Lemon bottlebrush planting, care and pruning

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Lemon bottle-brush is a small, original ornamental shrub.

Lemon Bottlebrush facts

Name – Callistemon citrinus
Family – Myrtaceae
Type – shrub

Height – 3 to 10 feet (1 to 3 m)
Exposure – full sun, part sun

Soil: ordinary  –  Foliage: evergreen  –  Flowering: spring → fall

Care, from planting to pruning and watering, are steps that help your lemon bottle-brush grow lush.

Planting lemon bottlebrush

It is a good idea to plant lemon bottlebrush after the last frost spells, preferably late spring.

In Northernmost regions, favor growing lemon bottlebrush in containers so you can bring the pot inside, away from the freezing winter.

You can’t plant lemon bottlebrush outdoors in places with very cold winters.

• Lemon bottlebrush is hardy down to 20°F (-5°C)
• It prefers very sunny exposure
• In part shade, you’ll have less flowers.
• Well-draining soil is important: it doesn’t cope well with having wet roots in winter.

Growing lemon bottlebrush in a container:

For growing in pots, select a conventional shrub potting mix.

• Make sure the pot has proper drainage and a hole for water to drain away
• Add a layer of gravel or clay balls at the bottom to make sure water seeps out
• Water regularly, especially after planting
• Add fertilizer on a regular schedule: when growing in a container, soil will lose its nutrients fairly fast.

It is easy to propagate Callistemon bottlebrush through cuttings.

Pruning and caring for lemon bottlebrush

You can balance or reduce the breadth of your lemon bottlebrush in spring, pruning delicately.

To keep a compact appearance, prune the year’s new shoots back to half their length after the blooming.

In summer, eliminate fruits as they form because this uselessly tires the plant, and cut wilted stems.

Learn more about lemon bottlebrush

Its name is quite out-of-the-ordinary, but the bearing of this tree with abundant and unique blooming is magnificent.

Native to Asia, it is inclined towards rather mild climates when grown directly in the garden, but will adapt well to lean-ins and other greenhouses when potted.

You can increase the blooming by often adding liquid organic fertilizer, especially as an indoor plant when the soil tends to quickly lose its nutrients.