Eucalyptus hedraia ‘Falls Creek’ – 1 of the amazing ‘Snow Gums’

How to use in the landscape and/or garden:

How to grow or train it to get the best out of it

 We are really excited to be able to grow and offer this extremely rare and hardy Snow Gum

We feel that, given the best growing conditions for this Snow Gum, Eucalyptus pauciflora subsp. hedraia ‘Falls Creek’ would be an excellent selection for planting to commemorate a special occasion, a celebration or in memoriam.

Fabulous Specimen Tree for the wider landscape, arboretum collection or avenue planting and for the smaller, medium and larger garden

Commercially: a good choice for open public spaces, parks, business parks, university campus

 Growing a full-sized standard: planting the tree and running away is an option, but it won’t necessarily give you the best results.

We suggest you maintain a leading shoot and tip prune the lateral shoots to encourage bushiness.  Keep all the sides shoots as they are building up the strength of the main trunk.

• To grow a large specimen, leave the tree to grow up naturally thereafter.
• For a small tree, tip prune the leader when it reaches 1.2m, thereafter let the head develop. Then prune the tree every March 18^th and end of May to keep your tree small and bushy.

For more, see our guidance notes for growing specimen Eucalyptus in our Help and Advice section.  Visit our pruning guidance notes in the Blog Section

For monthly emails on how and when to prune and care for your Eucalyptus, sign up to our Gumnut Club and we’ll send you the Bush Telegraph – it’s totally free and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Growing shrub-on-a-stick clipped standard: this is an opportunity to grow a Eucalyptus in a confined space like a courtyard and also 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). Prune back growth every March 18^th or thereabouts and tip prune the annual growth back by up to 90% at the end of May. Light tip pruning can be done again during July, but no later. Don’t prune from August through to February.

Growing a multi-stemmed bush or tree.  Eucalyptus pauciflora subsp. hedraia ‘Falls Creek’  responds well to coppicing, once it has attained a trunk of some 125 mm in diameter 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.

REMEMBER: No grass, no weeds and a thick boring bark chip mulch, to a diameter of 1m (3 feet) and depth of 150 mm (6 inches) are essential to assist with good establishment. Our research trials have demonstrated that grass around the trunk of Eucalyptus prevent the trees from quickly establishing and can completely stop them from growing.

Pot Culture outdoors:  Eucalyptus pauciflora subsp. hedraia ‘Falls Creek’ 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.

Always keep pot-grown Eucalyptus in the air-pot container system for healthy and happy trees.😊  They do not thrive in smooth-walled containers ☹

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!’

Hedge-Screens: Eucalyptus pauciflora subsp. hedraia ‘Falls Creek’  is not on our selected species list for hedge-screens and windbreaks, but it does make a good small tree for screening with a light tracery of foliage.

Floral Art:  Eucalyptus pauciflora subsp. hedraia ‘Falls Creek’   is interesting in that the stems ripen quite early in the season and could be harvested from end of July onwards – similar to White Sally Eucalyptus pauciflora subsp. pauciflora. This extends the harvesting season for the Flower Farmer and Floral Artist.

Firewood Production:  Eucalyptus pauciflora subsp. hedraia ‘Falls Creek’  is not on our selected species list for Biomass or Firewood.  The wood will burn nicely, but as a species, it’s not sufficient high yielding for cropping.

Do give us a call on our nursery mobile 07307 413 052 if you would like to discuss growing firewood with one of our consultants

Rural/Agricultural:

• Good shade tree for livestock to stand under. 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. Good choice for silvopasture if you have sandy, free-draining soil.

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, provided it is growing on sandy, free-draining soil.  Birds enjoy roosting in Eucalyptus trees and Pheasants like rootling around underneath them.

Environmental:

• Growing on the Coast Snow gums have extra-thick leaf cuticles, which make them extremely tolerant of cold exposed conditions and salt laden winds, once mature in the ground. To make this work, we recommend that:

1. you plant a smaller specimen (around 1m-1.5m tall, in a 5 litre Air-Pot container)
2. encourage fast establishment in a deeply prepared planting pit (follow our planting advice), to encourage deep rooting to grow an upright, stable tree.
3. Staking will be required.
4. Newly planted trees will very likely require a wind break shelter for their first winter in the ground with you.
5. Zero grass or weeds during the period of establishment is non-negotiable!

• Shelter Belts and Windbreaks Eucalyptus pauciflora subsp. hedraia ‘Falls Creek’ can be grown to form a good evergreen windbreak when planted as a single species stand.  It can be mixed in with other plant species provided care is taken to mitigate competition from other plants whilst the Eucalyptus is establishing as they don’t compete well when young. We recommend that you establish the Eucalyptus for a year prior to planting additional species or you install an automatic irrigation system to ensure the Euc is receiving sufficient water.

We recommend

1. you plant a smaller specimen (less than 1.8m tall in a 5 litre Air-Pot container)
2. encourage fast establishment in a deeply prepared planting pit (follow our planting advice), to encourage deep rooting to grow an upright, stable tree
3. Staking will be required
4. In exposed locations, newly planted trees will very likely require a wind break shelter for their first winter in the ground with you
5. Zero grass or weeds during the period of establishment is non-negotiable!

• Drying up wet soils Eucalyptus pauciflora subsp. hedraia ‘Falls Creek’ will enjoy a degree of moisture at its roots over the summer months. However, this species insists on having free draining ground for the rest of the year and will not be happy in intermittently wet ground in the winter.  Please provide a free draining soil for this species.

Please note: Timber harvested from areas suspected to be contaminated with sewage should never be burned, but could be used in rustic garden construction, bug hotel, bean poles, edging pathways & borders etc.

• Tolerant of cold and exposed growing environments inland Eucalyptus pauciflora subsp. hedraia ‘Falls Creek’  will grow in open fields and pasture, once established.  Please follow our guidance notes on how to do this.

We recommend

1. you plant a smaller specimen (less than 1.8m tall in a 5 litre Air-Pot container)
2. encourage fast establishment in a deeply prepared planting pit (follow our planting advice), to encourage deep rooting to grow an upright, stable tree
3. Staking will be required
4. In exposed locations, newly planted trees will very likely require a wind break shelter made from horticultural fleece or sail cloth, for their first winter in the ground with you; this very much depends on the level of exposure
5. Zero grass or weeds during the period of establishment is non-negotiable!

• Tolerant of poor stony soils once established Eucalyptus pauciflora subsp. hedraia ‘Falls Creek’ does not require a rich soil and can survive in poor, stony soils.   Tolerant of arid environments, poor stony dry soils once established. It is essential that your Euc. is given our recommended quantity of water for its first 2 growing seasons in your grounds, during its establishment phase before you abandon it to its fate.  The tree needs to establish a good, deep root system before it can survive in dry, challenging conditions. No grass, no weeds and a thick bark chip mulch, to a diameter of 1m (3 feet) and a depth of 150 mm (6 inches) are essential to assist with good establishment. Growth achieved on impoverished soils will always be reduced.