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What should I do with this seemingly reviving standard eucalyptus
I bought this eucalyptus tree online last Autumn and it didn’t look quite healthy when it arrived. It was supposed to be trained into a standard but when I got it some branches were dry and leaves were falling off. After I took away the seemingly unhealthy branches it seemed to have survived the winter and started to show new growth when the weather turned warm.
Unfortunately during the heat last month some leaves started to turn red out of a sudden (or perhaps I did not show as much care to it as I should have) and then followed by the branches. When almost half of the leaves turned red/brown and crispy, I decided to remove all the “dead” branches (the inside are already woody), and realised that only those coming from one of the main branches were intact.
This is how the crown looks now with hardly any lollipop shape remains.
This is how the crown looks now with hardly any lollipop shape remains.
The remains of the dead branches are like this:
While I am not yet sure what to do with the shapeless crown and the twisted branches, two weeks ago I noticed new growth were sprouting from the lower stem. They now look like this:
In normal circumstances I understand these lower growth should be taken out for a standard tree, but for my almost dead tree should I remove them to retain nutrients for any possible new growth on the top (though I have not seen any new shoots branching out), hopefully enough to regain a ball shape? Or should I keep them to support the growth if the whole plant? Thank you.
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So, either cut all the dead branches off, and cultivate the new growth, or if you don't like that, you will have to get rid.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
I am not sure a eucalyptus is worth the hassle as they are pretty little lollipops trying very hard to be huge trees. As soon as the stems reach maturity, in a couple of years or so, they lose the silvery round leaves and develop into elongated sickle shaped leaves which with age turn a dull grey, they turn red when they die and drop off, a normal part of their life cycle. Even evergreen plants drop their leaves each year, it is just they do not drop them all together like deciduous plants.
Eucalyptus want to grow to 30/40 ft tall in natural.settings look at pics. of groves of them in Australia.