- How important is watering?
- When, how and with what should be fertilized?
- Do you prefer to winter inside or outside?
- Cutting Callistemon needs to be learned
With the bushy inflorescences glowing bright red above the evergreen foliage, the flowers of Callistemon are reminiscent of bottle brushes. In order to preserve the extraordinary appearance, the bottle brush should be given plenty of care.
The cylinder brush is relatively easy to care for, but does not tolerate frost
How important is watering?
The soil around the roots of Callistemon should not dry out. At the same time, it is important to avoid waterlogging. Water the plant when the top layer of soil has dried. Lime-depleted to lime-free water is suitable for watering. Excess water that can collect in the saucer in pot culture is poured off. Basically, the soil should be kept moist.
When, how and with what should be fertilized?
The fewer nutrients available to the cylinder brush, the sparser its blossoms will be. Therefore, fertilizer application is recommended.
- Fertilize spring through fall
- maintain regular intervals
- conventional tub plant fertilizers are suitable for a pot culture
- outdoors, compost, liquid manure, etc. are suitable
- Fertilize every 2 weeks in summer
- Stop fertilizing from the end of August
- use lime-free fertilizers
- do not fertilize in winter
Do you prefer to winter inside or outside?
Callistemon is considered sensitive to frost. If you want to enjoy this plant for several years, it is best to overwinter it frost-free. Choose a bright (because it's evergreen) and cool room to hibernate. Temperatures between 5 and 10 °C are ideal.
Callistemon should be watered sparingly during the winter. Fertilization is not necessary and, on the contrary, would even harm the plant. It is also advisable to air the room regularly. From May, the sensitive plant can go outside again. But give it some time to get used to the location.
Cutting Callistemon needs to be learned
This plant quickly turns out to be well tolerated by pruning. Among others, one should prune Callistemon after flowering. The flower buds can then form for the following year. If you only cut the plant in spring, you will also cut off its flower buds at the same time. The bottle brush blooms on last year's wood!
In addition, the plant should be thinned out regularly and trimmed if necessary. This achieves a compact and well-branched growth. Callistemon also tolerates severe pruning.
tips
Remove dead leaves from the plant to prevent it from rotting and to keep it looking pristine.