About
Callistemon pallidus is an evergreen shrub that can grow between 2 and 4 meters in height, featuring a multitude of slender branches. The new growth displays a silvery or reddish hue and is covered in soft hairs. Its leaves are narrow and elliptical, ranging from grey-green to dark green, and can reach lengths of up to 10 centimeters. From late spring until midsummer, this plant produces cream or pale yellow flowers arranged in semi-open spikes resembling bottlebrushes, measuring around 10 centimeters long. After flowering, it develops woody fruit capsules that can remain on the plant for several years.
About the genus
Callistemon consists of evergreen shrubs characterized by their fragrant, narrow to lanceolate leaves. These plants produce distinctive bottlebrush-like flower spikes, where the elongated, vividly colored stamens are particularly noticeable.
Growing conditions
- Sunlight
- Full sun
- Soil type
- Loam, Sand
- Soil pH
- Acid, Neutral
- Soil moisture
- Moist but well-drained
- Aspect
- West-facing, South-facing, East-facing
- Exposure
- Sheltered
- UK hardiness
- H3
Plant details
- Plant type
- Shrubs
- Habit
- Bushy
- Foliage
- Evergreen
- Height
- 2.5-4 metres
- Spread
- 2.5-4 metres
- Time to full height
- 10-20 years
- Suggested uses
- Coastal, City and courtyard gardens, Cottage and informal garden, Mediterranean climate plants
- Native to
- Australia, Tasmania
- Fragrance
- Foliage
Care notes
- Cultivation
- Grow in full sun in moderately fertile, freely-draining but moisture-retentive neutral or acidic soil; under glass grow in peat-free, loam-based compost
- Pruning
- Pruning group 1 (little or no pruning of trees and shrubs)
- Propagation
- Propagate by seed, sown onto moist compost at 16-18°C, in spring, or by heeled semi-ripe cuttings of lateral shoots in late summer
- Pest resistance
- May be susceptible to scale insects, mealybugs and glasshouse red spider mite
- Disease resistance
- May be susceptible to honey fungus