Leucadendron Safari Sunset - Conebush

The Leucadendron 'Safari Sunset' is a very exotic looking evergreen bush, appreciated for its vigour, its long flowering from spring to summer, and its remarkably colourful vegetation, changing with the seasons. Its leaves take on beautiful purplish hues at full flowering, echoing its lighter red floral bracts, carried by stems that have also turned red. The inflorescence gradually turns pale yellow towards the end of summer. It is not surprising that this very beautiful plant is cultivated on a large scale in New Zealand for the cut flower market! Increasingly used in contemporary or Mediterranean-inspired arrangements, particularly by the sea, Leucadendrons are grown in large pots outside the mildest areas of the mediterranean as it will be imperative to shelter them as soon as the first frosts arrive.

The Leucadendron 'Safari Sunset' is an old New Zealand horticultural hybrid, resulting from the cross-breeding between the Leucadendron salignum and the L.laureolum. All these plants belong to the proteaceae family and are native to the Cape province in South Africa. Like Proteas, Leucadendrons are strange plants in every respect, they need fire to germinate their seeds. However, unlike proteas, male and female plants are distinct.  'Safari Sunset' forms a dense, bushy bush, with a compact habit. This vigorous variety quickly reaches 1.50m (4 ft 11 in) in height and 1.20m (3 ft 11 in) in width. Multiple stems emerge from a stump capable of regenerating after a fire. They bear narrow, long, elliptical, evergreen leaves, covered with a waxy bloom, which are green but turn violet-red at flowering, just like the floral stems. Flowering generally occurs from April to September in Europe. The small yellow flowers, arranged in more or less conical inflorescences, are surrounded by very conspicuous long bracts, arranged in stars, whose colour changes over time from light red to yellow. Dressed in warm and changing tones, this beautiful bush deserves its name of "Sunset on a safari". 

The Leucadendron Safari Sunset is a sensational plant for a very mild climate. It will prefer to be planted in coastal gardens spared by severe frosts, in light, poor, mineral, rather acidic soil. Particularly adapted to the Mediterranean climate with long summers, it can cope in slightly cooler soils of the Atlantic coast. It will look good on its own, on large slopes or in the background of exotic beds, but always in an open situation, in full sun. In an exotic garden, it can be associated with plants that appreciate the same growing conditions: the Canary Island Viper's Bugloss, the Royal Protea, the Euphorbia characias, the Nolina siberica, the Giant Fennel, the Yucca rigida, the Melianthus major, or medium-sized palm trees like the Blue Palm of Mexico (Brahea armata). In New Zealand, the flowers are very popular in floristry because they last a long time in bouquets while providing a fantastic colour.