Callistemon viminalis Hot Pink - Bottlebrush

Callistemon viminalis Hot Pink is a recent variety of weeping bottlebrush, with very beautiful ornamental qualities and increased hardiness compared to other classic varieties. It offers bright fuchsia-pink flowers, a particularly bright and unique colour, and on this plant they form characteristic inflorescences, resembling brushes. They appear in May-June, for a month, and then more sporadically in autumn, provided that you regularly prune under the faded flowers. Its flexible branches are adorned with very elegant evergreen foliage, grey-green and finely cut. It blossoms into a beautiful bush with a rounded and ramified habit, pleasantly tousled. It is a very beautiful plant for mild or warm oceanic climates, and also superb on the terrace in a large pot to be stored during winter.

Callistemon viminalis, also called Weeping Bottlebrush, is a large weeping shrub of the myrtle family, cousin of myrtles and Leptospermum, native to southeastern Australia – more precisely the states of New South Wales and Queensland – where it is frequently found growing along rivers, in partial shade. Reaching 8 to 9 m (26 ft 2 in to 29 ft 6 in) in height in its natural environment, it has generated numerous regional forms and many brilliantly coloured cultivars of more modest size, like the Hot Pink selection, marketed by Sapho under the name Hot Pink® KKH01 SAPHO.

'Hot Pink' is an evergreen bush in mild climates, with a rounded and ramified habit that can reach 2 m (6 ft 7 in) in height and 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) in width, with rather fast growth. Its linear and narrow foliage is divided into leaflets measuring 2 to 8 cm (0.8 to 3.1 in) long, with a beautiful green-grey colour, among which young shoots tinged with red appear in spring. Its axillary flowers are composed of very long stamens of a very bright pink and are gathered in cylindrical spikes at the end of the flexible young branches. Its grey-brown and persistent bark is fissured and decorative. It is also a melliferous and nectariferous plant that attracts many pollinating insects to the garden.

Hardy to about -5 °C (23 °F), Callistemon Hot Pink is a magnificent conservatory plant in cold climates. In a greenhouse or conservatory, it will form an extremely decorative quartet with an orange tree, a Tibouchina or a mimosa, evoking landscapes with exotic charm and fragrances. In mild climates, it can be used as a standalone plant - it deserves it - in a free hedge or in the back of a border, even on the edge of a woodland. It can also be planted in an evergreen hedge, accompanied by a shrubby ceanothus ('Italian Skies', 'Concha', 'Puget Blue', 'Skylark', etc.), a spring-flowering broom, or oleanders (Nerium oleander 'Soleil Levant' or 'Provence'). Its good tolerance to salt allows for coastal exposure, facing the wind and sea spray.