Corymbia citriodora 1

[Rory]

Corymbia citriodora 1

I purchased this as it had a lot of lower branching which I love on Eucalyptus, as this is often how they grow in an open paddock.
It was purchased from Glendale Native nursery in Newcastle as a 4 inch pot for $16

This species is amazing. The scent and the white/green colour of the trunk is what makes this Euc so impressive.
The leaves grow enormous. The juvenile foliage is delightful as its rough and papery, and you can actually smell the citronella without even touching the leaf because its so strong.

Its been placed into a large Marius Folda pot (Poland).

C. citriodora 1-01 17Nov2023.jpg

17Nov2023

[austindrake]

I absolutely love the scent this tree has - I cant get enough of it when I prune mine. My in-laws have a massive 20m+ lemon scented gum in their front yard which makes the air smell just fantastic after a rain.

Regrettably, I've pruned it too drastically a few times (top and other times bottom) that it's died back to the base on (I think) 3 separate occasions.

[Rory]

If these get even half day sun, they explode with growth. I love this species. Incredibly hardy.
Haven't done a lot other than a trunk chop and anchored the first few branches in preparation for a very large bonsai.
The leaves grow to be enormous and I can't be stuffed constantly trying to maintain small leaves when this has a decent structure, so I have a very large pot waiting for this to get bigger in time.

C. citriodora 1-02 10May2024.jpg

10th May 2024

[Rory]

Okay, this species is so beautiful, and so painful.
I have grown many of them over the last decade. The most important thing I learnt, was to not allow the tree to develop adult foliage. Once this happens, it can be a nightmare to encourage it to grow the highly scented and beautiful juvenile foliage.
You have to cut back to the point BEFORE the last juvenile foliage remains, otherwise it tends to just regrow new adult foliage. The adult foliage is boring, dull green, long and it sux. The magic of this tree is the spectacular white/gray trunk together with the sand paper juvenile foliage, and it is definitely one of the most beautiful bonsai Eucs to behold.

So basically, its a constant cut-back-a-thon. I allowed a previous specimen to lose all its juvenile leaves, and after repeated cutting back, trunk chops, and everything I tried, it never regrew its sandpaper juvenile growth. So I learnt from that to simply not allow the adult growth to take over. Sometimes it will shoot juvenile growth if you're lucky later on, but its not worth taking the risk, and losing the branch.

Placed into a smaller PK oval, as I have changed my mind and want to keep my collection on the smaller side.

C. citriodora 1-03 12Dec2024.jpg

12Dec2024