Does Anyone Grow a Bottlebrush Tree?

[pecks]

I'll admit it -- I like the idea of using a Bottlebrush play gym and would love to get one...but I have a hard time shelling out a few hundred dollars every so often (well, more often than others, since it's a softer wood) because the bird's chewed through the blasted stand! (Or is this not an issue?) So...a thought struck me. If I'm going to handmake my parrot's toys, why not a Bottlebrush tree stand? But for that, I would need wood, so...I thought, "well, why not grow a Bottlebrush tree?"

Did a bit more research and found a place to get some live Bottlebrush trees (and thankfully they do well in my plant zone), but I was wondering if anyone actually grew them? What issues do you have with the plants? Are they effective for using to make playstands/chew-things for birds? Would any Bottlebrush do? Or should I stay away from certain species? I imagine, with having only one bird, I would only need to cut branches every so often. Would this be doable? Or would I be better served just getting one of these Java Parrot Towers and calling it a day? (Who knows, I might get one in addition. :P )




For those who might be wondering...yes, I probably am (just a tad) off my rocker. :P

[nene142]

intersting very interesting grat idea!

[Andie]

I don't specifically grow them, they are just kind of there. Full of lorikeets waking me up!!!

But we do hack branches off and use them for our birds!! (shh, don't tell the council) They love the flowers too!

Definitely worth trying to grow one. The red ones are pretty and always have birds in them!

[Kevin]

We use to have a HUGE bottle brush tree, but after numerous bee stings and becoming very allergic to bee's we took it out... use to climb that tree all the time as a kid.

[tishtash]

I have them growing all over my neighbourhood and they're great! They dont seem overly hard to grow but then again I do live in Australia where they grow naturally.

[Rahni]

The official name for the bottlebrush family is 'callistemon'. They are pretty hardy, would do well especially if you live in drier parts of the country.
I've got a few growing wild here, they are in crappy clay soil which I couldn't imagine has very much nutrition, and are fully exposed to the sun, yet more seedlings keep appearing so obviously it works for them!
I tried digging a few up and putting them in pots for my lorikeets, but only one survived, and it was the one with the least amount of foliage.

[Izzy]

The nice thing about bottlebrush is that the outer bark is soft, and easy to chew, but it gets harder inside.

I got the hanging gym version, so it was like $180 I think. It's for my meyers parrot and it's HUGE! I'll try and get some pictures up sometime this week.

Growing it youself would be awesome too of course. But I definitely feel like I got what I paid for with this gym! Especially considering that those manzanita floor trees can run $400 around here! Even used I can't find one under $100!

[Lisa B]

Originally Posted by Izzy

I got the hanging gym version, so it was like $180 I think. It's for my meyers parrot and it's HUGE! I'll try and get some pictures up sometime this week.

0!

yeah the medium is pretty huge! I have one in the shop now...

[loyallyroyal]

Bottlebrush is very hardy and easy to grow, plus they love stripping clippings of their fresh leaves and flowers. Dewey loves it.

[pecks]

Wow, thanks for the feedback everyone. Are the flowers and leaves safe for parrots (or, rather, Pionus)? Not that I'd go around purposefully feeding them to my bird, but I'd just like to know since parrots chew just about everything.

@Andie: How quickly would you say the trees "recover" from you cutting the branches off? Would you say the tree regrows fairly quickly? Any specific timespan you can think of? While I don't think I would have to cut off a lot of branches over a short period of time, I'd like to get an idea what could safely be cut off a tree (after all, I'd love for it to be sustainable).

Thanks again for all the info (keep it coming!), your first-hand experience is leaps better than the online articles I've come across.

Edit: I would love to get a hanging gym...it would answer my "where on earth am I going to put all this stuff?" questions. :P But alas, not only is it still too pricey for a "disposable" play gym, but I can't hang things from the ceiling.