Taking inspiration from Rory's natural comp and the fact I love Eucs I figure I want to try out some more species and see how they go and share any findings with you all. Seeing as they are young nursery stock mostly I'm basically going to try and take the 3 year approach like the comp to try and build something that is hopefully on it's way to being a bonsai.
This first pic isn't much as there is not a lot to see but I can take close ups of the leaves or whatever else with something for scale if any one is really interested.
From left to right....
1. E.petiolaris also known as the Eyre Peninsular blue gum. It was formerly classified as a subsp. of leucoxylon until being elevated to it's own.
2. E. saxatilis or the Suggun Buggan mallee. From the south east border area of vic/nsw. I thought the mature bark on this one was interesting.
3. E. gillii or Arkaroola mallee, an inland species found around the Flinders Rangers.
4. E. victrix,commonly known as the smooth-barked coolibah, western coolibah or little ghost gum. A northern inland species found on the flats and flood plains of the Pilbara and Kimberly as well as NT.
All form lignotubers so should take well to cut backs and such.
Basically not much to do with them at the moment, they will be uppotted this week/end and left to grow. Maybe update every 6 months or so and see how they are travelling.
Also scored a E. deglupta but that is not looking so hot, all droopy and limp. Don't think it appreciated the trip from France all that much. I'll post pics if it perks up but I have never managed to keep one of these alive for too long so who knows.
Next up is E. leptophleba
This is seed grown and the sister tree to my entry in the natural comp. I have used it as a practice tree for experimenting on before I did anything to the other one so it's been cut, tipped, pinched, defoliated and so forth with no actual design in mind. I nearly lost it this year as it dried out but it just dumped it's leaves and put out all the growth you see now.
It's a species from Cape York in Queensland and that puts it in the tropical range but it takes our winters in it's stride. They grow quite tall and even when full grown only have skinny trunks so it's not likely to beef up too much. There is not much info on these either so everything I know about them is from trial and error.
I finally think I have figured this one out a bit better, full defoliation in late summer early autumn brings a burst of new growth all over and then pinching that new growth back to two pairs seems to help with ramifying.
This was the pot it was in, it had been in there too long and needed to be set free.
The roots, it also had that odd growth I posted in another thread in among that lot. Possibly caused by Rhizobia.
Cut back more than I intended but there is a nice splay of root there.
Then potted in a box.
That was a month or so ago, the tree is dong real good. Pushing growth and responding to pinching. Really again going to just let it grow and fill out. Going to be a straight one so not going to fight it.
Finally and perhaps presumptuously named is the 'Ghost who Walks'
Corymbia aparrerinja, the famous Ghost Gum of the outback.
This one is a bit of an oddity with 3 trunks coming from the raised lignotuber and exposed roots below it. It was uppotted the same time as the one above and is now pushing new growth. Hopefully it stays weird, I like weird and have the idea that the exposed roots will eventually give the impression the tree is walking on top of the soil as they can sometime be found in nature. The rocks are there purely to keep the roots elevated, so not a RoR thing. They will go leaving empty space unless it decides to do the melty thing Corymbias can do, that would be cool too.
Overall they just need growing mainly so that's what I'll do and check in every once in a while. I do have a C. ficifolia on the way as well so will likely add that and any other additions that I shouldn't really be buying between now and years end.
Anyway I hope this is of interest to some.
Cheers for looking.
