Ptilotus, Lambs-Tails, Pink Mulla Mulla 'Joey'

Hello, this is an Australian native plant. I live in Sydney Australia and have had my eye out for one for a long time. Finally found it a...Read Moret the nursery yesterday.

It is a strange plant, in that it grows almost everywhere in Australia (the west, north, east and central south - but not where it gets too cold), though I've never seen one in the wild.

It likes well drained soil, which means it should be happy with little or no water. I have a garden full of native Australian plants, and aside from watering them to help them establish, I never water again. I've also had a couple of tons of native soil shipped in to my garden, this is mostly black sand with a little bark and leaf matter - so it's not particularly nutritious and doesn't hold water. I never feed my native plants.

They grow in a position where they get full sun all morning and most of the afternoon (in the Southern Hemisphere that means they face north).

I wouldn't plant this shrub in a pot with other plants that require a lot of water or a lot of feeding. This plant, and others like it, will thrive when set up properly and ignored.

The range and beauty of low water use Australian native plants is extensive. And if you were to see the conditions in which some of them thrive you would be stunned, and excited, by the delicate and complex flowers they can produce.

Of course, if you don't live in Australia you might be best to plant things native to the country where you live and, surprisingly, end up with the most exotic of gardens.

I have tried and tried from seed and can't get it to grow.
It is the cutest thing, wish I could get it in my garden...oh well can'...Read Moret have them all, but we can sure try!!

I purchased this 4" plant in June, repotted to an 8" clay pot and placed in as full sun a location as is possible on the Oregon Coast. ...Read MoreThe plant is thriving with nearly zero care. Occasionally it is watered. There has been no significant rain. It is a delightful surprise to my Master Gardener and Garden Club friends, none of whom has ever seen one. I look forward to collecting seed or trying propagation methods this fall. As of now I have no plans to put it in the ground as our area is so wet.

I got one of these from Lowes last year and enjoyed it all summer. It froze back in the winter as expected. This year there were about ...Read More50 volunteers coming up in every pot on my patio...even after a winter low temp of 15 F. Next year, I may find there is nothing left but these tall fuzzies.

Saw a write-up in a gardening magazine about this cute plant a few years ago and had to have it. Finally found it this year at a nursery....Read More Planted it in a container and it bloomed well for a few weeks. Then it just quit and up and died! The container had a western exposure (afternoon sun) and everything else in it has done well. What a disappointment!

It grows well here in the Pacific Northwest with full sun. I have collected a lot of seeds but are they viable and/or true to their pare...Read Morent? I will know in about 6 months. Will use them as front of the border plants to replace my allysum if they are

just got....my planting instructions say "semi-moist
" do not let dry out. so that may have been the problem w/ another posters pl...Read Moreants. We'll see how it does...sure is a cute plant.