Native Trials 2019

[Rory]

Hi Maryo.

At the moment the nights don’t generally go lower than about 10 degrees at moment.

However, I’ll give you a really big secret tip that serves me perfectly. I swear by it!
This is the best indicator I use:
For best results, I pretty much repot all my natives when the Port Jackson and Moreton Bay figs start to put out new growth. This is the best indicator to use. The figs know when it’s the right time to start shooting, and that’s your best trigger. But otherwise, even repoting trees as low as 6 has not been a real problem for me, but for best results I recommend minimum lows at night of about 10 degrees.

It depends on what the species is. For example, I don’t like to repot the colder climate Leptospermum in summer, and prefer late winter / early spring. Whereas the more eastern states Leptospermum I repot in Spring.
For Banksia and Casuarina, I do them anytime from start of spring up until end of summer.
For Melaleucas and Gums I prefer Spring

[Rory]

….. some more to add for the closing of 2019:

Phebalium glandulosum.jpg

Phebalium glandulosum ssp. eglandulosum
This one has the tiniest of leaves, less then 1cm long.

Stenanthemum scortechinii.jpg

Stenanthemum scortechinii
I know nothing about this genus, other than the flowers look intriguing. Small foliage is another plus.

Phebalium squamulosum ssp lineare.jpg

and fortunately I hit the native nursery jackpot with a stack more of my favourite Phebaliums:
Phebalium squamulosum ssp lineare

[Rory]

Well as the year is coming to a close, I thought I'd update on how the 2019 native trials are looking so far....

Leptospermum scoparium - pink cascade
7/7 success rate and putting on new growth quickly. Very hardy and tolerates strong shade and full sun.

Leptospermum rotundifolium - lavender queen
5/5 success rate and putting on new growth. They do get munched on often, but seem quite robust at bouncing back.

Leptospermum cardwell/polygafolium
9/10 success rate and putting on new growth. They are not as fast to respond as I thought, but slowly recovering.

Leptospermum liversidgei
0/3 success rate. All died after a slight drying out and had very poor resistance to drought.

Leptospermum brachyandrum
2/2 success rate. But I will not pursue. They do appear to grow well in my area but were constantly eaten. They survived hard root removal and repot, and were quick to respond, but they just keep getting eaten in my area. Beautiful weeping growth.

Leptospermum scoparium - burgundy queen
4/9 success rate and putting on new growth. Not a great result this time, but 5 of them were very young seedlings about 3mm trunk and I never removed any root, just separated the roots. I'd recommend waiting until they are pencil thickness if you trial young material.

Leptospermum Starry Night
Will not pursue and didn't repot. Do not appear to grow well in my area.

Leptospermum arachnoides
3/3 success rate and putting on new growth. They seem good so far. Very unique and lovely growth.

Banksia marginata
4/5 success rate and putting on new growth.

Backea clarence river
6/6 success rate and putting on new growth. Absolutely beautiful material. Half of them are now flowering as well. Very quick to recover and put on new growth. I am definitely keen on growing these. Lovely weeping growth as well.

Baeckea virgata compacta
3/3 Dead, didn't even get to repot them. (eaten by possums)

DISCLAIMER on phebalium and leionema : Most of these genus apparently prefer part-shade. I can vouch for all the following trialled.
If you acquire these, bare in mind that placing them in higher levels of sun than what they have been getting, it might kill all the foliage and set them back a lot. If they are not in the best of health, this could kill them. If the leaves are dark green, then it has probably been grown in strong shade. Best to slowly build up the sun exposure over time.

Phebalium squamulosum
2/2 success rate and very slowly putting on new growth. Most of the leaves dropped and slow to recover. A little bit of die-back

Phebalium squamulosum argenteum
2/2 success rate and very slowly putting on new growth. Half of the leaves dropped and slow to recover. A little bit of die-back

Phebalium squamulosum ssp lineare
7/7 success rate and putting on new growth very quickly. Very hardy and lovely 2cm long emerald green thin leaves, almost like flat pine needles.

Phebalium stenophyllum
2/2 success rate and took a while to put on new growth, but nothing died back. Very creepy and interesting growth.

Phebalium glandulosum ssp. glandulosum
2/2 success rate and putting on new growth. Tiny leaves.

Leionema (phebalium) lamprophyllum
3/4 success rate and putting on new growth. (moved from strong shade at nursery to part-sun too quickly for one of them)
Kind of unimpressive leaves, but very prolific when flowering, they develop a mass of white flowers that completely cover the tree.

Banksia ericifolia ‘little eric’
1/1 success rate and putting on new growth

Banksia tricuspis
2/2 success rate and putting on new growth. Pine-like leaves. Very beautiful specimen.

Banksia spinulosa var cunninghamii
1/1 success rate and putting on new growth

Banksia spinulosa
3/3 success rate and putting on new growth

Melaleuca micromera
8/9 success rate and putting on new growth (one died but it wasn't in the best of health after not getting enough sun over winter)
Beautiful foliage. One of the most beautiful specimens I've trialled. Amazing twisted and unusual growth, with micro leaves, and papery bark. Its like growing a paperbark with conifer leaves.... spectacular! The real feature is the stunning, naturally twisted growth.

Melaleuca huegelii
4/4 success rate and was putting on new growth, but constantly eaten. I will not pursue.

Grevillea jubilee
Have not repot yet. Oops. I forgot this guy.

Kunzea parvifolia
2/2 success rate and very fast to put on new growth.

Baeckea mount tozer
0/2 Dead (eaten by possums relentlessly)

Mount Spurgeon black kauri pine - Prumnopitys
8/8 success rate, but VERY slowly at putting on new growth. They seem quite hardy, but this is a very slow growing species. Beautiful foliage though.

Astartea clavulata x Baeckea astarteoides
2/2 success rate and were quick to put on new growth, but sadly they constantly get eaten. They will slowly perish.

Stenanthemum scortechinii
1/1 success rate and quick to put on new growth.

Micromyrtus ciliata
3/6 success rate. Neil was right. These are not worth it. I had optimistically trialled more this year, adding about 75% river sand to the mix, but it didn't matter. I presume they can only survive in full sun. However 3 of them died very soon after the initial root removal. (These were from a different nursery than my original purchase years ago). 1 is doing well but the remaining 2 are not in great health and I will not pursue these.

Eucalyptus crebra
7/8 success rate. I have trialled more of this species again to try and acquire better material for my collection. They were all about 5mm trunks. Some had removal of tap roots, while other tap roots were just reduced, (depending on if there was enough fine root left). They are very hardy in my area and responded well. They are reasonably fast to recover and tolerate full sun / strong shade. They tolerate drying out and over-watering. Exceptional material. They also are fairly resilient at being constantly munched on.

Corymbia citriodora
2/2 success rate. I had acquired a few more this year, probably more for specimen 'bonsai' trees, as the leaves are so big, it makes it hard to maintain a small look. They are very hardy in my area and pretty much have the same resilience as Euc. crebra. They are incredibly fast to grow though, much faster than any Euc I've ever grown. These exhibit a stunning colour display on the trunk as the bark ages and peels. These tolerate strong shade and full sun.

[boom64]

Interesting as always Rory ,thanks for taking the time to post .Looks like more winners than failures , well done.
Picked up a little collection of Mel tube stock recently . M.halmaturorum Kangaroo Island Paperbark looks very interesting . Cheers John.

[GavinG]

Thanks for documenting your level of madness.

Some comments from a different climate:

In Canberra L. rotundifolium seems a little less vigorous, which is a pity -the leaves are small and attractive, and the form seems good.
L. brachyandrum is strong here, and well worth growing. There's a grey leafed form "Silver", with smooth shedding bark and a graceful form - probably won't bulk up, but get over it. No possums here (yet) - they bulldozed the whole suburb when they built ten years ago... No topsoil either.
B. virgata - well worth growing.
Banksia tricuspis - sounds interesting, never seen it over this side of the continent, may be sensitive to root rot over here?
B. spinulosus - seems to stay spindly here. B ericifolia better?
M. micromera - very interesting habit indeed, seems to shape itself, but I'm not sure how solid a trunk it will get.
Micromyrtus ciliatus - another negative from me, it didn't survive root pruning. Mind you, RogerH has an old one here, but I suspect it rarely gets disturbed. That may be the key.
E. crebra - fine leaves, grows well, but seems top-dominant like E. nicholii, so I'm not that keen.
C. citriodora - rampant grower, but leaves are gross - maybe C. hispida more useful? Red furry new growth, smaller leaves and an interesting habit. Until I killed it.

Stay crazy,

Gavin

[Pearcy001]

G'day Rory,

It sounds like you didn't have them for long, but did the melaleuca huegelii show any promise before the possums got to them?

Cheers,
Pearcy.

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

[Rory]

G'day Rory,

It sounds like you didn't have them for long, but did the melaleuca huegelii show any promise before the possums got to them?

Cheers,
Pearcy.

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

Hi Pearcy,

Yes they are a nice tree and are growing well now. They didn’t keep eating them and eventually left them alone. But I have replaced them with Melaleuca tamarascina, which has even smaller foliage and is actually more tolerant of lower light.

The huegelii are growing well now, but I prefer tamarascina as a better option.