Thursday, July 9, 2015

Today's Favorite Plant - Grevillea x 'Neil Bell'


Back in July 2013, I went to Xera Plants nursery and came home with Grevillea x 'Neil Bell' (and a few other things too). You can see that post here.

At that time, I was being a little more adventurous with my plant purchases and working on my appreciation of zonal denial. Back then Grevillea and Callistemon were the objects of my shrub desire.

When I encountered Grevillea x 'Neil Bell', I had to have it!

I hemmed and hawed over it though, because the tag said it's size, 8' tall and 6' wide in 5 years, was a little daunting. But screw it, I had to have it.

I initially dug a new home for it in the middle of the grass in the front yard, which would give it space to get as big as it wanted and give me another flower bed to put more plants. I didn't want to just stuff him in elsewhere.

2013
Neil Bell survived the first winter (2013) just fine. When the terrible winter of 2014 struck, I was worried Neil Bell would be toast. I did my best to wrap him from the cold (10 degrees for 3 days) and wind and crossed my fingers.

He made it through just fine with just a little bit of leaf drop but no major damage!

That summer, a sweet little tree (Cercis canadensis 'Merlot') took up residence in the same flower bed Neil Bell was in. I knew I was going to have to move Neil Bell eventually, as the new Cercis was going to be the star in that bed.   

Neil Bell and his new tree on the right in 2014

In 2015, I removed the big veggie garden out back and put in the patio and Shedteau. It was finally time to relocate Neil Bell.

The Shedteau and patio.
In early spring 2015, he got a new home next to the patio. The space needed some shrubs that would get large-ish to help enclose the space and block the view of the back of the house.

Neil's new home
I was worried he might sulk, but he did fine, and was not even phased by our recent June/July heatwave. Now he seems to be spreading his arms out like crazy and I'm going to have to whop him back a bit.

He's loaded with blooms now and we couldn't be happier. 

Grevillea x 'Neil Bell'
Grevillea x 'Neil Bell'
Grevillea x 'Neil Bell'




4 comments:

  1. Darn it. I've been debating on Grevillea's and I do believe you've just sold me. Fabulous looking plant and the ShedTeau is beyond perfect!

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    1. You need this plant for sure! You have all that room for it to get big. Hope to have a separate shedteau post soon.

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  2. They sure are a great little plant - grevilleas are so much hardier than the literature gives them credit for. The blooms on this one are spectacular :-)

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    1. I still feel like Grevillea can be a little tricky. Grevillea australis was in the same bed as Neil Bell and was doing fine. One day, it just turned brown and kicked the bucket. Apparently my summer watering schedule was not what it wanted

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