The Rebel Gardener

Grevillea “Ned Kelly” (syn Masons Hybrid) is a hybrid between Grevillea banksii and Grevillea bipinnatifida. This was the plant that introduced me to Australian native plants as it was growing in my garden when we purchased that house in 1998.

Grevillea Ned Kelly

It was just outside our dining room window and was always covered in birds feasting on the flowers. In fact this plant was so floriferous it was hard to find a time to give it an annual prune and tidy up.

Apart from the annual prune this plant required zero maintenance. It never needed to be watered and just kept on looking good year after year. For someone after a low maintenance drought tolerant garden this is a plant this is definitely a good starting point.

Grevillea Superb

One of the other great things about this plant is that it has several other brothers and sisters that have been bred from the same parents. Grevillea “Superb”, Grevillea “Robyn Gordon”, Grevillea “Coconut Ice” and Grevillea “Peaches and Cream” are just a few. Each of these Grevilleas are as garden worthy as each other and in some respects they are such great performers that they have become quite common in Australian gardens and public landscapes. The important thing about these Grevilleas though is that they do need an annual prune to tidy them up but apart from this they will flower for most of the year and attract birds like you wouldn’t believe.

Grevillea Robyn Gordon

The bad news for me though is that they really don’t like phosphorus at all. The G Superb that I planted in my garden died after about a year of just barely hanging on and I’m sure that G Peaches and Cream would now also be dead if I hadn’t have treated it with Powerfeed. The Powerfeed bought it back from deaths door and despite new green growth coming back some time ago it still hasn’t flowered. I’ve now treated it with a more balanced native fertilizer so we’ll see how it goes over the next few months. Hopefully it will start to flower again soon.

Another Grevillea that I’ve also tried in my new garden is Grevillea “Strawberry Sundae”. This appears to have the same parents as the others but is more prostrate. It has reacted in the same manner as G Peaches and Cream to the phosphorus and Powerfeed, so hopefully it will flower as well soon.

Grevillea Peaches and Cream, left and Grevillea Strawberry Sundae right. Both recovering from Phosporus Toxicity.

All in all this group of Grevilleas are all very easy to grow. They are all drought tolerant plants that flower for most of the year and require little maintenance. All they need is an annual prune and make sure you keep the fertilizer away from them.

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• Growing Agave Attenuata in a Pot
• Eremophila “Big Poly”
• Eremophila Images
• Isopogon Formosus