Specimen Tree: Great for the wider landscape and for the medium/larger garden: E. crenulata shares a similar outline to that of a Lime tree (Tilia cordata).
Growing a full sized standard: Planting the tree and running away is an option, but it won’t necessarily give you the best results. For information on how to do it properly see our ‘Help’ pages.
Growing shrub-onna-stick clipped standard: This is an opportunity to grow a Eucalyptus in a confined space and control its overall size. You can produce a small tree on a trunk with a height of anywhere between 2.4m (8ft) and 4m (12ft)
Growing a multi-stemmed bush or tree: E. crenulata responds well to coppicing and readily produces a multi-stemmed specimen.
Why would you want to do this?
To create:
- A tree with more body or ‘mass’ of branches and foliage for screening purposes. Once grown back up to its full potential, it will now have several main trunks.
- An attractive multi-stemmed architectural tree, especially if it has exceptional bark.
- To control height, whereby your Euc can be usefully maintained anywhere between 2.4m (8ft) and 7m (20ft), but genetically it will want to grow taller if ignored.
Floral Art: Excellent cut foliage for the milder areas of the UK, not subject to harsh cold easterly winds and extremely low temperatures.
For information on how to grow cut foliage, see our ‘Help’ pages here.
Firewood Production: E. crenulata is not one of our selected species for biomass or firewood.
Hedge-Screens & Windbreaks: E. crenulata is a good choice for a hedge-screen as it readily produces sub-lateral shoots – i.e. branches off the side-branches and finds no problem in becoming bushy. This is unusual for most Eucs.
Rural/Agricultural: Good shade tree for livestock to stand under, in the milder areas of the UK. Eucalyptus provide a cool environment for horses, cattle, llamas, sheep to shelter from the sun on hot days, as the mass evaporation of water through the leaves creates a cool shady canopy beneath. Also, I have been told that the eucalyptol in the leaves deters flies.
Silvery sage-green foliaged species, which looks for comfortable and not ‘foreign’ in a rural setting – reminiscent of willow trees.
Ecology: All eucalyptus produce flowers with nectar and pollen, but this species has particularly spectacular flowers making it a real draw for honey bees and other pollinators.
Habitat creation and Game Cover: This species lends itself to providing good trouble-free habitat creation for wildlife and game cover, when planted in groups. Birds enjoy roosting in eucalyptus trees and pheasants like rootling around underneath them.
Chickens: The shredded foliage of E. crenulata is excellent at keeping chicken nest boxes and henhouses free of red mites, which detest the presence of Eucalyptol. I used to line our chicken boxes with shredded leaves, strew the floor and pile up the spindly branches for the chickens to make nests. It was all great till the foxes moved into the next field…
Environmental: We have no experience of growing E. crenulata in a coastal environment. I suspect it may do well in milder coastal districts, when grown a mile or two inland of the sea, but this needs trialling. Do get in touch if you are giving this a go and let us know how you get on.
Drying up wet soils. We have no experience as yet of growing E. crenulata in seriously boggy ground, but are currently trialling it. Hailing from soggy valley bottoms in the wild, it does prefer a moisture retentive soil and so may do well at drying up a wet UK soil. Needs further work – let us know how you get on if you decide to give this a try.
SUDS protocol. Needs trialling, but planted singly or in groups, E. crenulata may draw on drain water percolating into swales or similar. Coppice or pollard every few years if you need to control the overall height of the trees. Eucalyptus draw on ground water for twelve months of the year, unlike willows, which lie dormant for 5 months through the winter.
Pot culture outdoors: E. crenulata can be successfully grown as a multi-stemmed shrub in a container provided you are prepared to pot on at the recommended intervals and to supply it with sufficient water and food during the growing season. If not watered enough, it becomes thin and spindly, dropping its lower leaves.
