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Re: Eucalypts

On Tue, 13 Jan 1998 07:49:48 +0800, you wrote:

>Hi Vanessa,
>
>There are just some many spp. I'm not sure I could begin
>I have grown E. caesia and I wouldn't have described it as tender but
>then its not THAT cold in Perth
>One of my favourties is E. erythocorys (illyarrie).  It has an
>interesting growth habit between a small tree and a mallee tending to
>grow more sideways as it ages.  Its leaves are the classic long curved
>blade and it has a typical shaggy bark that peels off and lays around
>the trunk.  But the flowers!!!
>The buds are huge, 1-2 inches across and four sided with brilliant red
>caps (proper name is Operculum) when the caps fall off the stamens are
>vivid yellow.  The fruits are in clusters of three to four and with some
>in full bloom and some still in bud the tree is a mass of red and
>yellow.  The fruits formed are no less delightfull as the flowers swell
>into huge four sided nuts that stay on the tree untill removed.  I
>collected the red caps after they fall sometimes, they can be used for
>all sorts of hobby type stuff as the colour is pretty well fixed and
>they are quite tough.  I belive it is grown in California but I'm not
>sure where else overseas.
>Beware of growing Eucalyptus spp. from seed, check the frass very
>carefully as you may have nothing but a bunch of aborted ovules.  Many
>Many people have been sucked in by all the little brown seed like bits
>that fall out of Euc nuts believing it all to be seed.  The seed will be
>a slighlty different colour and shape to the frass and quite often
>different texture as well.  But you need to look carefully, with
>experience you can pick it easily, to check just cut one in half, if its
>seed it will be white inside, if not well it will be the same colour all
>the way through and probably quite difficult to cut.
>
>Other species I like 
>
>E. erythonema,  red flowered mallee 
>E. forrestiana,  fuschia gum
>E. torquata, coral gum
>
>Three smallish mallees, at least in Australia, with very attreactive
>flowers and in the case of the last to unusual bud shapes
>I would suspect that they would not like extremely humid/wet conditions
>for to long being mallees
>but should tolerate cold & dry as detailed by David previously.  
>A few people have expressed suprise at how species seemingly reverse
>their growing seasons when moving hemispheres.  But its more a case of
>moving climates, 
>from cool wet summers & dry cold  winters 
>to     cool wet winters & dry hot  summers
> you can see which way plants work eh? all our major annual weeds here
>work that way.
>
>Cheers, Rod
>
>
>> 
>> Can anyone recommend any different and wonderful eucalyptus?  I love
>> E.
>> niphohila in the garden as it is fairly well behaved and that white
>> bark..
>> but there must be more...
>> 
>> Has anyone grown E. caesia (I hear it's a bit tender), E. rubida or E.
>> glaucescens?
>> 
>> Vanessa Kuemmerle
>> 
>> 

Vanessa and Rod,

Do you know of Chiltern Seeds in England?  They list all the Eucalyptus
that you mention, and in fact I counted about 60 in their 1997 catalogue.
Your description of E. erythocorys sounds so good that I am going to try
growing it. Here in the Algarve in Portugal Eucalyptus grow well and I have
several species in my garden.  Unfortunately the local Portuguese farmers
are tearing up the wild hills that are covered in Cistus and many wild
flowers to plant E. globulus as a timber tree.

Chiltern Seeds can be contacted by e-mail: 101344.1340@compuserve.com
----  Graham Payne  ----  dpsgkp@mail.telepac.pt  ----
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