Rosemary grevillea

Eastern Australian temperate forests

Edwards Plateau savanna

Fynbos shrubland

New Zealand North Island temperate forests

Piney Woods

Willamette Valley oak savanna

Central Pacific Northwest coastal forests

Puget lowland forests

A fast, suckering native shrub of streambanks and moist thickets across eastern North America, grown for huge flat-topped cymes of tiny lemon-scented white flowers in early summer and the clusters of dark elderberry drupes that follow. Spreads by root suckers into naturalized colonies 5 to 12 feet tall and wide; the flowers feed butterflies and the showy fruit feeds birds. The raw berries are not eaten fresh - they are cooked into jelly, pie, and wine.

What it needs

Conditions

Light

Full sun

Water

Low water

Spacing

8.2 ft

Habit

Evergreen Australian shrub, compact to open, with rigid, narrow, rosemary-like leaves and dense terminal clusters of rose-red spider-flowers

Care tips

•

Give it full sun, sharp drainage and a sheltered spot (RHS). It is hardy to about 14°F (RHS H4), and its family is highly vulnerable to Phytophthora dieback, so never leave it sitting in wet soil.

•

Skip routine garden fertilizer. The Proteaceae evolved cluster roots for phosphorus-deficient soils and are generally intolerant of fertilization, so feed it sparingly, if at all.

•

Wear gloves to prune or handle it - RHS lists it as a skin irritant and allergen, and some grevilleas are a documented cause of allergic contact dermatitis.

Lifecycle

Planting

Plant in full sun in well-drained, acid to neutral loam or sand, in a sheltered spot (RHS). Its family, the Proteaceae, is adapted to phosphorus-deficient soils and generally intolerant of fertilization, so plant it without added fertilizer.

Transplanting

Set out a young, container-grown plant at its original depth and water it in well. For a plant grown in a container under cover, RHS suggests lime-free compost with added grit and bright light.

Early growth

Water regularly through the first season or two while the roots establish, then taper off: established plants are drought tolerant, and the Proteaceae are highly vulnerable to dieback caused by the water mould Phytophthora cinnamomi, so do not keep the soil wet. Hold back on fertilizer, which the family generally tolerates poorly.

Maturity

Expect a dense shrub of roughly 4.9 to 8.2 feet tall and 8.2 to 13.1 feet wide within 10 to 20 years (RHS), flowering from late winter into summer. RHS places it in pruning group 1, needing little pruning outdoors, and reports it as generally pest-free though rarely susceptible to honey fungus. Wear gloves when you trim it, since RHS lists it as a skin irritant and allergen.

Propagation

RHS lists seed, semi-hardwood cuttings and grafting, and Wikipedia notes that all forms are readily grown from cuttings. Cuttings keep a chosen form true, which seed does not guarantee.

Plant this, not that

Better fit for this place

For Chicago, IL, these are replacement suggestions: similar plants with a stronger hardiness fit now and/or in 2050.

Sambucus canadensis

American elderberry

Full sun / Part sun / Part shade

Better fit now and in 2050

Now: well-suited

2050: well-suited

Kalmia latifolia

Mountain laurel

A native evergreen shrub of the eastern North American Appalachian + Piedmont understory producing extraordinary spring clusters of pink-to-white cup-shaped flowers with a unique spring-loaded pollination mechanism (anthers held under tension, triggered by visiting pollinators). State flower of Connecticut + Pennsylvania. Critically: NC State explicitly flags Kalmia as having HIGH-SEVERITY poison characteristics - all plant parts toxic to humans, dogs, cats, horses, and livestock; even honey from mountain-laurel nectar can poison humans ("mad honey").

Full sun / Part sun / Part shade

Better fit now and in 2050

Now: well-suited

2050: well-suited

Hydrangea quercifolia

Oakleaf hydrangea

A four-season native shrub of the southeastern United States, where NC State Extension notes it grows wild in moist woods and along stream banks. It is an upright, multi-stemmed deciduous shrub, slow-growing to roughly 4 to 8 feet tall and 4 to 10 feet wide, named for its large, oak-shaped, lobed dark-green leaves. Showy pyramidal 4-12 inch panicles of creamy-white flowers open from late spring into summer and fade to pink and then tan, while the bold foliage turns wine, orange, and mahogany in fall over peeling cinnamon bark. Easy and low-maintenance in organically rich, well-drained soil, it is grown as a specimen, in masses, or as an informal hedge.

The familiar hybrid garden rose - a deciduous, thorny shrub grown for its showy, often fragrant blooms that repeat from late spring to frost. Modern hybrids (hybrid teas, floribundas, grandifloras, and shrub roses) descend from centuries of crossing across the genus and span roughly 1 to 8 feet tall depending on the class. Rewarding but high-maintenance: full sun, good air circulation, and a regular disease-management routine are the price of the long bloom season.

Better fit now and in 2050

Now: well-suited

2050: well-suited

Rosa (hybrid)

Garden rose

A fast, suckering native shrub of streambanks and moist thickets across eastern North America, grown for huge flat-topped cymes of tiny lemon-scented white flowers in early summer and the clusters of dark elderberry drupes that follow. Spreads by root suckers into naturalized colonies 5 to 12 feet tall and wide; the flowers feed butterflies and the showy fruit feeds birds. The raw berries are not eaten fresh - they are cooked into jelly, pie, and wine.

Better fit now and in 2050

Now: well-suited

2050: well-suited

Similar plants

Browse lateral options with similar roles, light needs, size, or native-range overlap; these are not filtered for a better climate fit.

Sambucus canadensis

American elderberry

Full sun / Part sun / Part shade

Protea neriifolia, the bearded protea, is a tall, robust evergreen fynbos shrub from the Cape Floristic Region of South Africa, grown for its large goblet-shaped flower heads of soft pink-to-cream bracts - each one rimmed with a distinctive 'beard' of black or white fur at the bract tips. Narrow, oleander-like leaves clothe the stems, and the long-lasting blooms are a staple of the cut-flower trade. It is one of the easiest, longest-flowering, and most widely grown proteas, but it is FROST-TENDER (RHS H3, hardy to only about 25°F briefly) and belongs in a warm-temperate or Mediterranean climate, USDA zones 9a-11, or under glass. Like all of its family it is PHOSPHORUS-SENSITIVE: ordinary phosphate fertiliser or bone meal will kill it, and it demands acidic, sharply-drained soil, full sun, and good air circulation. In its homeland the nectar-rich heads are bird-pollinated by sunbirds and sugarbirds.

A large, vigorous, fountain-shaped deciduous shrub that earns its common name in late spring, when its arching stems are smothered in masses of pale-pink, yellow-throated, bell-shaped flowers. Native to China, it is one of the great old-fashioned spring shrubs - spectacular in full bloom, much loved by bees, and offering peeling brown bark for quiet winter interest. It is also genuinely big: expect 6 to 10 feet tall and wide at maturity, so give it room rather than fighting its size with the shears. The form to seek out is the Award-winning "Pink Cloud", which carries a clearer, richer pink than the variable seed-grown species.

Cape honeysuckle (Tecomaria capensis, Bignoniaceae) is a vigorous, evergreen scrambling shrub from southern and south-central Africa, valued for tubular orange-to-apricot flowers borne erratically across much of the year. It reaches about 6.6 to 9.8 feet tall and wide as a free-standing shrub, or can be trained much taller on a trellis or wall, and is widely used for informal hedging and as a hot-color border or container plant. It is frost-tender (RHS H1C; roughly USDA 9b-11) - in cooler climates it is grown under glass or as a summer container plant and overwintered indoors. In frost-free, mild climates it can become weedy: it has naturalised and is treated as invasive in parts of Australia and on islands such as the Azores, so site it where suckering and self-layering can be managed. It is not a recognised edible and is not flagged as notably toxic, though several plant parts feature in traditional southern-African medicine; treat it as ornamental rather than for consumption. Note the accepted binomial here is Tecomaria capensis (POWO/GBIF); the widely-seen Tecoma capensis is a synonym.

Doublefile viburnum is a deciduous shrub native to China, Korea, Japan, and Taiwan, grown for its spectacular tiered, horizontal branching draped in flat lacecap flower heads in late spring. It earns its place as a four-season focal point - white flowers in May, blue-black drupes in late summer, and often vivid red-purple autumn colour - but the honest catch is its sheer footprint: mature plants can spread 13 to 16 feet wide with rigidly horizontal branches that resent hard pruning, and the fruit is not edible.

Firebush (also called scarlet bush, hummingbird bush, and Mexican firecracker) is a fast-growing, evergreen, soft-stemmed shrub in the coffee family (Rubiaceae) and a Florida native: it grows wild from central Florida south through the Florida Keys, and on through the Bahamas, the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America into South America as far as Argentina. In a frost-free landscape it forms a dense, spreading shrub of 6 to 12 feet, occasionally to 15 feet, with whorls of oval leaves that are red-hairy when young and speckled red or purple at maturity, reddish stems, and terminal clusters of slender, tubular, orange-red flowers 0.5 to 1.5 inches long nearly all year. Hummingbirds and butterflies work the flowers, and birds eat the small berries, which ripen from red to black and are edible. It is frost-tender: a freeze can kill it to the ground, it regrows from the roots through zone 9, and farther north it is grown as a 2 to 3 feet summer annual or container plant. Buy with care, because several non-native firebushes are sold under the same name: plants labeled 'African', 'Dwarf', 'Compacta', or 'Firefly' are often Hamelia patens var. glabra, a variety from southern Mexico to northern South America with smooth leaves and mostly yellow flowers, and 'Bahama firebush' is a different species, Hamelia cuprea. Florida's native form is Hamelia patens var. patens, the plant this record describes.