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Grevillea 'Red Hooks' - A robust fast growing and attractive shrub to 8 to 15 feet tall with wide-spreading branches holding 6 inch long deeply lobed green leaves with narrow revolute segments. The bright red 3-inch-long toothbrush flower heads are held horizontally at the branch tip and are present intermittently throughout the year with the heaviest flowering occurring mid-winter to spring.
Plant in full sun or light shade in a well-drained soil. It requires little to no irrigation once established and tolerates moderate frosts and is considered hardy to around 20° F. This popular large cultivar is attractive to nectar feeding birds and it is great as a specimen plant, a screening plant or as a formal or informal hedging in large areas. It responds well to pruning in late spring after flowering to maintain shape and reduce size. The cut foliage is also useful in flower arrangements.
The genus name Grevillea honors Charles Francis Greville (1749-1809), a patron of botany, a very close friend of Sir Joseph Banks, and president of the Royal Society of London.
The origin of this great cultivar is obscure with Grevillea 'Red Hooks' long being sold in Australia (as early as 1940) as Grevillea hookeriana, which is a valid but seemingly unrelated species. It is thought that this plant is actually a hybrid possibly involving Grevillea longifolia and Grevillea tetragonoloba. In 1987 the Australian Cultivar Registration Authority accepted the name 'Red Hooks' as proposed by Alec Hooter of Zanthorrea Nursery in Western Australia.
There is a beautiful specimen plant of this variety planted behind our sales office but since we take cuttings from it each year it only reaches to 8 or 9 feet tall before being cut back to about 6 feet tall. It is rarely out of bloom but with its showiest period in late winter to early spring. Our thanks to Monterey Bay Nursery for first providing us with this beautiful big Grevillea, which we have grown since 1999.
This information about Grevillea 'Red Hooks' displayed is based on research conducted in our horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also will relate observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we receive from others and we welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share any cultural information that would aid others in growing it.
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