''Banksia'' 'Birthday Candles' is a dwarf

cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture, ...

of ''

Banksia spinulosa ''Banksia spinulosa'', the hairpin banksia, is a species of woody shrub, of the genus ''Banksia'' in the family Proteaceae, native to eastern Australia. Widely distributed, it is found as an understorey plant in open dry forest or heathland ...

'' var. ''spinulosa'' developed by

Bill Molyneux William Mitchell Molyneux (born 1935) is an Australian horticulturist and author who has researched and developed many popular cultivars of Australian plants, including Banksia 'Birthday Candles', and Isopogon 'Woorikee 2000'. '' Grevillea mo ...

of Austraflora Nurseries in Montrose, Victoria. It has since become the highest-selling native plant in Australia.

Description

Its height averages 18 cm, and its width 44 cm. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

s are short and upright and appear on branch ends from early autumn to early spring (March to September in Australia). They are yellow, with contrasting red styles.

Origin

It was selected in 1985 from a number of seedlings which were raised at Austraflora Nurseries in Australia, the original material hailing from Schnapper Point near

Ulladulla Ulladulla is a coastal town in New South Wales, Australia in the City of Shoalhaven local government area. It is on the Princes Highway about south of Sydney, halfway between Batemans Bay to the south and Nowra to the north. Ulladulla has cl ...

on the New South Wales South Coast.

Cultivation

The cultivar is said to be adaptable to a wide range of climatic conditions including a moderate tolerance of frost. It has a high tolerance to salt-laden coastal winds.

References

Birthday Candles A birthday is the anniversary of the birth of a person, or figuratively of an institution. Birthdays of people are celebrated in numerous cultures, often with birthday gifts, birthday cards, a birthday party, or a rite of passage. Many rel ...

Garden plants of Australia Garden plants {{banksia-stub