Silky Oaks

Why aren't silky oaks available in more colours and shades? Nurseries just usually sell the same old orange ones. I did read that there is a white one available, but I've never seen it for sale. Surely, by now, there should be all sorts of shades available?

Yes, they are very beautiful--just as the plain, ubiquitous orange garden variety type--but imagine stands of silky oaks that include several shades of orange; or reds; or lemons; or apricots; or pinks or creams. It should be possible. For some reason, they don't seem to do much creative breeding work with the toughest and most useful--in the sense of drought-resistance--of plants. Dry climate cottage gardeners need as big a colour palette as possible! We don't want an infinite choice of thirsty multi-coloured petunias! We want drought-hardy colour that we can make good use of. Things that will stand the heat and dryness. (Silky Oaks may be very popular as an indoor plant, in the Northern Hemisphere; but if they have created more colour shades up there, they are most certainly not readily available, here, Down Under!!!)

Silky Oaks--Grevillea robusta--are very much tougher, and longer-lived, than the smaller grevilleas available. I've often thought it would be interesting to graft some small grevillea types onto a big Silky Oak, just for the fun of it. Certainly, the honeyeating birds find them an important food source.

Silky Oaks are very fast-growing with extra water to begin with. As they get huger and well-established, you won't have to worry too much about them, then. When ablaze with orange bloom, and shimmering in the morning sunlight and haze, they certainly look wonderful amongst other more lime green trees. The contrast is quite spectacular, and gives an almost citrus feel to the landscape--all tangy like biting on a combo salad of limes and cumquats.

I have also come to observe how marvellous the orange blooms look against a background of grey sky--very dramatic effect, indeed, before a thunderstorm. The arrangement of the brushes, too, can remind one of Chinese and Japanese landscape art. Silky Oaks tend not to have the flowers evenly dispersed all over the tree, making them look a bit scruffy, wild and haphazard. Plant breeders could do some work to make them bloom more evenly. Varieties with a longer flowering season would also be a treat for hungry birds eager for nectar. (If they can do this with bottlebrushes, and small grevilleas, they can do it with Grevillea robusta, too!) These trees are a must for native birds, and they don't catch on fire as readily as eucalyptus trees do. They are big and mighty and give your garden some good structure to work within and around.