.

If I do find any species, I would ignore the name change for a bit. 

Ryan

[Than]

They are omnipresent here; you see them everywhere. Impressive blooming; if only it could last a bit longer. 

Today I saw some specimens at a gas station, pruned into perfect balls. As they were evidently not young individuals but old ones restricted to a small size through pruning, they had become a mass of red flowers as a result. I felt sorry for them being pruned so ruthlessly but I must say they looked awesome.

[happypalms]

Omg they are a dime a dozen in my area in Australia a nice grevillia to try to get is Robyn Gordon or captain Cooke callistermon and the kunzea baxterii is tough as nails one in my garden they are some true winners in Australia that should give you Aussie native plant lovers some food for thought 

[thyerr01]

@happypalms None of my 10 or so Kunzea baxteri survived our freezes over the last two winters (lows of -7C/19F). My guess is that they spread by seed after fire, rather than resprouting. I haven't seen G. x 'Robyn Gordon' in the US, but I previously has 'Peaches and Cream' and currently have 'Ned Kelly' which are two other hybrids with the same parentage. G. x 'Ned Kelly' is supposedly slightly more frost resistant than the others. Callistemon 'Captain Cook' is a C. viminalis cultivar, which is one of the more frost sensitive of the genus. Large specimens may regrow from the roots after severe of freezes in Houston. I'm interested in finding some of the less common Callistemon species that might be more frost resistant, particularly C. teretifolius and C. brachyandrus.

[thyerr01]

C. montanus. I didn't have much hope that these would actually turn out to be the real thing, but the flowers are a good match. 

[richtrav]

Melaleuca bracteata has done very well in far South Texas, most forms were unaffected by the ‘21 freeze. A weeping form from Longreach is the prettiest but seems to be a little more tender than other forms. In Arizona M. lanceolata looks similar but has somewhat smaller leaves. Another pretty hardy viminalis cultivar is ‘Slim’, it took the ‘21 freeze but can have chlorosis issues here, about like ‘Little John’, another hardy one. The cultivar ‘Boyette’ has both cold and chlorosis issues here. ‘Harkness’ is known for its tolerance to alkalinity in Australia but did terribly down here, going downhill as soon as it went into the ground.

There is one unnamed cultivar down here, probably a hybrid, which was probably the same thing that was growing in San Antonio before 2021. It looks like a scraggly viminalis x something (citrinus?) but it handles cold very well and has large showy blooms. I’m guessing it is some cultivar that a wholesale nursery like Greenleaf discovered in some yard and started propagating it, it is closest to ‘Red Cascade’ but not quite the same. There are a couple of other clones that have been in yards here for many decades that also do well.

[thyerr01]

@richtrav That's a great looking bottlebrush. Have you observed any of the various forms to be free flowering? The short flowering period and general lack of reblooming is my main criticism of them - which 'Boyette' does deliver on. I agree that it's very cold sensitive and mine gets covered and xmas lights during our severe freezes; I haven't had any issues with chlorosis though, which does affect my Grevilleas.

I see a variety of hybrids/cultivars at nurseries in Houston including 'Woodlanders Hardy', 'Clemson', 'Little John', 'Red Clusters', 'Neon Pink', 'Hannah Ray', and an unnamed one which I suspect might be C. pallidus. C. vimminalis 'Little John' was widely planted in Houston, even in commercial landscapes, but our recent freezes killed them off. The only survivors I have seen locally were in Galveston. Some of the largest tree form C. vimminalis with thick trunks were able to regrow from the base. 

 

 

[richtrav]

It’s rare to see a bottlebrush that blooms more than once, maybe ‘Little John’? I want to try ‘Better John’ and ‘Green John’, both of which are hybrids off of ‘Little John’ and are supposed to be superior. Here if cultivars bloom more than once it’s usually late winter into spring, and it’s more of an extended blooming period rather than a true second flush.

I can see some viminalis recovering in Houston, in San Antonio there were some citrinus that recovered from the 1980s, freezing to the ground several times. I tried ‘Red Clusters’ in San Antonio and it did ok, it did get occasional cold damage. That hardy one Monrovia sold died on me down here, the one with linear leaves, it wasn’t from cold it was probably the soil. I also lost a ‘MacArthur’ about a decade ago. ‘Boulia’ does very well here and can survive the really bad well water I have, which is off-the-chart alkaline. The blooms aren’t the biggest but it could make a great rootstock.

The alpine forms invariably fail in Central and South Texas. Down here there is a single ‘Injune’ that has somehow survived in Brownsville (pictured). Looking at street view it appears to have been in bloom in June 2023.

 

[Silas_Sancona]

40 minutes ago, richtrav said:

It’s rare to see a bottlebrush that blooms more than once, maybe ‘Little John’?

 

Little Johns in the street island here are a one and done -er..  Then again, these do get chopped ( ...Not that they need to be  ) so,  ..i'll have to keep my eyes open to see if other, less abused specimens present a second flowering cycle in the fall.

Rest of what bottle brushes are around are definitely spring only bloomers.

[thyerr01]

My understanding was that those derivatives of 'Little John' were really only improved for nursery production, ie quicker time to maturity and easier propagation under mist. Either way, I've never seen anything other than 'Little John' for sale in Texas.

That C. sp. 'Injune' looks great, very different from other weeping bottlebrushes. I wonder how it got there. Would love to get a cutting from that if I make it down to Brownsville some day. 

[Peter]

Here's 'slim' in Southern California.  Has been a good grower for me and usually has 1 or 2 smaller bloom periods after the large one in spring.  Looks handsome out of flower, needs very little water, and has in fact, stayed narrow so far as advertised.

[richtrav]

On 4/20/2024 at 7:33 PM, thyerr01 said:

My understanding was that those derivatives of 'Little John' were really only improved for nursery production, ie quicker time to maturity and easier propagation under mist. Either way, I've never seen anything other than 'Little John' for sale in Texas.

That C. sp. 'Injune' looks great, very different from other weeping bottlebrushes. I wonder how it got there. Would love to get a cutting from that if I make it down to Brownsville some day. 

Almost certainly purchased from Morris Clint, he grew some out about 25 years ago.

[ChrisA]

I’m hoping we have a better climate for Callistemon for a decade or two now.  I’ve been watching this individual in the Mahnke Park area since it was planted last year.  It lost some of the foliage last winter but has more than doubled in size.  I think this is C. viminalis, please correct me if I’m wrong.

 

@Fusca what was your experience when you grew C. citrinus in SA? Outside of 2021 did it suffer damage often? Did it flower regularly/yearly? How big did it get?  I have not seen any in San Antonio since I moved here.  There was a very large C. viminalis (I think it was viminalis anyway) in King William on Guenther. I think there were some of the same at the botanical garden, but I knew of no others.  Would love to find a spot for a few! TIA!

 

[thyerr01]

@ChrisA My climate is certainly a bit milder than yours, but if you like Callistemons I'd just try a few. The cultivars seen in garden centers like Woodlander's Red or Clemson will survive any winter in SA once established. For anything else, our freezes are usually pretty brief (if sometimes severe) and little bit of protection around the base almost guarantees they will resprout. There were some really large C. viminalis near me that went unprotected in 2021 and grew back. The ones that really failed in urban Houston were the dwarf C. viminalis like 'Little John'. The only survivors I have seen were down towards the coast.

If there are some interesting survivors around SA that folks know about, you can try taking cuttings, they strike pretty easily if kept warm. These are also really easy to grow from seed if you see any oddball species online you like the look of. 

[TropicsEnjoyer]

I too have a bottlebrush. Red flowers im not sure of the cultivar but I really love the color and the somewhat droopy foliage. I would post a pic but it’s not really in full bloom rn. Either way, very carefree tree that attracts butterflies bees and hummingbirds. Grows quite fast too.

[ChrisA]

Thanks Ross! That is good advice. It'd be fun to grow some or take some cuttings.  There used to be several good size Little John Bottlebrushes around but many if not most were killed. There are still a few I've seen that I believe survived the big freeze and came back from the roots. I think your idea to heavily mulch and protect the roots is key to ensure they come back.  Below is a screenshot from Google street view of the large bottlebrush from the King William area of San Antonio from back in March of 2020.  The neighbor to their south also had a fairly large Jacaranda which had been there for over a decade (toasted nearly to the ground a few times in those years). Interestingly the largest the jacaranda ever was is from the 2007 street view, so I imagine it had many good years prior to that!

 

[Fusca]

6 hours ago, ChrisA said:

 

@Fusca what was your experience when you grew C. citrinus in SA? Outside of 2021 did it suffer damage often? Did it flower regularly/yearly? How big did it get?  I have not seen any in San Antonio since I moved here.

It grew well for me in SA and flowered regularly.  I don't think I had it very long before the great freeze.  Pretty sure it wasn't damaged prior to that event although it wasn't tested for freezes much below 25°F.  It did survive 2021 coming back from the roots.  I understand that they do get bigger than most people expect but I think mine was only about 7-8' tall.