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Callistemon ‘Pink Champagne’ develops into a dense, upright shrub that will reach 3 metres with a spread of 2 metres.
The leaves are lanceolate, to 7 cm long and about 1 cm wide, grey-green, aromatic and fairly stiff.
The distinctive feature of this cultivar is the large soft-pink inflorescences with yellow anthers. Blooms fade to white as they age.
This bottlebrush may be a cultivar of Callistemon citrinus and was developed by a Queensland nursery.
Author’s note: In our cold climate garden, flowers appear in large numbers during mid summer with sporadic flowering at other times. The foliage complements the blooms. Honeyeaters are constant visitors to the flowers. It has proven to be a very hardy, free flowering shrub in our garden. Remove the inflorescences as they fade. This will encourage new growth and increase the number of inflorescences.
This cultivar is reported to be one of the best pink bottlebrushes. Grow in full sun for best results. Tolerates poor drainage and dry conditions. Will do better if some water is provided in hot and dry times. Prune after flowering and apply a suitable fertiliser to promote denser bushes with more inflorescences every year.
All cultivars must be propagated by cuttings to main ‘true-to-type’ forms.
The genus Callistemon has been subject to recent taxonomic revision with early and recent botanists including Ferdinand von Mueller and Lyndley Craven (deceased in 2014) proposing to ‘lump’ the genus into Melaleuca and others. Craven et al. (2014) published new species combinations which included the renaming of all Callistemon species to Melaleuca, based on evolutionary relationships and DNA evidence and other features.
Currently, the NSW Herbarium advises that the Callistemon genus can still be used. There are currently about 30 species of Callistemon, which are found in all states of Australia as well as New Caledonia. About 28 are endemic to Australia. NSW currently recognises 24 species. New species have been described in the last 20 years.
Callistemon – From the Ancient Greek – Callos (κάλλος) – meaning “beautiful” (which is changed to κάλλη to describe a noun) and and stêma (στῆμα) meaning “stamen”, referring to the very showy staminate flowers of the bottle-brush inflorescences.
‘Pink Champagne’ – named for the colour and the form of the inflorescences.
Gardening with Angus – Callistemon ‘Pink Champagne’ profile page https://www.gardeningwithangus.com.au/callistemon-pink-champagne-bottlebrush/
Wrigley, J.W. & Fagg, M.I. (2001). Australian Native Plants – Propagation, cultivation and use in landscaping. 4th edition. New Holland Publishers, Pty. Ltd. Australia.