Two More Plant Ideas from Monrovia — Indian Hawthorne and Dwarf Bottlebrush

Thanks to Monrovia for sponsoring this series of posts. The opinions stated here are my own.

As I was looking for my new plants at the nursery and in the Monrovia online catalog, I came across many plants that attracted my attention in some way. I’ll be highlighting a few of the other plants that might eventually find a place in my garden. Here are my next two selections in this series.

Majestic Beauty® Indian Hawthorn (Rhaphiolepis x ‘Montic’)

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I have some lovely Rhaphiolepis here in my garden, planted by the previous owners. They are a common, yet reliable and beautiful planting here in Southern California. Mine don’t seem to require much water, now that they are mature and established and that is always a great benefit here. They are covered with small pink flowers each Spring which then give way to dark purple to black berries a month or so later. I haven’t noticed any particular animal feeding on the berries although some quick research indicates they can be a food source for some birds.

Easy-to-grow evergreen shrub produces huge clusters of fragrant, pearl-pink flowers. Perfect for planting along driveways and parking medians where reflected heat is an issue. Useful as a background shrub, screen or small tree with single or multiple trunks. – Monrovia

Dwarf Bottlebrush (Callistemon citrinus ‘Little John’)

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This Dwarf Callistemon was on the short list of plants to buy for this sponsorship as my wife is quite taken with them. Here in Southern California they are usually grown a large trees, which we don’t really have the space to add, but we recently saw these dwarf varieties used against a wall — almost like you would espalier fruit trees. That gave us some great ideas about how we might be able to use them here in our garden. This is one plant I will definitely keep in mind for future additions to the garden.

Blood red blooms cover the top of this dwarf grower for an extended season. Dense branches are covered with blue-green leaves. Versatile compact size is perfect for today’s smaller gardens. Evergreen. — Monrovia

Previously in this sponsored program: