Small, erect, evergreen shrub with downy shoots, & awl-shaped leaf, slightly hairy & with a woolly undersurface. Flower heads comprised of soft, feathery plumes in rounded tufts. These bracts are yellowish green, narrow, pointed & glisten in the sunshine in Winter. 60x60cm.
The narrow, pale green foliage and soft, rust coloured shoots make Phylica plumosa a highly distinctive small shrub with year-round appeal. The flowers are an added bonus, cream and buff and feathery, a flower arranger’s dream, smothering the bush in late winter, a time when any flowers are welcome, let alone ones which are as handsome as these. Phylica plumosa enjoys well drained soils which are not too dry and lots of sunshine.
It’s great among other plants with plume or feather-like flowers, such as Chionochloa flavicans, and with yellow flowered winter leucadendrons such as ‘Julie’ and ‘Rewa Gold’. Intriguing too with the dwarf native kowhai ‘Dragon’s Gold’. Light pruning after flowering extends the sometimes short life of this shrub.