The Bottlebrush
BOTTLEBRUSHES are members of the genus, Callistemon, and belong to the Myrtaceae  or Myrtle family, which includes cloves, guavas, all-spice and eucalyptus.
Medium-sized trees or bushes, these attractive plants produce spikes of colourful flowers, of which the most conspicuous parts are the tufts of long stamens.
They are commonly referred to as Bottlebrushes because of their cylindrical, brush-like flowers resembling a traditional  brush for cleaning bottles.
The spiky plants are native to Australia, with 34 species across the country currently, and four species found in New Caledonia in the southwest Pacific.
The name is derived from the Greek words ‘kallos’, meaning beauty, and ‘stemon’, meaning stamen, describing the coloured stamens, the showy part of the flowers.
This flower is actually an accumulation of many very tiny blossoms forming an approximately 7-cm-long flower.
The pollen of the flower forms on the tip of the long coloured stalk or filament. It is these filaments which give the flower spike its colour and distinctive ‘bottlebrush’ shape.
The filaments are usually yellow or red; sometimes the pollen also adds a bright yellow flush to the flower spikes and the flower.
The original Bottlebrushes available to gardeners were all bold red, but flower colours now range from red, to pink, mauve, cream and green.
A Bottlebrush is a good addition to almost any garden, and is irresistible to nectar-feeding birds and insects. They also look great as a hedge, screen plant, or street tree.
The bloom has made it a popular flower in bouquets, both locally and around the world. Its distinctive leaves are often also used in floral arrangements.
Bottlebrushes are among the hardiest of Australia’s native plants. They  flower year after year, and can live for 20 to 40 years, if given the right growing conditions.
These plants are available at the nursery of the Botanical Gardens. They  can be propagated either by cuttings,  or from the rounded seeds.
Plants grown in full sun produce the best flowers.