Eremophila Calorhabdos
One of the main reasons I like Eremophila Calorhabdos is because it is one of those plants that looks great even when it’s not in flower. That is of course if you follow one golden rule.
You can see here how hard it has been pruned.
You have to prune it.
Nearly all Australian native plants look a lot neater and tidier when pruned after flowering and Eremophila Calorhabdos is no exception. This plant responds very well to pruning so a good prune will reap the best results. If you do this you will be rewarded with lots of tall vertical branches that will be covered with pinky red tubular flowers during the following winter and spring.
This eremophila is just 2 1/2 years old.
Another great feature about this plant is that it is very easy to propagate from cuttings and I’ll show you how to do this easily at home, without any specialist equipment in a future article.
The plant itself grows naturally in Western Australia, it prefers reasonable drainage and tends to grow quicker in lighter type soils but will also grow in heavier soils. It likes full sun and is obviously very drought tolerant. It is also a great plant to place in a confined area as it grows tall
Eremophila Calorhabdos Flowers.
and narrow to about 2m and can easily be pruned to form a long narrow hedge.
One thing that does amaze me though about this plant is that it is rarely seen in nurseries as it is a very garden worthy plant that appears to be very underused in gardens.
Maybe it’s not every ones cup of tea but if anyone’s tried it let me know what you think as I reckon Eremophila Calorhabdos deserves to become more mainstream.
Possibly Related Posts:
- Banksia Oblongifolia
- Banksia Seminuda Flowers
- Pruning your Alyogyne Huegelii
- Growing Agave Attenuata in a Pot
- Eremophila "Big Poly"
2 Responses to Eremophila Calorhabdos
Leave a Reply
I’m impressed with how bushy you’ve got these to be. We had some in for a couple of years and they each have only a half dozen stems at most, one to two metres tall. We love how the stems bob down when the nectar-feeding birds visit.
They are pretty tough plants: we’re on heavy clay in the Perth hills. We added some soil conditioner when we planted these, along with Eremophila ‘Kalbarri Carpet’, and although we’ve lost several of each the majority are doing just fine. We hand water every couple of weeks in summer, is all.
Good to read that they’re readily reproduced from cuttings: I’ll have to give that a go when the weather warms up again. Any tricks?
Hi Peter & Di, The secret to getting Eremophila Calorhabdos to bush out is in the pruning. I’ve also found they tend to grow better in a lighter soil. I’ve got two growing in raised beds where the soil was clay but I used a cultivator to mix in gypsum and lots of well rotted compost. I’ve also got some others growing in a heavier loam over clay but in the lighter soil they tend to grow a lot faster and look a little healthier. I use this method for growing cuttings http://drought-tolerant-plants.com/propagating-plants/ Best of luck, let me know how you go.