Grevilleas

Grevilleas are very widespread in Eastern Australia and are found growing in open forest areas from South-East Queensland to Central West New South Wales and ACT.

I think they are one of the most varied native species which are well adapted to different soil types with varying leaf types with the most amazing brightly coloured flowers.

Most grevilleas prefer full sun and moist well drained acid soils (so a pH less than 7). I use only native specific fertilisers with with no or very low phosphorus content. These guys have special fibres on their roots which make them super efficient when it comes to taking up phosphorus and other nutrients from the soil. Overloading the plant will kill these special roots and the plant.

I'm very cautious when adding other organic materials such as chook poo, Dynamic Lifter as this may be too much. Grevilleas are highly adapted to low nutrient soils. Spoiling them will just result in their demise.

Once established (over a year in the same spot) grevilleas should not need anything but pruning, so cut off all spent flowers and prune back flowering wood by about a third. My Robyn Gordon sometimes suffers from iron deficiency which I fix with iron sulphate.

The three I have in my garden, G juniperina prostrate 'Pink Lady' (below), G 'Robyn Gordon' and G 'Red Clusters' are all doing well in pots.

Grevillea juniperina ‘Pink Lady’ grows to about 30-60 cm tall and as it matures can spread up to 2-3 metres. G. juniperina prefers full sun but tolerates the shade in my backyard, only receiving morning light, it prefers moist well drained soil and will tolerate moderate frosts.

This grevillea is currently covered in lots of fine, soft pink flowers (July to August) and I expect it will spot flower throughout the year.