Gorgeous grevillea waxing not waning

And while I'm at Cranbourne Gardens (see last week's Darwinia, in the myrtle family), here is an Australian plant with bigger flowers and leaves. It belongs to another of the well represented plant families in Australia, the protea family (Proteaceae).

It's Grevillea insignis, originally from hilltops and rises in south-west Western Australia, but here flowering its head off on Howson Hill, in the Australian Garden.

Nothing subtle about this plant. The most common form is called the Wax Grevillea, due to the bluish-grey bloom on the stems and older leaves giving most plants a waxy (or glaucous) look. The leaves are screaming out 'look at me' with their spiky red margins and prominent veins.

With those ever so dusty pink and white flowers ...

The species was described in 1855, in a paper on new Proteaceae species in Australia by Swiss botanist Carl Friedrich Meisner. The herbarium specimens examined by Meisner were collected by James Drummond, who migrated from Ireland to Western Australia in 1829 and became that states (honorary) Government Naturalist, collecting widely in the south of the State until 1855.

In 1993, Peter Olde and Neil Marriott described two subspecies, one named elliotti in honour of Rodger Elliot (extraordinary Australian-plant grower and writer, ex Board and Foundation member of Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, etc...) the other retaining (as it must) the species name insignis.

The plant I photographed at Cranbourne is the more common of the subspecies, insignis, but I gather we have both species in cultivation. Subspecies elliotii doesn't have the glaucous stems (and mostly leaves) and the base of the leaves are tapered rather than abruptly truncate as you can see they are (above) in subspecies insignis.

As you can also see in this habit shot, our plant is pretty nicely formed but I was amused to read in the (Australian Native Plants Society) Grevillea Study Group newsletter that the Wax Grevillea is, for one grower, 'the most unattractive plant in our garden'. It seems she was unlucky with her plant, which was 'straggly' and of a shape you'd have to 'be an enthusiast to appreciate'. At least the flowers were described as 'stunningly gorgeous' and the stiff leaves 'a good contrast'.

There is little more to say about this species other than enjoy these photos, and then visit the plant in situ. It seems to flower for a large chunk of the year. Waxing not waning.

Postscript: Friend of Cranbourne Gardens (and past-President of the Cranbourne Friends), Alex Smart, advises me that Grevillea insignis subspecies elliotii is also growing on Howson Hill, on the opposite side of the path to the the one I photographed! Gwen Elliot and Rodger Elliot brought this subspecies into cultivation so the name may well apply to them both.