Superb Grevillea Grevillea bipinnatifida x banksii Alba 'Superb'

Superb follows the Robyn Gordon recipe, Grevillea bipinnatifida crossed with Grevillea banksii, but with the white flowered form of banksii as one parent. The shrub that results has the same compact, spreading frame and deeply cut leaves in a different colour: big flower heads of apricot orange, yellow toward the base and flushed with pink, produced in flushes for most of the year. Next to the red hybrids it reads warmer and softer, which is why it gets picked for gentler planting schemes.

Softer colour is easier to place. Superb sits comfortably beside cream render, sandstone paving, grey leaved natives and pale timber, and it suits a courtyard, a large pot on a terrace or a bed set well back from the front entry, places where a strong red would dominate.

A grevillea for pots and courtyards

Superb is one of the more reliable grevilleas in a container, provided the pot is large and the mix is right. Pot it up into a container at least 400mm across, drilled with several holes and stood on feet so it never sits in water. Choose a bagged mix labelled for natives, because general mixes carry the phosphorus it cannot handle. Push a finger into the mix before watering: in a summer heatwave it may need water every second day, in winter far less. Repot or root prune every few years, before the plant becomes root bound and starts dropping its lower leaves.

In the ground it wants full sun, good drainage and protection from hard frost. It is most at home in Queensland and New South Wales, coastal or inland, provided the soil drains. Like Robyn Gordon, it can cause an itchy rash on sensitive skin, and in a courtyard where people pass within arm's reach every day that matters more than it would at the back of a bed. Keep it a little back from seating and paths, wear gloves to prune, and wash your hands after handling cut stems.

Superb or the other soft coloured hybrids

If you want red, Robyn Gordon Grevillea is the same cross, made with the red form of banksii, in a stronger colour. Grevillea Peaches and Cream goes paler again, its heads shifting between cream, lemon, apricot and pink as they age, and suits a garden seen up close. Superb is the one for warm apricot tones that read clearly from a distance without shouting. Cream, pink and red grevilleas to plant alongside it are in the Grevillea collection.

Pruning to fit the pot

Superb stays at its best when it is trimmed lightly and often instead of being given a big cut every few years. After each flush, snip the old flower heads off just above a healthy leaf, and every so often shorten the longest shoots so the shrub stays rounded. That routine is also what keeps a potted plant in proportion with its container. The usual feeding mistake on a terrace is the all purpose fertiliser kept for everything else; a light spring feed of a native formula is all it needs, and in many years it needs none. A single missed watering in a heatwave can scorch a potted plant badly, so set up a drip line before you go away in summer.

Choosing a size

This plant is supplied in one size, 300mm, at $149.00 per plant. The size shown is the pot it arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to planting for birds.