Ornamental Eucalyptus? You must be kidding!

Warning: ironies below

As you well know, Eucalyptus are those little diverse Australian trees, that all become giants, invasive unestoppable weeds, they deplete soil and lower watertables, so aggresive nothing grows under them, so poisonous nothing can grow where they once grew, as much troublegiving as unable to be planted in gardens because their roots spread for a hundred meters and can cause havoc to anything growing in their way. They have nil or low ornamental potential and in addition they are not cold hardy!

Fig 1: Example of compact growth in sculpted cold hardy Eucalyptus grown in big containers

Fig 2: Example of garden performance for Minilyptus, sculpted for mallee growth habit. Planted in company of red flowering Callistemon and with an understorey of different Hebe cultivars.

Fig 3: Example of distinct connate juvenile foliage and flower buds of the Spinning Gum Tree.

Fig 4: Example of heavily pruned (pollarded) Eucalyptus gunnii cultivated from a potted specimen and planted too close to infrastructures. Obligatorily submitted to size control operations and hence avoid excessive height growth and root spread.

So as you can see, our main recommendation is wihtout any doubt that you please keep growing Leylandii and forget about Eucalyptus as ornamentals.

Especially because in addition to the examples of non ornamental foliage displayed above, you can also check that their boring bark and too similar flower buds are not at all worth of cultivation from an aesthetic point of view! So we do not need to consider their flowers at all.

Summing up, the right thing would be sending them all back to Australia, because as you well know, eucalypts cannot make good timber either!

Contact GIT Forestry Consulting - Eucalyptologics

If you want to join us in this fundamentalist crusade for the erradication of Eucalyptus worldwide, please do not hesitate contacting us!

GIT's Eucalyptology Topics

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© 2007 Gustavo Iglesias Trabado. Please contact us if you want to use all or part of this text and photography elsewhere. We like to share, but we do not like rudeness.

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Pruning ornamental eucalypts: Eucalyptus gunnii example

Early growth in ornamental eucalypts: Sculpting Eucalyptus gunnii

Gustavo Iglesias Trabado

GIT Forestry Consulting - Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal - www.git-forestry.com - EUCALYPTOLOGICS

We have put together some images of ornamental Eucalyptus growing in our own garden and some explanatory texts on horticultural recommendations at each stage of cultivation during their early years in order to control their growth and form. Just click the images to enlarge them and follow the links under each figure for full description of each stage.


STEP 1: Get a good quality ornamental Eucalyptus plant

Fig. 1: Standard potted ornamental eucalypt ready to be planted out

Read more on ornamental Eucalyptus in standard containers: add an Australian touch to your garden.

STEP 2: Plant your Eucalyptus and observe during the first year

Fig. 2: Early growth during the first year post-planting

Read more on early growth in garden Eucalyptus and how observing the progress of your tree will let you decide on when to start sculpting your big bonsai.

STEP 3: Keep your Eucalyptus bushy, size control via pollarding

Fig. 3: First winter growth and spring Eucalyptus pollarding

Read more on size control operations in garden Eucalyptus to restrict height growth and encourage lateral branching.

STEP 4: Make your Eucalyptus compact, branch division via pruning

Fig. 4: Second year early growth after size control operations (pruning & clipping)

Read more on risk minimisation when pruning garden Eucalyptus. Time well your maintenance operations!


STEP 5: Observe Eucalyptus branch length growth and keep sculpting

Fig. 5: Pollarded & pruned ornamental Eucalyptus 65 weeks after planting

Benefits of combining pollarding, pruning and clipping on young ornamental garden Eucalyptus

• Size control achieved, important for gardens with limited space (tree size estabilised around 3 m)
• Basal branches retained (not discarded by the tree after building up higher crown)
• More compact form (noticeable length growth in basal branches)
• Balanced aerial part/root system ratio (we minimise windhtrow damage risks)
• Fresh Eucalyptus foliage harvest from pruning operations, useful for flower arrangements

Keep an eye on...

• New branch architecture after pruning: Not all Eucalyptus trees managed this way develop several main branches after pollarding. The pictured one shows how one of the lateral branches took apical dominance. We obtained good branching in other specimens.

• Leaning towards light: Development of new main branches can be achieved but they tend to grow towards the light. This is important if Eucalyptus are planted in partial shade. This effect can be somewhat controled using stakes and wire to train future main branches to the desired direction while they are yet flexible and not woody.

Time invested in maintenance during the first 65 weeks

- Planting: 1.5 hours
- Fertilising: 0.1 hours
- Pollarding: 0.1 hours
- Pruning: 0.1 hours
- Clipping: 1.5 hours
- Watering: 4.5 hours
Total: 8 hours

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GIT's Eucalyptology Topics

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© 2007 Gustavo Iglesias Trabado. Please contact us if you want to use all or part of this text and photography elsewhere. We like to share, but we do not like rudeness.

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Eucalyptus flowers: E. macarthurii in bloom

Phenology of E. macarthurii in Galicia (Northwestern Spain)

Gustavo Iglesias Trabado
GIT Forestry Consulting - Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal - www.git-forestry.com - EUCALYPTOLOGICS

Blooming starts: August
Blooming ends: October
Nº simultaneous flower/fruit crops: up to 3
Seed maturity after flower bud formation: 18 to 30 months
Seed maturity after blooming: 12 to 18 months

The Eucalyptus of Sir William Macarthur can reach up to 40 meters height when grown at forestry plantings on good sites, or remain a shorter tree of wider crown and retaining basal branches when grown as isolated specimen (20-30 m).

Its quite good cold hardiness, resisting down to -10ºC and more than 80 frost events per year, and its average growth rates, made of it one of the alternative species in Northwestern Spain to E. globulus for inland areas or beyond 500 meters above sea level before the widespread planting of E. nitens.

Prolific in flowering, individual blooms are very small sized and difficult to notice. In clusters of seven, they become small white masses, same way as E. pauciflora. But these inflorescences are yet the size of a thumb. Which does not stop bees and other pollinators.

Studies conducted in the 1980's by Pezeshki and the University of Washington (USA) at Lee Experimental Forest proved its cold hardiness reaches its limits around -14ºC, but can coppice after that.

We include it in category ATL1 (absolute minima from -5ºC to 10ºC) for safe cultivation, but suitable seed provenances and origins could be tried with caution in the mildest part of ATL2 zone (absolute minima from -10ºC to -15ºC).

Interesting literature

Pezeshki, S R (1987) Survival and Early Growth of Alnus rubra, Eucalyptus macarthurii, E. viminalis, and Populus trichocarpa in the Pacific Northwest. Tree Planters' Notes 38:4

Also in this site

Eucalyptus flowers: E. globulus in bloom
Eucalyptus flowers: E. nitens in bloom
Eucalyptus flowers: E. pauciflora in bloom


Other GIT links

Eucalyptus macarthurii: Camden Woollybutt Highland Forests in Northwestern Spain
Eucalyptus macarthurii: An example of anatomic study to assist species identification
Eucalyptus seed collection: the importance of good timing


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© 2008 Gustavo Iglesias Trabado. Please contact us if you want to use all or part of this text and photography elsewhere. We like to share, but we do not like rudeness.

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Corymbia maculata: an example of ornamental bark in eucalypts

Sycamore Eucalypts: ornamental spotted patterns

Gustavo Iglesias Trabado
GIT Forestry Consulting - Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal - www.git-forestry.com - EUCALYPTOLOGICS

An interesting eucalypt species from both a timber production perspective but also an ornamental point of view, Corymbia maculata (known as Eucalyptus maculata from 1844 to 1995) sets its flower buds and later its seed capsules in panicles also known as corymbs. Individual flowers and capsules are normally grouped in 3's or 4's, but many times a pair of groups grow from the same point of the branchlet, giving appeareance of groups of 7's. Globose and urn shaped capsules of medium size normally develop in dense clusters where previously medium sized white flowers attract nectar browsing fauna that involuntarily cooperate with this eucalypt for pollination.

Urceolate and globose infrutescences of Corymbia maculata (ex Eucalyptus maculata)

The spotted gum receives its name for a relatively unusual bark type within eucalypts. "Maculata" literally means "spotted", and that is the appeareance of mature bark, showing patches of grey, brown, white and yellow that give it a ressemblance to a totally different tree, Acer pseudoplatanus, the Sycamore Maple.

Smooth, patchy, multicoloured mature bark of Corymbia maculata (ex Eucalyptus maculata)

Fibrous reddish juvenile bark of Corymbia maculata (ex Eucalyptus maculata) shedding to reveal the first patches of grey and brown underneath.

Its diverse natural habitat spreading from Eastern Victoria along New South Wales to Southern Queensland suggests variation for parameters like cold hardiness, and its altitudinal distribution from sea level to 1000 m. elevation can contribute to this thought. But it is mostly a coastal species with a relatively low tolerance to frost, so care must be put in tracing seed back to the parent trees if trying to grow it in borderline areas.

Broad lanceolate ruffled and hairy underneath juvenile leaves of Corymbia maculata (ex Eucalyptus maculata) on a two year old coppiced specimen

A vigorous and big sized tree, its best ornamental feature, bark, can be displayed at its best when planted in alleys, making sure there is room enough for symmetric crowns to develop. Individual specimens are better planted in ample gardens in order to achieve full crowns.

We include it in category EUCF (absolute minima from 0ºC to -5ºC) for safe cultivation, but suitable seed provenances from mid to high elevations in the inland ranges of Victoria or Southern NSW could show a bit higher tolerance to cold, so it could be tried with caution in the mildest part of ATL1 zone (absolute minima from -5ºC to -10ºC). In our experience it can survive temperatures as low as -7ºC, but losing its yearly growth to later resprout from lignotuber, so not easily achieving tree size. A very high amount of plant losses happens when temperatures approach -10ºC. Safe zone is then around -5ºC.

In Galicia (Northwestern Spain) it is cultivated infrequently, wich is a shame, and best specimens are always present in coastal areas corresponding to USDA Zone 9.

Interesting literature

Larmour J S, Whitfeld S J, Harwood C E, Owen J V (2000). Variation in frost tolerance and seedling morphology of the spotted gums Corymbia maculata, C. variegata, C. henryi and C. citriodora. Australian Journal of Botany 48, 445–453.

Hill, K D, Johnson, L A S (1995). Systematic studies in the eucalypts 7. A revision of the bloodwoods, genus Corymbia (Myrtaceae). Telopea 6:185–504

You can also see

ORNAMENTAL EUCALYPTUS WORLDWIDE: BARK

GIT's Eucalyptology Topics

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© 2008 Gustavo Iglesias Trabado. Please contact us if you want to use all or part of this text and photography elsewhere. We like to share, but we do not like rudeness.

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