Native trees

E ucalytus luecoxylon rosea - Pink flowered yellow gum, yellow gum

found in open forest and woodland in western Victoria, South Australia and south-western New South Wales.

 a medium-sized tree which reaches 10-30 metres in height. The bark is retained on the lower trunk but the upper trunk and branches are smooth-barked and cream to grey in colour.  The flowers are usually seen in autumn and winter and may be white, cream, pink or red.

 It performs best in well-drained, moist soils but, once established is tolerant of extended dry conditions.

E.leucoxylon is regularly planted for windbreaks, shade, honey production and for ornamental purposes and it grows well in alkaline soils.

These two E luecoxylon were bought as tube stock, I have replanted them in 1L milk cartons as Im going to attempt to plant them in the paddock next autumn using Bill Hicks long stem planting method.  In order to do this I need the roots to grow down to the bottom of the carton & the stems to grow taller than they are.  Using the long stem planting method a 1 metre hole is dug & the tree is planted deeply with soil up its stem, it then grows roots from its stem making it more stable & stronger. 

Casuarina cunninghamiana - River She-oak

Tall pine-like tree, usually straight, 35m high, with dark rough bark.  Initially their shape is narrow pyramidal becoming more rounded in maturity. Dark green foliage with predominantly fine branchlets with leaves reduced to tiny scales or leaf teeth occurring in whorls or rings around the stems.  These rings are 4-9 mm apart.  River she-oak is the largest of Australia’s she-oaks. Trees have either male or female flowers.  Male flower spikes are about 2 cm long: female flowers develop into woody fruits or cones, globular to 1 cm. long with hard, projecting valves which open to release winged seed.

Naturally occurring in Victoria, NSW, Qld and NT on freshwater streams and watercourses. 

Hakea laurina - pincushion hakea

found in the south west of Western Australia, a small tree to 6m with rounded reddish flower heads, that look like pincushions in autumn to winter. Drought tolerant.

A rather boring post, but I want to record these little beauties right through, maybe I might even see them fully grown?  It will also be interesting to see how the long stem planting goes, I will need all of my trees to be drought tolerant as they will be hand watered for their first two summers only, then they will need to survive on approx. 300mm of rainfall a year.