Grevillea 'Kings Sunrise' PP33,941 (Kings Park Orange Grevillea) - A large upright shrub to 8 to 9 feet tall by 6 to 8 feet wide with white stems and soft gray-green dissected leaves. Nearly year-round, but primarily spring through fall, appear the 5-inch-long toothbrush type vibrant golden orange flower flowers that emerge along the upper side of the inflorescence.
Plant in full sun in a well-drained soil and give infrequent to occasional irrigation. Our experience with other grevillea is avoid fertilizers that contain phosphorus and keep an eye on foliage color for signs of chlorosis that can be treated with acidifying agents or chelated iron. This plant should prove hardy to 20-25° F. It does great in containers or in the landscape and is a favorite of hummingbirds.
Grevillea 'Kings Sunrise' was the result of crossing two unreleased cultivars of hybrid origin form. The seed parent Grevillea '20091434' is a low growing spreading plant with red flowers and grey-green foliage and exhibits a low and spreading growth habit while the pollen parent, Grevillea '20090089', is a more upright variety with yellow flowers and green foliage – this hybrid is bushy and spreading orange flowers and silvery-green foliage. Our original nursery plant has proven itself to be vigorous and durable, as are the others in the Kings Park Grevillea series.
The cultivars in this series are the result of a breeding program conducted by Digby Growns at Plant Development at Kings Park and Botanic Garden in Perth, Western Australia. The objective of the breeding program was the development of Grevillea cultivars that have large inflorescences with attractive colors. This series made its debut in North America through Ball Horticulture & Star Roses & Plants in 2016 and described as having "exotic looking blooms that flower year-round in Southern California. The plants have all been released in the US by Star Roses and Plants (Ball Horticulture). We began trialing Grevillea 'Kings Fire', Grevillea 'Kings Celebration' and Grevillea 'Kings Rainbow' in 2015 and put them into full production and started selling them the following year. All are strong performers with very attractive foliage and flowers. In 2019 Grevillea 'Spirit of ANZAC' was added to the Kings Park series.
We also selected out a plant in 2019 in our crop of Grevillea 'Kings Fire' that had similar foliage to it but with the flower buds and clusters that were slightly larger and with open flowers a unique golden orange color. It turned out that this was another of the Kings Park hybrids that had yet to be released and had mistakenly slipped in with 'Kings Fire' from the propagating nursery that was licensed to produce this series. This plant was on display during our October 2019 field day where we had it labeled "Kings Sunset" and it caused quite a sensation. It has since been named Grevillea 'Kings Sunrise' and under this name has US Plant Patent PP33,941 issued in February 2022 with the first sales of it coming out of our nursery in 2023.
The information about Grevillea 'Kings Sunrise' PP33,941 displayed on this web page is based on our research conducted in the nursery's horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also include observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments we receive from others and welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share cultural information that would aid others in growing this plant. |