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Southern Gardening

underplanting bottlebrush tree

19 years ago

My large bottlebrush shrub/multi-trunk tree is planted on the northwest side of my house. That bed is located directly off the patio and french doors. I've never had any success with underplants. The roots seem to be shallow. Anyone on the forum had success with underplanting on this tree?

Featured Answer

wilmington_islander

19 years ago

You're not likely to ever have any success. Why? Becasue the "bottlebrush" shrubs latin genus is "callistemon" or something similar...anyway, this plant produces a natural "weed killer" and if you will notice, not much grows well underneath them anywhere there are seen. In fact, one of the best new herbicides to enter the ag market in recent years was a product introduced by Syngenta ( the conglomeratin of many different chemical companies) by the name of "callisto"...and its active ingredient is from the bottlebrush plant.

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Comments (12)

rioritarae
Original Author
19 years ago
Well that message vindicates my "brown thumb." I should grit my teeth and dig it up, but it's huge. Guess my only recourse is potted plants around the base, but it drops leaves all the time. Would those hinder growth also?
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Your bottlebrush tree is probably just having a rest for winter. If it looks healthy, nothing bad will happen if you ignore it completely - but it will flower all the better if you prune it as Mallee suggests. You don't want to prune in spring, as you would be cutting off the flowering material. I would probably prune it now despite the frost risk, so long as the bits you want to cut off are a decent distance from the ground, and the tree isn't situated somewhere where the frost pools. Next year, though, it would be better to prune it as the flowering season finishes. (Cut back to just behind the flowers). Sometimes I prune bottlebrushes twice a year. Getting to the job as soon as the first flush of flowers finishes can encourage a better second flush. Even if you don't know its botanical name, can you describe your bottlebrush for us? There are SO MANY different kinds! Tell us about the flowers, the bark, the trunk diameter, the age of the plant .... Trish
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wilmington_islander
19 years ago
Don't know, but I believe that the active ingredient is mainly in the roots. Dig it up or go with pots. ANd good luck!
bruggirl
19 years ago
I didn't know this, but I knew there was a reason I didn't like bottlebrush trees. I always assumed that the reason nothing grew underneath them was that they sucked up all the water.
PeaBee4
19 years ago
I have amaryllis growing under mine. They seem to be doing OK. Maybe I have just been lucky. The tree is not all large so perhaps they just haven't been affected yet. Or maybe it's the different type of root?
Carol love_the_yard (Zone 9A Jacksonville, FL)
19 years ago
I have agapanthus under mine - they are all doing fine.
wilmington_islander
19 years ago
Bulbous type plants should be fine of course...the roots ingredient mainly targets shallow rooted grassy type weeds. I would guess, however, that neither plant is at its optimum with the underplantings. I have seen tangerine trees with underplantings that all looked OK...but this is a cardinal sin for citrus...NO underplantings. Bottlebrush probably prefers to be by itself as well, but I bet yours looks great PeaBee4!
leafylea
19 years ago
I had fishtail ferns,Broms,spathiphilum [unsure spelling]
under mine.If you put plenty of mulch under and top it up
regularly theres quite a few small shallow rooted running
plants that will grow.Could suggest more but not sure how
cold it gets at your place.The Broms do really well here
when you put lots of loose pine bark around them+mulch
mulch mulch.
Carol love_the_yard (Zone 9A Jacksonville, FL)
16 years ago
I lied. In the long run, my agapanthus did terrible underneath the bottlebrush tree. They finally had to be moved in order to save them. I'm now a believer that bottlebrush poison other plants. A just put some caladium under there... we'll see how they do.
Princess Banannahammock
4 years ago
The stuff the tree drops, the red bloom and the little "corns" it drops kill everything.
HU-907584966
3 years ago
I gave an Arizona cypress that is planted close to a bottlebrush. The “needles” next to it are turning brown But the branch is still green. The entire tree looks healthy except that area. Could it be the bottlebrush causing this to happen?
PRO
GreenCad Concepts
last year
Well, am a consultant from Kenya, facing a bottle brush leaves problem. We have a half an acre plot we are supposed to improve in regard to the outdoors. We have bottle brush trees all along the fence of the premises. What could someone do under the trees? What could we have in terms of the soft landscape?

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