help with callistemon, Bottle Brush

Bolag_the_2nd

i have two bottle brush plants that are 4 years old, they are on a south facing wall and were doing brill up until the frost, they have gone brown on the outside but there is new growth, will they green back up or should i be feeding them with specilaised feed, any help is welcome as they are / were specimens, the plants are in pots. thank you

looksee

Keep them watered, it has been very dry for a while now, trim off the outer dead bits, though if its just leaf ends don't worry about it.

My instinct is not to feed plants that are struggling after frost, let them get started growing again then feed it gradually, maybe a foliar feed to start. Thats just my opinion though, does anyone else feel the same, or would you feed plants in that situation?

The Sweeper

Bolag

Callistemons are Australian natives and as such require different fertiliser to European plants. Any idea what kind of Callistemon it is? There are a lot of different varieties, and the bottle-brush-like flowers come in different colours too.

They're very hardy plants, with some tolerance for both frost and drought. Usually you shouldn't prune them back into old wood, but you can prune by pinching off the tips in this year's wood, to create more bushiness. However, than depends on the variety - if you have a crimson bottlebrush (which will grow up to 4m if it gets the chance) they respond quite well to hard pruning if they're in a bad way.

The brown leaves will die and fall off. They won't green back up, but the new growth will restore the plants to looking better and replace the brown leaves. They seem to like an application of blood and bone, and a liquid seaweed drink like Seasol, but you should always be careful how you apply such things and follow the instructions on their packets.

Bolag_the_2nd

The Sweeper wrote: »

Bolag

Callistemons are Australian natives and as such require different fertiliser to European plants. Any idea what kind of Callistemon it is? There are a lot of different varieties, and the bottle-brush-like flowers come in different colours too.

They're very hardy plants, with some tolerance for both frost and drought. Usually you shouldn't prune them back into old wood, but you can prune by pinching off the tips in this year's wood, to create more bushiness. However, than depends on the variety - if you have a crimson bottlebrush (which will grow up to 4m if it gets the chance) they respond quite well to hard pruning if they're in a bad way.

The brown leaves will die and fall off. They won't green back up, but the new growth will restore the plants to looking better and replace the brown leaves. They seem to like an application of blood and bone, and a liquid seaweed drink like Seasol, but you should always be careful how you apply such things and follow the instructions on their packets.

The Callistemon's i have are Citrinus, i repotted them yesterday, and man were they pot bound, so i am keeping my fingers crossed that this will also help, thank you for your advice, very helpful.