Images may show mature specimens and are provided as a guide only. As plants are living products, the size, shape and appearance of the stock supplied may vary from the images shown.
Nursery Direct
Old Man Banksia
Banksia serrata
Everything is included in this price: the plant, free delivery and professional installation
The price you see is the whole job: the plant supplied, delivered free and professionally installed. Done for you.
Want to see the actual plant?
The photo shows this species, not the individual plant reserved for you. Send us an enquiry and we usually reply within 1 business day with photos of the actual stock available in the size you want.
Request photosHow tall it arrives: 400mm about 1.5 to 2.5m, 75L about 1.5 to 2.5m, 100L about 2.5 to 3.5m, 500mm about 2.5 to 3.5m, 200L about 3 to 4.5m. Heights vary with species and season. How pot sizes work
Getting it in: the largest size here needs about 1.2m of clear, level access. Measure the narrowest point on the route and tell us on the booking call. Standard access is included in the price, and anything unusual is quoted and agreed with you before work begins. What happens on installation day
Looking for a larger size?
Sizes shown are the sizes we currently source in this species. If you need larger specimens, project quantities or a size not listed, our sourcing team can look for it through our national supplier network. We confirm your exact stock with you on the booking call before anything ships.
Send An EnquiryYou order. We do the rest.
After checkout, our team contacts you to confirm site access and book a day that suits. Most orders are delivered and planted within 2 to 4 weeks of your booking call. Nothing else for you to organise.
Registered Australian business, ABN 33 683 675 603. Public liability certificates available on request.
Product Details
Overview & Specifications
Price includes everything: the plant, free delivery and professional installation by our planting team. One price, whole job done.
Old Man Banksia - Banksia serrata
Few Australian trees carry as much character per metre as Banksia serrata, with its warty grey trunk, crooked limbs and saw toothed leathery leaves. It is the banksia of east coast sandstone country, and a mature specimen looks weathered and old long before it actually is. Landscape architects specify it where a tree needs to look like it belongs to the site rather than to a nursery, and where a genuinely low water, low maintenance canopy is required.
Why Old Man Banksia
Sculptural trunk: The thick, corky, fissured bark is fire adapted and gives a gnarled character no fast growing tree can imitate.
Long flowering: Large greenish cream cylindrical spikes appear from late summer into winter, feeding honeyeaters and lorikeets.
Woody cones: Spent flower spikes harden into the follicle studded cones that generations of Australian children have known as banksia men.
Sand and salt tolerance: It grows naturally on coastal dunes and sandstone, and shrugs off salt laden wind that ruins most exotics.
Serious drought hardiness: Once the root system is down it needs no supplementary water in most of its climate range.
Ideal Applications
Coastal garden canopy: One of the few small trees that will hold a good canopy in exposed, sandy, salt affected front gardens.
Habitat and bird planting: Nectar rich flowers and seed cones make it a keystone plant in a wildlife focused garden.
Bush regeneration and native theme: Pairs naturally with grass trees, casuarinas, lomandra and dwarf banksias on sandy sites.
Low water feature tree: A single specimen in gravel or crushed sandstone mulch works as living sculpture in a waterwise courtyard.
Specimen & Installation
Spacing (screening/hedge): 3 to 4m for an informal native windbreak
Spacing (feature/avenue): 6 to 8m
Best Planting Season: Autumn in warm districts, or early spring in cold ones, so roots establish before summer heat
Soil & Drainage: Sandy or gravelly, sharply drained and low in phosphorus; heavy wet clay is the fastest way to lose one
Establishment Care: Water weekly through the first summer only, then step back, because banksias resent constant moisture at the collar. Mulch with coarse leaf litter or gravel rather than manure, and use only low phosphorus native fertiliser if feeding at all.
Plant Details
Height: 5 to 12m in cultivation, taller on favourable coastal sites
Width: 4 to 6m
Growth Rate: Slow to moderate
Foliage: Evergreen
Light: Full sun
Native to: Coastal and near coastal eastern Australia, from south east Queensland through New South Wales to Victoria and Tasmania
Flower Colour: Grey green in bud, opening cream to pale yellow
Delivery & Installation
Delivery and installation are included in your price
No freight calculators and no separate installation quote for a standard installation. Your price covers specialist plant transport, positioning and professional planting by our installation team. The whole job, handled.
- Wrapped, secured and transported by specialist plant freight.
- Professionally planted, staked and finished by our install team.
- Our team confirms site access and schedules a time that suits you.
Installation
Professional installation included, never extra
Every plant we sell is planted by our professional installation team, and it's already in the price. We coordinate the delivery, the machinery and the planting for standard site access, so your only job is choosing the tree. Unusual access or engineering requirements? We'll confirm everything with you after checkout before any work begins.
Questions? Send An EnquiryWhy Nursery Direct
Every price includes supply, delivery and installation
Buying a mature tree often means three separate jobs: the plant, the freight and finding someone to plant it. We price the whole job as one: the tree, the delivery and the professional install.
- One price: supplied, delivered and installed
- Mature trees and specimen palms at every scale
- National sourcing for hard-to-find stock
- Residential, estate and commercial projects
How It Works
Place your order. We do the rest.
We Supply
Premium advanced stock, selected from a national network of wholesale growers.
We Deliver
Specialist plant freight brings your order to your door. Free, anywhere in Australia.
We Install
Our professional team plants, stakes, mulches and finishes the job on site.







