Spider Flower Grevillea Forest Rambler

Forest Rambler runs sideways rather than up, a low evergreen grevillea that spreads over the ground on wiry stems and hides the soil under fine divided foliage. Small spider flowers appear through the cooler months, when nectar is scarce, and honeyeaters and other small birds work the planting at knee height where they feel safe. The obvious uses are a batter or bank that needs holding, the top of a retaining wall where growth can spill over, and the front edge of a native bed.

Full sun, free drainage and the bag of fertiliser to leave shut

This is a plant for open positions in full sun with soil that drains freely. It takes dry conditions once established, and in most southern gardens it will get through summer on rainfall alone. Heavy clay is the problem site: mound the bed, work coarse gravel or sand through the planting soil, and keep mulch pulled back from the crown so the base stays dry. The one thing that reliably kills it is the fertiliser bag. Grevilleas belong to the Proteaceae, and the phosphorus in ordinary lawn, vegetable and rose fertilisers burns their fine proteoid roots, so a plant given the same feed as the rest of the garden yellows, drops leaves and collapses inside a season. Feed a native product labelled low phosphorus or feed nothing, and watch where lawn fertiliser and runoff finish up. Space plants to knit together within a season or two rather than crowding, and let them mesh into continuous cover rather than separate mounds. Frost is tolerated in most temperate gardens, and coastal exposure is no obstacle where drainage is sharp. On a batter, plant across the slope rather than down it, so the cover slows water instead of channelling it.

Groundcover grevillea or timber tree

The other grevillea in this range, silky oak, shares the family, the bird traffic and the phosphorus sensitivity, and shares nothing else. That one is a fast canopy tree for acreage; this one covers ground and stays where you put it. If your brief is erosion control, bank planting, verges or a low native border, Forest Rambler is the one to order in quantity. For a wind facing coastal bank where salt is the main pressure, coastal rosemary is the steadier mass planting, with the rambler used behind it for flower and bird value. Flowering time is the other split worth knowing: the rambler works through the cooler months when small honeyeaters are short of nectar, while silky oak puts everything into a spring display.

Tip pruning while it is still young

Start tip pruning in the first year and keep at it after each flush, taking the growing points back by a small amount to force branching low down. Grevilleas reshoot poorly from bare old wood, so a plant left unpruned for years cannot be renovated, and a hard cut into leafless stems usually kills it outright. Trim lightly and often instead. Feed in early spring with a low phosphorus native fertiliser only if growth is weak, and water through the first summer to get the root system down before the plant is left to itself. Mulch with coarse chunky material rather than fine compost, which holds moisture against the stems.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 4 sizes, from 70mm up to 200mm, priced from $16.95 to $36.95 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. These are younger plants, priced for planting in quantity, and they establish quickly once in the ground. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to planting for birds.