Sydney Red Gum Angophora costata

Sydney red gum looks like a eucalypt and grows in the same sandstone country, but it is a separate genus, with leaves in opposite pairs, buds that carry no cap and open as fluffy cream stars, and ribbed woody fruit quite unlike a gum nut. The bark is the main event: smooth, salmon to orange-pink, shed in sheets over summer to reveal fresh colour underneath, wrapped around heavy sinuous limbs. This is a large feature and shade tree for parks, acreage and wide verges.

Sandstone country conditions, and the block it will outgrow

Full sun, sharp drainage and poor ground are what it evolved for. Sandy or gravelly soil is ideal, it needs little water once established, and it grows at a moderate rate into a very substantial tree. Heavy wet clay is the one soil it resents. The failure mode is not horticultural, it is a siting mistake, and it is the most common one made with this species: people plant it on a standard suburban block because they like the bark, and twenty years on it is too close to the house, the paving is lifting, the pool needs skimming daily and the tree is dropping bark, twigs and fruit through every month of the year. Mature trees can also shed limbs. Give it real distance from buildings, pools, paving and sewer lines, or plant something smaller. Sold here as a 5 litre plant, which is deliberate. Angophora resents root disturbance, and a young tree planted small establishes faster, anchors better and outgrows a large potted specimen put in beside it. Prepare a wide planting area rather than a deep hole, water through the first two summers, then stop.

Native scale against the exotic avenue trees

The London Plane reaches similar proportions and suits the same open, parkland situations, but it is deciduous, takes hard pruning and pollarding, and drops everything in one season. Angophora is evergreen, needs no irrigation once established, and drops steadily all year instead. If you want a native but the block is suburban, Tuckeroo is the sensible substitute, staying a moderate tree with a manageable root system. Choose Sydney red gum only where there is genuine space and the bark can be seen at close range, ideally in a gum tree planting with room to spread. Plane wins on formality and clipped avenue work, angophora on character and on doing without irrigation, and tuckeroo on fitting the tree to the site rather than the other way around.

Formative cuts early, and no fertiliser

Do the pruning in the first few years and then leave it alone. Establish a single leader, remove narrow forks and any limb that will eventually hang over a roof, and work in the warmer months when growth is active. Large cuts into mature limbs invite decay and are hard to justify on a tree this size, so never lop it, and get an arborist in rather than a chainsaw hire. Feeding is unnecessary and counterproductive. Skip fertiliser altogether, mulch with coarse organic matter, and avoid running lawn irrigation over the root zone, since soft fast growth on heavy limbs is exactly what fails in a storm.

Choosing a size

This plant is supplied in one size, 5L, at $29.95 per plant. The size shown is the pot it arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to Australian native trees for shade.