It is no wonder that it takes many years to get to fifteen feet tall, and may never get more than twenty feet tall. Weeping bottlebrush, Callistemon viminalis, may grow less than a foot a year, but seems to hang downward two feet. Because the stems are sculptural, and the bark has an appealingly rough texture, most weeping bottlebrush trees are grown with multiple trunks. The brick red bottlebrush flowers that bloom sporadically at any time of the year are more abundant early in summer. Established plants bloom more colorfully with a bit of water, but can probably survive quite a while without it. The evergreen leaves are narrow and mostly less than three inches long. Weeping bottlebrush needs good sun exposure.
This is my favorite tree. Birds, bees and hummingbirds love it. The tree literally buzzes in the Spring. Mine took a hard freeze about two years in a row and I am hoping for a big comeback this year.
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It is a delightful favorite. It really should be more popular than it is here. Once established, it needs no supplemental irrigation. It only needs to be pruned up for clearance and thinning.
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I have never pruned mine, but I have some dead branches from a freeze. The tree took care of most of them itself. Another plus.
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A few grow wild with more common lemon bottlebrush on the embankment of the Santa Monica Freeway through Los Angeles. They have never been pruned, and might be half a century old by now. They are likely a thicket of dead crud on the inside, but look exemplary on the outside.
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I always like this plant but never in a place to try growing them.
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Like any tree, they are not necessary easy to accommodate. Although they do not get very big, they need a bit of space to be appreciated. They do not do well where winters are cold, or where the soil is regularly damp.
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Ohhhh I want one. I wonder if it would grow well here in a well drained spot?
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Well . . . I would (without knowing better) not recommend trying it there. However, I would not have recommended many of the plants that do well there, such as the Grevilleas. Don’t you already grow one of the small shrubby bottlebrush there? It would like a warm exposure. Also, you would not want it to get too overgrown. They take coastal wind rather well, but only in dry soil where they can disperse their stabilizing roots.
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I have four different callistemons and one grevillea.
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Actually, ‘Little John’ might be a cultivar of the Callistemon viminalis. Common weeping bottlebrush would likely do just as well as others of the genus. Like I say though, I would recommend keeping it light and airy, not by pruning it down, but by thinning out interior growth. Stability can be a problem in coastal regions. Once it is established, you would not want to water it much at all, and may find that it needs no water.
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What a cool plant! I can just imagine the bees and hummingbirds buzzing around it. Not a tree for our climate, sadly.
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Hummingbirds really dig it. It seems odd that something that is so extremely popular with hummingbirds is from a continent that is not inhabited by hummingbirds. I suspect that there is something similar there that digs it too.
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