I have written before about my love of bottlebrush and how I wish for a resurgence in their use in garden design and the general landscape. There are many new interesting forms and cultivars that are a far shot from the ratty, sparse unloved street trees we all know. They come in soft pinks, deep violets and lemon yellows with varying coloured leaves and habits, I am collecting images of them all as quick as I can 😉

The Callistemon in these images is one I use quite a bit for its useful size and dense weeping habit Callistemon subulatus ‘Brogo Overflow’.
This Callistemon is reasonably low growing making it a great size for a low to medium hedge, it will get to somewhere between 1 and 1.5 metres high and 1.5 to 2.5 metres wide. The leaves are quite spiky making it a perfect habitat plant for small birds, plus it has a long flowering period from early Spring through to late Summer or Autumn.

The flowers are an iridescent scarlet red and rich in nectar, the shrub benefits from an all over prune after flowering but generally will remain quite dense without the stringent Callistemon dead heading 😉
One of the reasons I love bottlebrush so much is for their adaptability, they can take a heavy clay soil with temporary inundation in the root zone, they also can withstand extended dry periods once established. Callistemons also put up with full sun but will still flower and thrive in part shade too, this one is particularly frost tolerant too.

Callistemon subulatus ‘Brogo Overflow’ can be used planted as a group as seen in these images here or as a feature shrub in a small garden, especially with its long flowering period.
I hope this is a bottlebrush to be seen around a little more often as it has so much to offer in the garden.