Coast Banksia Banksia integrifolia

Coast banksia grows the way the wind tells it to, low and gnarled on an exposed headland, taller and straighter on a single trunk once something shelters it. The leaves give the species away, dark green above and silver-white beneath, so the whole canopy flickers when a sea breeze moves through. Pale lemon spikes open mainly through autumn and winter, feeding honeyeaters and lorikeets by day and possums and gliders after dark. It works as a coastal shade tree, a foreshore windbreak and the anchor of a habitat planting.

Sand, salt and the damage done by earthworks

The natural run is the east coast, from Victoria through New South Wales into Queensland, so salt wind, sandy ground and light frost are all within its range, and sea spray and sand blast are ordinary weather rather than a stress event. Full sun is not negotiable; in shade it leans, thins and never builds a decent head. Drainage matters far more than fertility. This is the most soil tolerant banksia in the range and it copes with a trace of phosphorus better than the western species, but it still sulks in clay that stays wet all winter, so plant on a raised mound on heavy ground and keep lawn irrigation away from the root zone. The failure that kills established trees here is not drought or salt, it is earthworks. Coast banksia roots shallowly and widely, and fill heaped over the root plate during landscaping, or a trench cut through it for services or a retaining wall, will brown a canopy off a season later, long after anyone connects the two events. Settle your levels, paths and drainage lines before planting, then leave the ground under the canopy undisturbed.

Tree, screen or cold climate shrub

Choose this one when you want an actual tree, with a trunk and a canopy you can sit under, and note that it is the only banksia here stocked in advanced grades for immediate scale. Heath banksia stays a fine textured shrub and answers a screening brief better, with upright orange to red spikes instead of lemon ones. Silver banksia is the pick for colder southern and inland gardens, where frost and cool summers suit it. If your site is front line coastal sand and you want canopy, take this one and let the wind do the shaping. Buyers replacing a failed street tree on a sandy verge want coast banksia; buyers filling a fence line in a small garden want the heath. The rest of the banksia range is worth comparing for flowering times.

Cones, cuts and what never to feed it

Prune young trees for shape and clearance only, lifting the lower branches in stages if you want to mow or walk beneath them. Unlike most banksias, this one carries epicormic buds under the bark and can push new shoots from older wood, which is how it comes back after fire, but garden pruning is not fire and that regrowth is slow, bunched and coarse, so shape a young tree rather than cutting a mature one back and waiting on it. Old grey cones can stay on the tree; they are part of the character and the seed brings in cockatoos. Feed nothing at all, or a native blend labelled low phosphorus, since ordinary lawn and rose fertilisers burn the roots of anything in the Proteaceae. Keep mulch coarse and back from the trunk so the collar stays dry. Water deeply through the first summer or two, then leave it to fend for itself.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 18 sizes, from 75mm up to 600L, priced from $16.95 to $6829.00 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. The smaller pots hold younger plants that cost less each and establish quickly, which suits hedges, screens and mass planting where the plant count adds up. The larger sizes carry several more years of growth on the farm and give height and presence straight away, which is what you want for a single feature position or a screen that cannot wait. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to Australian native trees.