Specimen Tree: Wonderful in the wider landscape and for the medium or larger garden. For growing a full sized standard, planting the tree and running away is an option, but it won’t necessarily give you the best results. See our guidance notes for growing specimen Eucalyptus in our Help and Advice section
Growing shrub-on-a-stick clipped standard: E. archeri is a good choice for this practice. 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 (around 12ft).
Growing a multi-stemmed bush or tree Q: Why would you want to do this? A: To create a tree with more body or ‘mass’ of branches and foliage for cutting. 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
E. archeri is great as a multi-stemmed affair as it is genetically predisposed to being bushy; it readily produces sub-lateral branches. To produce your own multi-stem from a young tree, see our growing notes under Help and Advice.
Floral Art: E. archeri is a great species for cut foliage with round silvery blue juvenile leaves – just what the florist ordered. Also preserves well in glycerin.
Firewood Production: E. archeri will burn just as well as E. gunnii and E. urnigera, but it doesn’t give as high a yield, due to its smaller genetic potential. However, it is an ideal species for planting along the outside edges of a firewood or lumber plantation to provide shelter and stability to taller species inside. If you would like to know more about growing Eucalyptus timber, do please call or email us with your enquiry; we would love to chat.
Hedge-Screens & Windbreaks: E. archeri is an excellent choice for growing a hedge-screen. Its silvery blue foliage acts like a net curtain, reflecting light and confusing the eye, so you can’t see through to the other side. The recommended planting distance between each plant is 1.5m-1.8m, certainly no closer than 1.2m apart.
Rural/Agricultural: A good tree for livestock to stand under for shade. 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.
Ecology: Bees: All Eucalyptus produce flowers with nectar and pollen.
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 and grown as multi-stems.
Birds: Birds enjoy roosting in Eucalyptus trees and Pheasants like rootling around underneath them. The shredded foliage of this species is excellent at keeping Chicken nest boxes and hen houses 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. Its was all great till the foxes moved into the next field…
Environmental: Tolerant of cold and exposed growing environments inland. You may need to prune the head back in August for the first two years, prior to violent autumn gales, to prevent root rock, in such exposed locations. Thick bark chip mulch, to a depth of 150 mm (6 inches) is essential to assist with good establishment.
Tolerant of arid environments, poor stony dry soils once established. It is essential that your Euc. is given lots of water during its establishment phase before you abandon it to its fate. The tree needs to establish a good root system before it can survive in these challenging conditions.
Container Tree: E. archeri can be grown in a large patio pot for a few years as it responds to pruning and coppicing. For information on how to successfully grow Eucs in pots, visit our Blog entitled ‘How to grow a Eucalyptus in a pot and keep it alive!’
