This is one of my favourite shrubs. It grows easily, quickly, and flowers profusely. Everyone notices its large, billowing, pink, bowl-shaped, blooms. And, if it is not flowering, it still gets noticed because of its furry, soft-looking, grey-green foliage and the pleasant shape of those leaves. It blooms here in early spring.
It self-seeds very well and I always have a supply of plants. This seeding habit works well for me because the ones in my garden are a succession of volunteers. Because I am on clay, the roots don't penetrate the soil well and eventually a mature plant (about 8 feet) will fall over. It can be propagated by cutting if needed.
Because it is a native here I don't fertilise. However, if you do fertilise Australian natives the conventional wisdom is to go low on the phosphorus but this is not always a hard-and-fast rule. There are now some cultivars available on the market but they appear to be very similar to the wild plants.
