I am generally not a massive fan of the large flowering Grevilleas, mainly because they encourage the wrong birds, well not the wrong birds but birds who already have a plentiful source of food. However when someone asks for a native plant that flowers year round, they are generally the first thing that springs to mind.

Most of the large, brush-flowered grevilleas come from northern Australia so are very well suited to subtropical climates where they create showy displays. This Grevillea ‘Blood Orange’ is in my mums front garden and it has never been without flowers! It is growing happily in a clay soil in full sun, iit copes well with coastal winds and extended periods of dry weather.

The flowers are about 15cm to 20cm long and a deep, unusual orange, the shrub its self has a slightly weeping habit and grows to about 3 metres tall by 2 metres wide. It is best to give it a light prune once or twice a year to maintain its dense habit.

Grevillea ‘Blood Orange’ can also be under-pruned to make a small feature tree or be planted as a screening shrub. The rainbow lorikeets love this Grevillea as do the noisy minors, luckily there is plenty of dense cover with smaller flowers for the smaller birds nearby. I really can’t begrudge ‘Blood Orange’s showy habit it is always admired by passersby on the street and gives plenty of privacy to the front deck.