Some interesting observations so far:
Melaleuca thymifolia:
The roots are very fragile and break easily, like bougainvillea. They are quite prolific growers and their foliage is stunning. Their floral display is out of this world!! I trialed repotting in winter and spring. I lost one from the winter repot. However, I applied Powerfeed native liquid fertilizer at 50mL per 9 liters. I applied the fertilizer approx 2 weeks after repotting last weekend and the next day all the thymifolia that were repotted 2 weeks prior look almost dead the following day. The ones that had been repotted for over a month were completely fine. I won’t fertilize again so soon after repotting. I couldn’t go too rough on the repot because the roots are quite fragile. They were all bare rooted.
Also, as Neil has previously warned of dwarf varieties, I trialled the small leaf variety of thymifolia and they appear to have died very soon after a hard repotting.
Melaleuca linarifolia:
Wow, this is a very hardy choice. All of them look fine. The ones that were repotted for only 2 weeks looked a little unwell after the powerfeed but are still okay. Again, the ones that were repotted over 4 weeks prior had no sign of stress after fertilizing. Beautiful bark early and they are already putting out new growth. Amazing. I went quite hard on the repotting and bare rooted to remove all old soil.
Micromyrtus ciliata:
So far, I’ve trialled 2 different sellers and both material seems very hardy, (for the conditions in my area).
I repotted, bare rooted and removed all old soil. I trialled at the beginning of winter, the middle and end of winter/ start of spring. So far I probably just fluked it. I have not had one fatality out of 11 repotted Micromyrtus. I’ve still got 3 left to repot about mid spring. But considering they’re all going fine I should probably do the rest now.
I’ve applied powerfeed and slow release fertilizer osmcocote pellets and they are now starting to put on new growth.
The fastest ones to recover were the ones repotted at the end of winter. (That means temps about as low as 2 or 3 degrees still). The flowers are amazing, and they have been there from about most of winter. Also, a side note, after a tip from Kirky about other material, I removed all the flowers during the repot and removed any new ones that started to appear.
As a trial, I left one with about 50 flowers on it after the repot to see if it had any adverse effect. So far they seem very resilient. From others’ comments its possible this species doesn’t do well very far south, but hard to say, but it’s worth trying, maybe repot in start of summer or end of spring. There are quite a few varieties of Micromyrtus you can try so it’s possible former failures of others may be a different variety or species or variant of those grown here. But in my opinion, and under my micro-climate (pardon the pun), they appear to be fantastic material to trial. Hopefully others can join in growing them and appreciate their beautiful displays.
Thank goodness nothing appears to eat them. The only thing that goes near them are bees and flies.
The roots are very strong and I was easily able to roughly man handle them.
I will mention that I removed about 60% of the roots. In doing this, I removed about 70% of the foliage too. This ratio appears to have worked perfectly.
Thryptomene saxicola:
Massive and somewhat expensive fail. I never even got to repot them. The possums devour them. So it’s not worth pursuing them. They love the taste so much they even break off the branches and strip them bare.
Melaleuca ericifolia:
I was reasonably hard on the repotting of them and they don’t appear to be in great health. Too early to tell, but my initial experiences aren’t great. I think I worked the roots too hard, but it’s too early to tell.
Indigofera australis:
I love these guys. Very hardy and easy to repot. If you let them go bush, they thicken quickly.
You can work the roots hard too. Beautiful flowers. They tolerate both over-watering and under-watering.
Banksia marginata:
With their small leaves they make magnificent specimens. However I will give my best effort of advice. If you want to grow them, buy them as thin seedlings, so you can easily work the roots. Don’t do heavy cutting back until they’re well established (as in years), and clip-and-grow instead of trunk-chopping a few times a year. I’ve repot during the start of winter and didn’t have any problems. If you repot a banksia and remove a lot of root, don’t overwater them for almonths afterwards because the roots can be susceptible to rot if staying wet too long.
Leptospermum cardwell (small round leaf variety):
I was very hard on these on their first repot because the roots looked like spaghetti.
So far they appear to at least, still be alive. Their foliage is very small and adorable so I’m hoping they pull through.
Eucalytpus punctata:
Okay, this is really interesting. They had great stock at plants plus native nursery in castle hill. So I didn’t want to miss out on these as they don’t appear to have them often.
So I purchased 5 big, 8inch tubs. One was destroyed by a possum.
So I hatched a plan, and left them 1 meter tall. So far it has worked, and the possums don’t appear to realize they’re there. I couldn’t tell whether they were being watered well as the root ball was so tight. So I repot and went hard on the roots right at the start of winter. (Stupid I know eh). I would not normally do this and have changed my mind that I prefer spring to summer now for most natives. Anyway, I didn’t want to leave them in a tight root ball over winter so I left quite a bit of foliage on them, and they haven’t skipped a beat. They were bare rooted and the roots were worked quite hard.
So far the remaining 4 are growing very well. Until I move I’ll concentrate on trunk thickening and trying to encourage growth down low. I tied them very heavily into the pot because being such a tall tree it would have blown over in winter.
That just about sums up my 2018 trials.
great info Rory. And for those that may not get to the end of this post .... I encourage you to get to the end of this post. Hint: I think Rory likes Eucalyptus crebra. 
