Linda H wrote:
I love the look of these and would love to plant a pair next to each
other, or does anybody know the name/s of a native gum that has a tall,
ghostly, very white trunk? I would like to uplight/spotlight them from
the base once they're big enough.

We have enough room for something tall & we're in the North-East of
Melb. (Kinglake Ranges) so it's a cold winter here.

I looked at snow gums (don't know the real names of them) but their
branches come out too low to the ground for the look I'm after.

Also, should I get really small ones and wait... and wait or get more
established ones because I gather native trees don't like to be
disturbed too much?

Thanks, folks!

- L

I'd stick to the Snow Gums (Eucalyptus pauciflora - or is it Corymbia
pauciflora these days?) if I were you (unless, that is, you have a very
large block). Lemon Scented Gums grow very tall ( 25m) and stately and
drop their long (but very heavy) branches with unerring accuracy onto
your pool, your dog and your child! Oh, and occasionally onto your roof,
either car- or house-...

They're not recommended for home gardens, but in spite of this we
planted one at the bottom of our garden about thirty years ago. It is
exactly the beautiful specimen you imagine, but *very* messy in terms of
the leaves and branches it drops! Also, the effect is somewhat lost in
an ordinary suburban garden: you can really only appreciate it properly
from a minimum distance which seems (to me) to be greater than the
length of a house-block.

Having said all that, I can say the foliage is truly beautiful, hanging
in the typical 'gum tree' clustered bunches at the ends of slim,
graceful, white (and dropsical) branches. The blossoms are creamy and
bring lots of bees and insects and birds. The trunk is dead-straight,
ghostly white and the wounds from the dropped branches eventually make
good nesting sites for galahs etc. The scent of the foliage can be
detected on a warm summer breeze and is *delicious* when you crush a few
leaves in your hand!

Something tells me the Snow Gum might give you a similar, though more
manageable effect. The bark patterns and subtle colours are very
beautiful, although not the 'ghostly white' you mention above. I think
judicious pruning would give you the growth habit you want without the
great height and branch-dropping...

Other possibilities could be Spotted Gum or Flooded Gum, depending on
where you live, but I think these, too, will grow to fairly enormous
size over time. I reckon the Forestry Department or Greening Australia
could be good sources of info. Or, snoop about on the CSIRO website and
see if they have any alternatives for you?

HTH,

--
Trish {|:-} Newcastle, NSW, Australia

"Trish Brown" wrote in message
...
Linda H wrote:
I love the look of these and would love to plant a pair next to each
other, or does anybody know the name/s of a native gum that has a tall,
ghostly, very white trunk? I would like to uplight/spotlight them from
the base once they're big enough.

We have enough room for something tall & we're in the North-East of
Melb. (Kinglake Ranges) so it's a cold winter here.

I looked at snow gums (don't know the real names of them) but their
branches come out too low to the ground for the look I'm after.

Also, should I get really small ones and wait... and wait or get more
established ones because I gather native trees don't like to be
disturbed too much?

Thanks, folks!

- L

I'd stick to the Snow Gums (Eucalyptus pauciflora - or is it Corymbia
pauciflora these days?) if I were you (unless, that is, you have a very
large block). Lemon Scented Gums grow very tall ( 25m) and stately and
drop their long (but very heavy) branches with unerring accuracy onto
your pool, your dog and your child! Oh, and occasionally onto your roof,
either car- or house-...

Hey Trish .... cringe now ... I'm pretty sure they're Corymbias The
lemon-scented ones I would call Corymbia citriodora but I do recall the &*^%
taxonomists fluffing about with the names of that and C. maculata and I
dunno if they're now the same species or what the end result of the name
kerfuffle was.
....and ditto the branch dropping. Lovely trees but you don't want them
cropping their healthy-looking branches in the face of a stiff drink.... or
frown from a passing magpie (who knows why they just drop-em with no
notice).

They're not recommended for home gardens, but in spite of this we
planted one at the bottom of our garden about thirty years ago. It is
exactly the beautiful specimen you imagine, but *very* messy in terms of
the leaves and branches it drops! Also, the effect is somewhat lost in
an ordinary suburban garden: you can really only appreciate it properly
from a minimum distance which seems (to me) to be greater than the
length of a house-block.

Having said all that, I can say the foliage is truly beautiful, hanging
in the typical 'gum tree' clustered bunches at the ends of slim,
graceful, white (and dropsical) branches. The blossoms are creamy and
bring lots of bees and insects and birds. The trunk is dead-straight,
ghostly white and the wounds from the dropped branches eventually make
good nesting sites for galahs etc. The scent of the foliage can be
detected on a warm summer breeze and is *delicious* when you crush a few
leaves in your hand!

Backhousia citriiodora smells just as yummy (and tastes good too) ... but
not as pretty I will admit.


Something tells me the Snow Gum might give you a similar, though more
manageable effect. The bark patterns and subtle colours are very
beautiful, although not the 'ghostly white' you mention above. I think
judicious pruning would give you the growth habit you want without the
great height and branch-dropping...

Other possibilities could be Spotted Gum or Flooded Gum, depending on
where you live, but I think these, too, will grow to fairly enormous
size over time. I reckon the Forestry Department or Greening Australia
could be good sources of info. Or, snoop about on the CSIRO website and
see if they have any alternatives for you?

Spotted gum is the C.maculata I'm talking about above .... dunno if
citriodora has been grouped with them or not ( I *know* they are different
IMO too but tell that to the taxonomists!), but they are very similar and do
also drop branches without warning.

HTH,

--
Trish {|:-} Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Hope you and yours are well Trish ...

Amanda