Red Flowering Gum

[Joel]

Hi guys,

Has anybody here worked on Corymbia ficifolia? (Red Flowering Gum). I purchased an older specimen today for 20 bucks that may have some bonsai potential. Its bark is quiet old/gnarly/flaky, and it has a great base, with the graft being barely noticeable.

It is, however, quite pot bound, and surrounded by weeds. The weeds aren't a problem, but id like to know how i can go about the roots. I would like to get this beautiful guy to better health before i start hacking, and there's not too much branches to remove anyway.

Thanks in advance!

JayC

[FlyBri]

Hey Jay!

Got pics? Foliage, base, root system (as slipped out of its pot). I'm not familiar with the species as such, but I'm always keen to see some pics to better give some advice (or not...).

Thanks!

Fly.

[Joel]

Hi Fly! Thanks for the reply! (I'm a poet too).

Sorry, I don't have pics as i only just got the tree today. The foliage is somewhat large. I love the red stems between the leaves. The Red Flowering Gum (as its known) is a common native specimen tree, sold in most nurseries. It surprises me that a euc expert like yourself does not know of this tree. It was previously named Eucalyptus ficifolia until eucs got split up into angophoras, corymbias and eucalypts. Thanks again!

JayC

[Marc]

G'day Jayc, just bought myself a Bunnings half price Euc special myself, god knows how long it was in the pot for, was amazing root bound in there. However, I have found with other gums, come to think of it a lot of any other type of tree, that when trying to untagle the mess, i soak it in a bucket of water, dipping up and down heaps to try to wash away the dirt, while using a minuature rake to rake it out. lots of roots come away, however I take care not to destroy the root ball, more to coax it untangled, getting right in and under the bottom of the root ball.

takes me some time, but once i've done say about 2/3 then i don't chop any roots at all, just repot then, and leave it for a year or two before doing it again. i tend to stick them in a more shallow but wode training growth pot to encourage the roots to grow out, not so much down. i think gums tend to send roots down in nature looking for water, so i try to keep it not so deep encouranging the growing roots to spread out. i've found this works for me. so not really aiming to chop roots, more so prying them out, sacrificing as i go. so big heavy roots that tend to head right to the bottom of the pot get chopped, but i aim for hollowing out the root ball in the bottom centre, leaving a spread of roots.

I hope i made sense. but it works for me.

[Joel]

Thanks Marc,

That was pretty much as i suspected. Have you found anything else interesting about this species?

I've heard its best to do eucs when they are dormant due to heat, have you tried repotting in hot weather?

JayC

[Marc]

mmmmm, don't tell anyone, just between you and me, i repot them pretty much any time of the year. as long as the roots don't dry out too much. of course if it's 40 and you go in for lunch half way through - no good. however, i repot them all the time, i find them such a vigorous tree that they survive quite ok. as long as you are not taking off too many roots, no more than half the root ball for me. But yeah, pretty much all year round. I after repotting i tend to sit all my plants, not just Eucs, in a shallow pot of water, enough so that the holes in the pots are covered in water, but not too deep for water to creep right up the pot. This way there is enough water to keep them very damp say, but not drowning. just over night, or even half a day, then in a 3/4 shady place, just so as not to push my luck you know. give it about a week or two to make sure they stay healthy, then back into their normal place.

[Kunzea]

Hi Marc and jayc

Very interesting to see your conversation on C. ficifolia. I know of others who repot this species at any time of year too and they seem to have had not problems.

What species of eucs do you grow Marc? I would be interested to know. Some that I've grown are very easy with respect to root pruning and branch pruning, whereas others such as E. kruzeana and E. rubida can be quite touchy about pruning either tops or roots. E. polyanthemos, E. nicholii, and a probable hybrid between E. crebra and E. rossii or E. manifera are much hardier and don't take too long to bounce back.

Cheers
Kunzea

[teejay]

I've personally found that some pot bound Eucs are great candidates for severe root pruning as the ones I've dealt with are in a state of dormancy due to being pot bound, and are therefore quite eager to be "rescued".

I've purchased several pot bound E Nicholii at two to three meters tall, trunk chopped them, absolutely butchered the roots and watched them bud back like crazy from then on. Now I have a few Eucs with great bonsai potential after training the new shoots.

The shoots don't like to compete though I've found, one always wins in the end so I just pick a leader turn it's lateral shoots into branches instead making sure to balance the growth on each.

Cheers

[Marc]

Hi Kunzia, sorry to say, i am utterly hopeless at scientific names. I know I have 2 red flowering gums, cos i remember the pic on the plastic tag...

Then I have a lemon scented gum...

and then recently bought this new one with no plastic tag, so, just a gum tree.

But for each of them they are tough as nails, thirsty buggers though... But yeah, for me, butchered them and they bounced back.

[Joel]

Thanks again Marc, and sorry i missed your post Teejay

Unfortunately, im having problems connecting my camera to the computer, or any other USB device for that matter. I keep getting a message saying there is no driver installed on the device

I can either wait until the problem sorts itself out (which never seems to happen with computers) or i can take low quality photos with my mobile.

JayC

[Kunzea]

Hi teejay
Yes, Euc. nich. is a tough old one. It does like to drink (water that is) and new growth will easily wilt if not enough of the watery stuff around. It will shoot new growth from trunks at least 400 mm diameter too.

Most eucs are fairly shade intolerant, which usually means that lower branches readily die in favour of upper branches. Getting the balance right can be challenging. I've found some just don't like wiring - every wired branch, even when only very gently, just sickens and dies.

Hi Marc
Not to worry about not knowing sci names. I easily slip into my background which was fairly peppered with sci names.

There are perhaps at least three 'red flowering gums' being sold in nurseries these days. There are the two 'species' (C. ficifolia and C. ptychocarpa - former from SW Australia and latter from the tropics!). There are then the hybrids between them that are being sold under a variety of cultivar names. Yours could be any of these.

I've found that the book-leaf mallee (E kruzeana from SW WA) and the red box (E polyanthemos) both to be a bit more drought tolerant than others. Doesn't mean that they dont' like water, just that they don't wilt so easily when it is in short supply.

If Steven happens to read this, perhaps he could shift this string into a new 'species' on the index page. It doesn't belong to'Eucalyptus maculata' (spotted gum) but to Corymbia ficifolia (red flowering gum). I almost missed the string when I went looking for it today.

Cheers All
Kunzea

[EdwardH]

Hi JayC,

I threw my ficifola out a few months ago. It was tough as leather (in Sydney) - would handle plenty of rain this past year and drought the previous years. It was about 4-5 years old however I got annoyed with the very large leaves. New leaves were small however each new set of leaves just kept growing bigger. Fun tree to play with. You can bare root, slip pot, defoliate it etc it just bounces back to everything you throw at it - except for those huge leaves. If you can keep the leaves small the tree is a sure winner.

[Joel]

Thanks for that info EdwardH!

This tree is almost a metre in height, and although the leaves are still a bit too large, perhaps they will get overlooked somewhat if i can get a thick crown covered with inflorescence. That will be my aim, and if i give up in the meantime, Im sure i will find somewhere in the garden for such a beautiful tree. Possible next to my other one

JayC

[teejay]

Hi Kunzea:

I've found some just don't like wiring - every wired branch, even when only very gently, just sickens and dies.

It's funny, because I've been wiring Eucs with no problems at all, yet, yesterday a new leader shoot (albeit quite small) which I had wired extremely loosely just wilted on me and fell off! It was fine until that point, and it wasn't competing with any others either.

Another Nicholii of mine has had wires on it for a long time now and is still doing fine, though the shoots are much stronger than on the other one. It's almost like the weaker shoots didn't mind the wire until it started getting cold??

[Paulneill]

I collected what I think is a red flowering gum that is getting some good after care I like the idea of them being vigorous and Aussie native but I'm unsure about the large leaves I was wondering if anyone would have any info on how to reduce leaf size . Maybe leaving them pot bound for intervals may encourage this .'and what about defoliating them ?