Grevillea ‘Gold Rush’ is superb for quick effect and bright colour when we need it most - in winter and early spring. Plant it in a sunny spot, in soil that drains freely, and watch it grow. All it needs is a light pruning after flowering to keep it bushy. As it’s happiest in poor soils there’s no need for fertilisers and a high degree of drought tolerance means there’s no need to worry about watering. Because it grows to a height of 1.5 metres and spreads over the same distance, is evergreen and dense growing, ‘Gold Rush’ is excellent for low maintenance gardens. Group it with other bushy Grevillea varieties, Leucadendrons and Proteas on a sunny bank or border and you will get lots of flowers and attractive foliage for very little effort as there will be no room for weeds once the shrubs meet up.

If there are native birds in the vicinity, they will be attracted to the nectar rich flowers of the Grevilleas, adding their song to the garden’s joys.

Among other plants to grow with Grevillea ‘Gold Rush’ are Echium fastuosum, which has big fat spikes of blue flowers in early spring, blue flowered, bushy Ceanothus ‘Joyce Coulter’ and, where there’s little frost, Metrosideros ‘Tahiti which is a shrubby, compact growing relative of the native pohutukawa with a lengthy flowering period in winter and spring. Leucospermum ‘Harry Chittick’, with orange, pincushion shaped flowers in late spring and early summer, will carry on the interest as the flowers of Grevillea ‘Gold Rush’ come to a halt. Foreground plantings of tough little shrubs such as Felicia ‘Golden Sapphire’, which has a profusion of blue, gold centred daisies over many months, will enhance the scene. Also good for a foreground planting are sun and dry loving perennials such as the new, hybrid gazania varieties ‘Montezuma’ and ‘Sunset Jane’ and low growing kangaroo paws (Anigozanthos) such as ‘Bush Gold’ and ‘Bush Illusion’.