Bottle brush plants (Callistemon) are evergreen shrubs that require minimal care and produce long, colorful flowers with spiky filaments. They're ideal as border plants, as hedging or in a container.

Callistemon is a genus of shrubs in the family Myrtaceae, first described as a genus in 1814. The entire genus is endemic to Australia but widely cultivated in many other regions and naturalised in scattered locations.

PLANTING AND CARE

Outdoors, plant bottle brush shrubs in a sunny location. The plants arena picky about the soil type as long as it is well drained. If the soil is very poor, enrich with compost at planting time. Once established, bottle brush plants tolerate drought and moderate salt spray.

CARING FOR BOTTLE BRUSH

Callistemon bottle brush care consists of regular watering while the tree is young and annual fertilization until it matures. Water young trees weekly in the absence of rain, applying the water slowly to saturate the soil as deeply as possible. A layer of mulch over the root zone will slow the evaporation of water and help prevent weeds.