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| Category: Shrub |
| Family: Myrtaceae (Myrtles) |
| Origin: Australia (Australasia) |
| Evergreen: Yes |
| Flower Color: Pink |
| Bloomtime: Spring/Summer |
| Synonyms: [C. 'Pink Stiletto', C. 'Pink Ice', Melaleuca] |
| Parentage: (Callistemon sieberi hybrid) |
| Height: 12-20 feet |
| Width: 10-15 feet |
| Exposure: Full Sun |
| Seaside: Yes |
| Summer Dry: Yes |
| Irrigation (H2O Info): Low Water Needs |
| Winter Hardiness: 15-20° F |
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Callistemon 'Cane's Hybrid' (Cane's Bottlebrush) - An ornamental evergreen shrub or small tree to 15 to 20 feet tall by an equal width (can be kept smaller) with pastel-pink bottlebrush-type flowers that blooms profusely during late spring and early summer. Narrow green-gray leaves are on spreading, often arching branches. Young foliage is soft and tinged with pink. Drought tolerant once established. Responds well to pruning. Frost hardy to at least 20°F. An excellent plant as a small decorative tree, for use as screen, a hedge or as a wind break, even near the beach where it endures salt laden wind - in open windy locations it remains a lower and more sprawled out shrub. It is a 2002 University of California Santa Cruz Koala Blooms Australian Plant Introduction and may also be the same as plants being called Callistemon 'Pink Stiletto' or C. 'Pink Ice' by California nurseries not involved in the UCSC Koala Blooms program. Nurseries in the program and calling it 'Cane's Hybrid' pay a volunteer royalty of $.50 on each plant sold to help support the UCSC Arboretum. While we have never determined the parentage of this hybrid, it is believed to be a hybrid or selection of Callistemon sieberi (previously known as C. paludosus). The genus was named using the Greek words 'kallos' meaning "beautiful" and 'stemon' meaning "stamens" in reference to the long conspicuous and colorful stamens that characterize the flowers of this genus. Melaleuca and Callistemon have long been noted as being closely related and were separated on the basis that Callistemon stamens are free and those of Melaleuca are in bundles. Carl Linnaeus had described the genus Melaleuca in 1767 and the Scottish botanist Robert Brown first described the genus Callistemon in 1814. As early as 1864 Ferdinand von Mueller, the German-Australian born physician, geographer and botanist who eventually became director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne, noted that the difference between the genera was artificial and proposed to unite Callistemon and Melaleuca but it was not until 1998 that some plants in New Caledonia previously described as Callistemon were reclassified as Melaleuca by Australian botanist Dr. Lyndley Alan Craven of the Australian National Herbarium and New Zealand botanist Dr. John Wyndham Dawson. In 2006, using DNA evidence Craven reclassified nearly all species of Callistemon as Melaleuca in his article "New combinations in Melaleuca for Australian species of Callistemon" in Novon (V14 N4) and in 2009 he summarized this in a statement in an article titled "Melaleuca (Myrtaceae) from Australia" in Novon (V19 N4) noting that "During revisionary work directed toward the preparation of an account of Melaleuca L. and it closer allies for the Flora of Australia, the delimitation of Callistemon R. Brown from Melaleuca was considered. The conclusion was reached that Callistemon was insufficiently distinct from Melaleuca to be maintained at generic rank and those species which there was no valid name yet available in Melaleuca were transferred to that genus. Until such time that the new names have broad recognition in the California nursery trade, we will still refer to these plants as Callistemon.
This information about Callistemon 'Cane's Hybrid' displayed is based on research conducted in our library and from reliable online resources. We will also note observations that we have made about it as it grows in the gardens in our nursery and those elsewhere, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments we receive from others, and we welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share cultural information that would aid others in growing it.
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