{"product_id":"callistemon-viminalis","title":"Callistemon viminalis","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe weeping bottlebrush is the one most Americans have already met without knowing the name, a small tree of crimson brushes and long hanging branchlets planted through Florida and the Gulf Coast until a hard freeze thins the ranks and somebody plants them again. In the wild \u003cem\u003eCallistemon viminalis\u003c\/em\u003e runs down the eastern edge of Australia from Cape York into northeastern New South Wales, and almost always along water: creek banks, seasonal channels, the damp sand beside a watercourse. That habitat explains the two things that set this species apart from the rest of the genus. The branches hang rather than stand, giving the whole tree a fountain habit that carries even out of flower, and the roots will tolerate heavier ground and less than perfect drainage, which almost no other bottlebrush will.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe name is unusually literal. \u003cem\u003eCallistemon\u003c\/em\u003e is Greek praise, \u003cem\u003ekallos\u003c\/em\u003e for beauty and \u003cem\u003estemon\u003c\/em\u003e for a thread, because the show is stamens rather than petals; the true petals are small, round, greenish, and drop away almost unnoticed. \u003cem\u003eViminalis\u003c\/em\u003e comes from the Latin \u003cem\u003evimen\u003c\/em\u003e, a pliant shoot, the same root behind the withies a basket maker cuts, and anyone who has watched these branchlets move in a summer storm will grant the point. Under the newer taxonomy the plant is \u003cem\u003eMelaleuca viminalis\u003c\/em\u003e, since molecular work placed the bottlebrushes inside the paperbarks; the nursery trade and the Australian Plant Census have largely kept \u003cem\u003eCallistemon\u003c\/em\u003e, and so do we, while noting the argument honestly.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis species carries a piece of Woodlanders history whether or not the botany ever gets settled. Decades ago the growers here selected and fixed a single cold-tough bottlebrush clone and introduced the plant to the American trade as \u003cem\u003eCallistemon\u003c\/em\u003e 'Woodlander's Hardy'. Nobody wrote down the parentage, and to this day the clone is sold variously as a \u003cem\u003ecitrinus\u003c\/em\u003e, as a \u003cem\u003eviminalis\u003c\/em\u003e, and, under the new names, as \u003cem\u003eMelaleuca viminalis\u003c\/em\u003e 'Woodlander's Hardy'. That selection carried the genus a full hardiness zone north, from the Gulf Coast into the piedmont, and now grows coast to coast. The straight species offered here is the wild plant behind at least one half of that argument, which makes growing the two side by side a genuinely interesting exercise for anyone who cares where a garden plant came from.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGive the tree full sun and room; fifteen to twenty-five feet in time in a mild climate, less where winter cuts back the growth, and the fountain habit wants space rather than a tight corner. Crimson brushes come through spring and summer on new wood, and the nectar pulls hummingbirds and carpenter bees the way the same flowers pull honeyeaters and lorikeets at home. One honest caution, and this one matters: the straight species is a zone 9 to 11 plant, tender where 'Woodlander's Hardy' is tough. Every few winters a hard freeze reminds the Deep South exactly where that line sits. Plant with that knowledge in the Lowcountry and along the Gulf, keep the tree in a container further north, and if what you want is the look with the hardiness, buy the clone we made instead.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45409808056435,"sku":"CALL-VIMI-01G","price":28.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/C07F25E0-FBDC-44AD-B34C-1C601F96740E.jpg?v=1787792672","url":"https:\/\/woodlanders.net\/products\/callistemon-viminalis","provider":"Woodlanders","version":"1.0","type":"link"}