Description
- Bright-red flowers that look like bottle-brushes grace this very small tree or shrub. The flowers attract hummingbirds and are most profuse in spring with occasional blooms in the summer. The seeds stay attached to the stem like beads. The new growth in the spring is velvety while older leaves are smooth.
- This tree is evergreen year-round, which is great for screening and privacy. But avoid planting it where you might want sun in the winter.
- Lemon Bottlebrush thrives on low or medium water and is a colorful addition to a "Water Wise" landscape.
- This tough and adaptable tree can be pruned as a standard tree shape, a multi-trunk tree, or as a screen. Without pruning when young, the Bottlebrush will grow into a rounded shrub with foliage to the ground. With simple pruning, you can shape this into a flat/wide screen, single or multi-trunk tree. You can buy a tree already pruned to a single trunk. To keep this form, prune new growth off the trunk a couple times a year. As the tree forms a canopy, it will need less pruning to keep the trunk clear.
- Closely related Violet Bottlebrush has bright purple flowers, and Weeping Bottlebrush is a narrow, weeping tree that grows taller but has the same red flowers.
Bottlebrush tree providing privacy and beauty
Size
Height: 15 to 20 feet
Spread: 15 to 20 feet
Growth Rate: faster
Irrigation needed: low or medium water
Fall Color: none, evergreen
Flowers: large, red, bottle brush shaped flowers
Seeds/Fruit: small (1/4) bead-like capsules attached to branches
Planting Distances
Front of green utility box: 8 feet
Building or swimming pool: 4 feet
Fence, underground utilities: 3 feet
Paving: 2 feet
OK to plant under high voltage lines
Lemon Bottlebrush flowers
Lemon Bottlebrush tree in a Water Wise landscape
Lemon Bottlebrush can be pruned into a hedge or screen