Melaleuca leucadendra advice please

[Rory]

Melaleuca leucadendra

Has anyone got any of these growing?
Do the leaves reduce well, as they are quite long?

A spectacular looking weeping paperbark which apparently tolerates very wet conditions.

[AGarcia]

I have one that i am growing on to thicken (fine leaf form). Doing okay, but i think it needs a soil change. It is staying too wet for my conditions, which seems to be slowing it down.
It has been susceptible to insect attack (especially by some sort of wasp), so keep any eye on the new foliage and spray if you have the issues I do.

AG

[Rory]

Yeah, I have bought a few of the same - 'fine leaf form'. I would presume these are going to have be large specimens because of the length of the leaves. They looked so elegant I couldn't resist. I wont be too worried about reducing the size of the foliage for many, many years as the trunks are only 2 or 3 cm thick. The foliage weeps so well it almost resembles drooping branches on their own.

[Rory]

Anyone know a good recommendation on when it would be safe to root prune and repot these, as they are a little pot bound when I purchased them in June. I assume if no-one else has any advice to add, then I will just treat is as a normal Mel and do it in Nov/Dec.

One has just started to shoot but the other hasn't budded yet.

[Elmar]

G'day Rory,
I don't have one myself, but Pup has drummed it into me that he prunes them (1) when it gets warm & (2) when buds form...
Not sure if that helps you, surely it must be warming up in your neck-of-the-woods by now!?! We've been in the mid 30s for a couple of weeks already...


Cheers
Elmar

[Rory]

G'day Rory,
I don't have one myself, but Pup has drummed it into me that he prunes them (1) when it gets warm & (2) when buds form...
Not sure if that helps you, surely it must be warming up in your neck-of-the-woods by now!?! We've been in the mid 30s for a couple of weeks already...

Yeah, usually the standard response from users for Mels is spring/summer. But as they seem to be happy in swampy conditions I just wondered if any different requirements for this one.

[Kelvin8r]

How are these going Rory?

Ive collected a few of these recently and seem to be going really well

[Rory]

How are these going Rory?

Hi Kelvin8r,

They are going well. When I bought them, unfortunately they were caked in myrtle rust from the Native nursery in Erina. So I had to cut off the affected areas and spray the bejangles out of them. They were also savagely attacked by possums following that, at my house.

This species and armillaris are the only Mels that were hardy enough to have survived the possum attacks of 2015. Even after multiple drop and munch tactics from the furry farts, they have tirelessly shot forth new growth. I also think may have simply preferred the taste of the other Mels more.

I'll take some photos when I can remember and post here. They have such a beautiful weeping habit. I bought 2 more younger seedlings of these, because I love Mels and love the papery bark on these ones. The foliage was twice heavily stripped on both, and so this is the 2nd time it has produced new growth since July. ( NOT recommended). However it is now quite tall and the length of the leaves are about half the original length I'd say. I am more interested in just feeding and growing them at this stage. I did not cut back the roots much at all when I repotted, only about 10% of the roots were cut.

They are in a well draining mix, but don't let the mix dry out. They love plenty of sun and shoot back right back to the trunk easily after a hard cut back. (if this is what you are after).

EDIT - By the way, when I say the leaves reduced, yeah, I probably should have said, reduced from being really LONG, to just long. I would say they need to be grown as a large specimen, similar to many eucalyptus, otherwise the length of leaves may detract from the overall look.

[Kelvin8r]

How are these going Rory?

Hi Kelvin8r,

They are going well. When I bought them, unfortunately they were caked in myrtle rust from the Native nursery in Erina. So I had to cut off the affected areas and spray the bejangles out of them. They were also savagely attacked by possums following that, at my house.

This species and armillaris are the only Mels that were hardy enough to have survived the possum attacks of 2015. Even after multiple drop and munch tactics from the furry farts, they have tirelessly shot forth new growth. I also think may have simply preferred the taste of the other Mels more.

I'll take some photos when I can remember and post here. They have such a beautiful weeping habit. I bought 2 more younger seedlings of these, because I love Mels and love the papery bark on these ones. The foliage was twice heavily stripped on both, and so this is the 2nd time it has produced new growth since July. ( NOT recommended). However it is now quite tall and the length of the leaves are about half the original length I'd say. I am more interested in just feeding and growing them at this stage. I did not cut back the roots much at all when I repotted, only about 10% of the roots were cut.

They are in a well draining mix, but don't let the mix dry out. They love plenty of sun and shoot back right back to the trunk easily after a hard cut back. (if this is what you are after).

EDIT - By the way, when I say the leaves reduced, yeah, I probably should have said, reduced from being really LONG, to just long. I would say they need to be grown as a large specimen, similar to many eucalyptus, otherwise the length of leaves may detract from the overall look.

Awesome, thanks for the update, my new leaves have reduced by about half also, these are the first set of new growth since the collection.

[Rory]

How are these going Rory?

Sorry about the really late reply, but I finally got round to photographing some of my stock for records today.
I have 4 of these and they are really hardy. It really amazes me what they have survived against the odds. I wont really do much other than thicken them for the next 5 years. All I've done is trunk chopped since purchase.
I've repotted them just prior to a 38 degree day and they powered on as if nothing was wrong. But I did cut back the foliage to ensure they weren't requiring a heap of water as a result of repot.

[Kelvin8r]

Awesome mate!!

They are everywhere up here. They are extremely tough and hardy. I really like them.

Here's a recent one I potted up last week

Cheers,
Sheldon

[Rory]

Here's a recent one I potted up last week

Wow, thats good material.

[Kelvin8r]

Here's a recent one I potted up last week

Wow, thats good material.

Thanks mate! Here's another imported up tonight, complete with aerial roots!!

[peterb]

Hey kelvin8r, I really like that second one you've potted up
peterb

[Kelvin8r]

Hey kelvin8r, I really like that second one you've potted up
peterb

Thanks Peter. A few more weeks and it should have a heap more growth on it. They are extremely fast growers and so hardy!