Larry Smith and the Riverside Gardens team talk all things pots, plants and pruning in their weekly gardening column.

Wow, what crazy spring weather we have been having.

Jumpers on, jumpers off, jackets on, jackets off, down to a shirt, sunscreen on, jacket back on and that is all in one day.

I think I may have jumped the gun in shaving my head for summer.

Oh well, looks like it will be beanie’s for a while yet.

If we are confused, think about the poor plants.

My jacaranda trees at home are not even showing any sign of flowering, whereas they would usually be coming into full flower by now.

One group of plants though have really been loving it; callistemons or bottle brushes have been putting on their best display for years.

Starting about a month ago, they have been flowering their heads off, and they don’t seem to be showing any signs of finishing anytime soon.

It is easy to see why they are so popular as you drive around town they seem to be everywhere, growing in a wide range of different conditions and being used for a variety of different purposes.

They really are an extremely hardy versatile plant coming in a range of sizes from low mounding shrubs to tall trees and it says something that some of the older varieties are still some of the most popular.

Callistemon Kings Park Special is a great example of this.

Growing to about 3 metres high, they are an upright, compact bushy shrub.

They are free flowering with bright red bottle brush flower heads that are very attractive to nectar loving birds.

Kings Park Special make great feature or screen plants that can be pruned to shape or allowed to grow naturally into small trees.

It would still have to be one of the best bottle brushes and probably one of the most popular.

Callistemon Dawsons River Weeper is a larger growing variety that can reach up to 8 metres high at maturity, but more regularly to around six.

This medium-sized tree has a strong pendulous habit which becomes even more pronounced once the weight of its impressive flower display is added to the branches.

Dawsons River bottle brush have been flowering around town for about the last month and are still loaded with fresh flowers, which should see them go through into December.

This will be followed up by another lighter display in autumn that can extend through to May.

Callistemon Dawsons River will tolerate damper poor draining soils through to clay or sandy loam and prefer a sunny to semi-shaded position.

Callistemon Little John is a lovely dwarf variety of bottle brush that grows to only about 1 metre high and can look great mass planted or singularly in open sunny spots.

They can be a bit reluctant to flower though, and in recent years, an improver variety called Better John has been bred from the original that flowers more freely.

This new cultivar has silvery green new growth with blue-green toned older foliage beneath.

Their small dark red flowers appear mostly throughout spring.

Another older variety is Callistemon Captain Cook, which is also a shorter growing one reaching only about 1.5 metres high.

Callistemon Captain Cook flowers twice a year with the main display being now followed up with a reasonably strong repeat flowering in autumn.

They are considered one of the best smaller growing red flowering bottle brushes.

It forms an erect, compact shrub, with small, narrow leaves making this a great native hedge plant that responds well to pruning after it has finished flowering.

Callistemon Great Balls of Fire is a newer release bottle brush grown for its foliage rather than its flowers.

Great Balls of Fire is known for its dense, compact habit and the vibrant pink/red colour of its emerging new growth.

Growing to a height of around 1.75m and with a similar spread, makes it ideal as a hedge plant with colour impact as well.

Quick growing and easy to establish, they can add structure to a new garden very quickly.

Callistemon Slim is a narrow growing native bottle brush that can reach 3 metres high by only 1 metre wide with red bottle brush flowers.

A typically hardy bottle brush that has a bushy upright habit with foliage all the way from the ground up unless otherwise pruned to give a clear trunk.

Callistemon Slim is another of the more recent additions to the bottle brush family and has become popular for use in narrow spaces.

Callistemon Slim can flower from spring right through to autumn.

Although I have only mentioned red flowering bottle brushes here, they do come in a range of colours like Callistemon White Anzac, Callistemon Pink Neon, Callistemon Mauve Mist, or Callistemon Pallidus which is yellow flowering to name just a few.

All of them are flowering over this time of the year, so keep an eye out as you go about town and you will notice just how popular callistemons really are.

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Sunday, 5th October 2025

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