Also, the eucalyptus is not too close to the house I think, depends how you define close then again, the neighbours house looks closer in the photo I think. Any guidance on how far it should be from the house, I will then check our position I think!
Without appropriate care a Eucalyptus can easily reach 100 feet tall with a huge root system. I stool mine every year and grow them as multi stemmed shrubs. Agree with @Fairygirl about the staking.
How can you lie there and think of England When you don't even know who's in the team
The video linked is a good overview. "Dwarf" in this context seems to be under 8m and easily prunable to keep small/shrubs. Check max height of each variety.
I was given a few specimens of eucalyptus gunnii France bleu when they were first available and from the two I kept, one has stayed short and fits the description but the other grew absolutely enormous in a few years and had a trunk thicker than my thigh in 4 years. I believe this was probably a mix up and just the normal gunnii cultivar. I pollarded it every year but was worried about the root system and after removing it I was certainly glad I did because the roots were massive compared to a normal tree of the same age and spread further than I would expect. If they have the space and are far enough from a house, they are fantastic but it's not a normal garden tree. You need to keep them very small, which will reduce the root system but luckily they take well to a hacking back in feb/March.
I was given a few specimens of eucalyptus gunnii France bleu when they were first available and from the two I kept, one has stayed short and fits the description but the other grew absolutely enormous in a few years and had a trunk thicker than my thigh in 4 years. I believe this was probably a mix up and just the normal gunnii cultivar. I pollarded it every year but was worried about the root system and after removing it I was certainly glad I did because the roots were massive compared to a normal tree of the same age and spread further than I would expect. If they have the space and are far enough from a house, they are fantastic but it's not a normal garden tree. You need to keep them very small, which will reduce the root system but luckily they take well to a hacking back in feb/March.
Thanks everyone, just read all the links which was informative.
Thevictorian really good to hear about your personal experience, thanks for sharing. I have 2 follow up questions if you don't mind:
1. So if I keep the tree small above the ground, cut branches back etc, will that mean the root system will be okay and won't spread as much or be detrimental? And by small, how small do you mean - same size as it is currently in the photo, around 6ft?
2. Would I be better off replanting the tree in a big plant pot to contain the roots or would it not survive?
They don't thrive in pots long term @Jignator, and will need far more care than planted out. Regular pollarding [that really just means cutting back hard ] would create a multi stemmed specimen. That's the best solution with these and would prevent the root system becoming as big as it would be otherwise. However, that needs doing from the start, and what you have is one that's been trained as a standard, so that would now be difficult, or maybe impossible, so you would simply take back the top/crown to the main trunk each year, or close to that, so that it would remain roughly the size it is. As you already have the tree, doing that will keep it more manageable because E. gunni can get enormous in the ground quite quickly, once established. In the right conditions, they can grow several feet a year, in each direction. Keeping a good regime from the early days will be the best method. I had one many years ago and it grew extremely rapidly. If you don't want that level of maintenance in future, you could simply remove it, or - could you swap it with one of the other plants you've put in? I don't know what room you have, but as mentioned, they become enormous very readily, so you need plenty of space around them. A better site would make maintenance easier. A standard is slightly different because you presumably want to keep that shape, and would need to prune it fairly regularly anyway, so it may not get quite as large as a normal specimen would, but better safe than sorry
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Posts
Agree with @Fairygirl about the staking.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
https://forum.gardenersworld.com/discussion/1049126/eucalyptus-tree
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
If they have the space and are far enough from a house, they are fantastic but it's not a normal garden tree. You need to keep them very small, which will reduce the root system but luckily they take well to a hacking back in feb/March.
Tree mix ups (or mis-selling) are so difficult. It can be years before you realise the mistake. I have had that too.
Thevictorian really good to hear about your personal experience, thanks for sharing. I have 2 follow up questions if you don't mind:
1. So if I keep the tree small above the ground, cut branches back etc, will that mean the root system will be okay and won't spread as much or be detrimental? And by small, how small do you mean - same size as it is currently in the photo, around 6ft?
2. Would I be better off replanting the tree in a big plant pot to contain the roots or would it not survive?
Regular pollarding [that really just means cutting back hard ] would create a multi stemmed specimen. That's the best solution with these and would prevent the root system becoming as big as it would be otherwise. However, that needs doing from the start, and what you have is one that's been trained as a standard, so that would now be difficult, or maybe impossible, so you would simply take back the top/crown to the main trunk each year, or close to that, so that it would remain roughly the size it is.
As you already have the tree, doing that will keep it more manageable because E. gunni can get enormous in the ground quite quickly, once established. In the right conditions, they can grow several feet a year, in each direction. Keeping a good regime from the early days will be the best method. I had one many years ago and it grew extremely rapidly.
If you don't want that level of maintenance in future, you could simply remove it, or - could you swap it with one of the other plants you've put in? I don't know what room you have, but as mentioned, they become enormous very readily, so you need plenty of space around them. A better site would make maintenance easier.
A standard is slightly different because you presumably want to keep that shape, and would need to prune it fairly regularly anyway, so it may not get quite as large as a normal specimen would, but better safe than sorry
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...