When planted in a garden and given a tiny bit of care they can be grown as beautiful feature trees or shrubs. Remember that in a controlled garden environment, plants are less affected by the elements than in the wild. They are protected from fires so their bark is never scarred, dead or mis-formed limbs are removed, drought stress can be alleviated with regular watering and insect pests can be controlled. You can even prune and shape them as you wish. All these things combined will result in a good-looking plant that still retains its Australian heritage – in other words, they scrub up alright.

Take for example Banksia Spinulosa – in the wild it’s usually obscured by tall grass but in the garden its fine foliage and large golden to red coloured flower spikes are very eye catching. There is also the Polar Gum (Eucalyptus platyphylla), which has a spectacular white trunked gum and unusually wide light green leaves. This tree has been used as a feature tree in the center of Yuruga Nursery’s car park. It may be a little large for most suburban gardens, but if you are fortunate enough to have the space, it is definitely worth planting.

Another diamond in the rough is the Grevillea glauca. You would have driven past it on the road between Kuranda and Mareeba without giving it a second look. Yet once grown in nursery conditions their stunning silver foliage stand out. Even hakeas, paperbarks, ironbarks and sedges can become handsome feature plants. And remember, because they are native North Queensland plants they are going to be tough and require much less attention than plants from down south. So don’t be put off by the way they look in the wild, because out there they’ve got a much tougher life than they will have in the comfort of your garden.

Happy gardening.

Marcus Achatz
Yuruga Nursery

(Published in Cairns City Life magazine, January 2008)

The focus of this article is for gardeners in tropical Australia.
However, the basic principles apply for throughout Australia
with minor modifications for local conditions.

The gum trees (eucalypts) are such a dominant aspect of the Australian landscape that it’s easy to think that most of the approximately 1000 species all look the same.

Take a closer look, though, and you’ll see an amazing array of shapes, sizes, leaves and flower colour. With over 30 different species of Eucalypt stocked here at Yuruga, there’s a gum tree of every shape and size, for every situation from home garden to timber plot.

Have you ever given any thought to the bark of gum trees? Look closely at their trunks and you’ll be surprised at the different colours and textures on offer. Some of the taller gums have beautiful silky smooth trunks. For instance, the Forest Red Gum Eucalyptus tereticornis is often called the Blue Gum because its lovely smooth trunk has a blue-grey hue. The Cadaghi Gum Eucalyptus torelliana sheds its old bark once a year to reveal a fantastic smooth green new trunk.

Eucalyptus platyphylla

The Lemon Scented Gum Eucalyptus citriodora also sheds its bark once a year to present a bright pink trunk to the world, while the Pumpkin Gum Eucalyptus pachycalyx (a very rare species from the Irvinebank area) has a smooth trunk which sheds each year to reveal a spectacular smooth salmon-orange new skin. And don’t overlook the common Poplar Gum Eucalyptus platyphylla with its spreading form – have you ever noticed the lovely salmon-coloured trunk each spring? The colours of these local tropical species really are magnificent.

The Moreton Bay Ash Eucalyptus tessellaris is a stately smooth-trunked tree with a neat, rough grey sock at the base, while our local equivalent of the central Australian Ghost Gum Eucalyptus dallachiana, also has a lovely smooth trunk. And of course, it’s hard to beat the gigantic Rose Gum (or Flooded Gum) Eucalyptus grandis with its smooth white trunk which sheds in long ribbons each year.

Most of the eucalypts mentioned above (and especially the Rose Gum) are a bit too large for home gardens and suburban yards. However, the Forest Red Gum, Lemon Scented Gum, and other species such as the Tallow-wood Eucalyptus microcorys, Red Mahogany Eucalyptus pellita and River Red Gum Eucalyptus camaldulensis are famous for their timbers and are planted extensively in timber plantations both in Australia and overseas.

Eucalyptus phoenicea

Many gum trees, of course, have fairly non-descript rough grey bark, but some rough-barked gums have quite fantastic trunks. Take the ‘Yellow Jackets’ for instance, which quite literally have yellow ‘jackets’. There are a number of species that fall into this category (for instance Eucalyptus leichhardtii and Eucalyptus peltata) both of which have bright orange flaky bark, and they make quite an unusual addition to the garden.

Most eucalypts of tropical Queensland have white flowers, but two species bear masses of orange flowers which are quite spectacular – the Woolly Butt Eucalyptus miniata and the Scarlet Gum Eucalyptus phoenicea.

Eucalyptus ptychocarpa

Contrary to popular belief, not all gums trees are large. The Northern Peppermint Eucalyptus exserta, the Swamp Bloodwood Eucalyptus ptychocarpa, the Rough-leaved Bloodwood Eucalyptus setosa, the Range Bloodwood Eucalyptus abergiana and the Dwarf Silver Gum Eucalyptus shirleyii are small enough to be comfortably grown in an average suburban back yard.

To further entice you to try these lovely plants, the Swamp Bloodwood bears large heads of very showy pink flowers, the Range Bloodwood bears very large heads of white flowers (which have been known to win a prize at the Atherton Show in years past), while the Dwarf Silver Gum has large rounded silvery leaves that lend themselves to use as cut foliage.

And for the most amazing smell sensation, crush a leaf of the Lemon Scented Ironbark Eucalyptus staigeriana – the lemon scent is absolutely fantastic!

2009 update: The Bloodwoods have now been re-named ‘Corymbia’. Hence Eucalypts: torelliana, citriodora, tessellaris, dallachiana, leichhardtii, peltata, ptychocarpa, setosa, abergiana are all now Corymbias. Also Eucalyptus miniata has had a name change to Eucalyptus chartaboma.

There is something particularly beautiful about deciduous plants.

When they drop all their leaves and expose their bare skeletons to the world, they present an architectural grandeur that adds quite another dimension to the landscape.

In the tropics where it is basically warm all year round, deciduous trees mark the passage of the year. It’s definitely November when the Flame Trees throw off all their old leaves and litter the ground beneath with a thick layer of mulch, lying ready to decompose and recycle once the rains begin.

Who can begrudge the litter when the reward is a spectacle of architectural brilliance and fiery colour?
Soon the storms will come, and then the long awaited wet season ….

Brachychiton acerifolius

Flame Tree (Brachychiton acerifolius)
The Flame Tree is very familiar to most of us, since it is a native of our local north Queensland rainforests. It is actually very widespread in the wild, occurring in rainforests from Iron Range on Cape York Peninsula right down to the Wollongong region south of Sydney (where it is known as the Illawarra Flame Tree for obvious reasons).
The Flame Tree is hardy and easy to grow. It has large lobed leaves resembling maple leaves (hence the ‘acer-i-folius’ species name), and it usually flowers within a couple of years of planting.

The Flame Tree is a fantastic spectacle in flower since it drops every leaf and produces masses of brilliant red flowers. At this time of year you can’t miss them in gardens and dotted across the rainforest canopy throughout the region.

Melia azedarach

White Cedar (Melia azedarach)
The White Cedar is a very hardy and fast growing tree from low to medium rainfall rainforests right across tropical Australia.
It drops all its leaves in about June, and then produces masses of lovely purple/white flowers at the same time as it puts on its fresh coat of soft green new foliage. The flowers are an absolute delight amongst the fresh green leaves, and have a lovely scent.

The White Cedar is well known is forestry circles for its lovely timber. In cultivation it is extremely hardy, and grows into a superb shade tree even in very arid areas such as Alice Springs.

Eucalyptus platyphylla

Poplar Gum (Eucalyptus platyphylla)
The Poplar Gum is a well-known eucalypt of tropical Queensland. It is easy to identify by its open sprawling habit, large round leaves (like a poplar) and smooth white trunk.
The Poplar Gum is a very common tree of open forests in Eastern Queensland from about Rockhampton northwards. The old bark is shed each year to reveal a new trunk of the most exquisite salmon-pink, eventually hardening off to the familiar smooth white trunk.

This eucalypt is usually known as the Poplar Gum because of its unusual round leaves, but it is also sometimes referred to as the Ghost Gum because of its beautiful trunk, although it is not the same Ghost Gum as the famous trees of central Australia.

Unusual amongst the gum trees, this eucalypt is deciduous, shedding its leaves when it flowers. In a wet year it may only shed a few leaves, but in a particularly dry year it will drop the entire canopy. The bare branches bear masses and masses of fluffy white flowers which make a truly spectacular sight against a brilliant blue sky.