Lilly Pilly

Thirty-nine lines sit in this range, and the naming is the first thing to get past. The same plant turns up under Syzygium, Acmena and Waterhousea depending on the farm that grew it, so the weeping lilly pilly sits here under two botanical names.

How the thirty-nine split

Twelve entries are titled Brush Cherry, all of them Syzygium australe. Twelve carry an Acmena name, eleven of those Acmena smithii and its cultivars. Six are the weeping Waterhousea floribunda, four listed as Weeping Lilly Pilly and two under the Syzygium floribunda name. Two more Acmenas are broad leaved hemilampra, a thick coarse leaf closer to a rainforest fig. The remaining seven include Riberry, Giant Water Gum, Syzygium tierneyanum and Cascade, which weeps from its Syzygium luehmannii parentage and clips to a softer face.

Resistance and habit in the brush cherries

Resilience, Backyard Bliss, Pinnacle and Straight and Narrow were all selected against the psyllid that pits and puckers new growth. The last two hold a narrow upright column without constant clipping, Pinnacle in one 30L grade, Straight and Narrow across ten grades from 140mm. Hinterland Gold flushes buttery yellow instead of red and holds the tight shear line a formal face needs. The name appears twice on this page though, as do Big Red and Winter Lights, once under Brush Cherry and once under a Lilly Pilly heading that cross-references Acmena, on different size ladders. Syzygium australe Select is the straight grown species, and its own page says plainly that it is not one of the resistant selections, so expect some pimpling on new growth in humid weather. Fair trade on a sixty plant boundary run. Poor trade beside a front door.

Where the Acmenas sit

Acmena smithii Minor is the small leaved form, and short narrow leaves hide cut ends, so it does the work below eye level. Firescreen and Forest Flame carry the red flush. Sublime comes through lime and soft bronze, and sits better against render and grey paving. Allyn Magic mounds instead of climbing, so it edges a bed or holds a low clipped line and will never screen a boundary. Goodbye Neighbours is the tall narrow screener, supplied in a single advanced grade. Acmena also reshoots from older wood more reliably than the brush cherries.

Reading the size ladder

Two pot sizes carry further across the range than any other: 200mm and 300mm, each on 29 of the 39 lines. 140mm appears on 20 lines and starts 18 of them, and the advanced grades, 45L and 100L, sit on 21 each. Treat 300mm as a substantial plant, roughly fifteen litres of mix with a few years behind it. Past 200L the ladder belongs to eight lines: four of the six weeping entries, plus Riberry, Acmena hemilampra, Giant Water Gum and Syzygium tierneyanum. Some ladders are deliberately short. Whisper opens at 400mm because every grade of it is established stock, and the dwarf Allyn Magic stops at 300mm because low hedging gets bought by the dozen.

Ordering, and the two that are trees

Three of the busiest lines here are seed grown rather than cloned: Syzygium australe Select, Acmena smithii Minor and the straight species weeping lilly pilly. Vigour and leaf size vary plant to plant. Nobody notices in an informal screen. In a formal run assembled from three orders months apart it shows as steps in texture no trimming evens out. Order the whole run in one go and lay it out along the line before planting. Giant Water Gum clips willingly while young and then becomes the rainforest tree it always was, roots into drains and all. Syzygium tierneyanum takes damp ground that would rot a brush cherry, but frost cuts young plants back and a cold inland garden will not hold it. For spacing, psyllid detail and fruit drop near paving, read choosing a lilly pilly.