Telopea Shady Lady Yellow

The Telopea 'Shady Lady Yellow' is a recent hybrid selected for its vigor, compact habit, and improved frost resistance. It is a beautiful evergreen bush with tough gray-green foliage, similar to proteas, with which it shares a preference for poor, well-drained, and acidic soils. This variety offers a magnificent spring flowering, in the form of large globular inflorescences of bright lemon yellow, composed of tubular flowers surrounded by yellow bracts. It is best grown in the ground in mild climates and by experienced gardeners. Growing it in a container allows for better control of the growing substrate composition and watering, as well as providing protection for this beautiful exotic plant in winter in colder regions.

The Telopea Shady Lady Yellow is a hybrid resulting from the cross-breeding between a Telopea speciosissima, the floral emblem of New South Wales in Australia, a Telopea truncata endemic to Tasmania, and a Telopea oreades, native to the cool undergrowth of mountain slopes in southeastern Australia. This woody and branched plant belongs to the proteaceae family. The cultivar 'Shady Lady Yellow' is part of a series of hybrids, the "Shady Lady", which are more adaptable to cooler climates and lower light levels, thus expanding the possibility of acclimating these beautiful proteaceae in our gardens.

"Shady Lady Yellow" forms a large bush reaching about 2 m (7ft) in all directions in favorable conditions. The alternate, simple, and tough leaves are wedge-shaped and covered with a wax responsible for their gray-blue appearance, and they are inserted along the stems. In spring, in May-June, the bush produces sumptuous yellow floral heads, about 7-8 cm (3in) wide, at the ends of the branches, composed of a dense heart of incurved tubular flowers surrounded by yellow-green bracts. These flowers are highly appreciated in floristry due to their excellent vase life.

The Telopea 'Shady Lady Yellow' is a plant with a very exotic appearance that deserves to be cultivated. It prefers to be grown in coastal gardens protected from heavy frosts, in well-drained, acidic, and nutrient-poor soils. Like Rhododendrons, the Telopea Shady Lady series fears scorching exposures and arid soils: they are usually planted in the shade of the afternoon sun, especially in hot, mediterranean regions. In an exotic-inspired garden, it can be paired with Pseudopanax, Melianthus, or dwarf palm trees, for example. This bush also grows very well in a container or large pot, to adorn the terrace or balcony of a knowledgeable enthusiast.