Kurrajong Brachychiton bidwillii

Bidwill's Kurrajong is the small one in the genus, a shrubby, often multi stemmed plant from inland Queensland that builds a swollen woody base and can be held low or trained up into a compact tree. The flowering is what earns it a place. Leaves drop as the weather warms and clusters of bright rose red bells open off the bare grey stems, tight against the wood, so the whole framework lights up. It works as a feature in a courtyard, a native bed or a hot dry corner.

Dry feet and a warm position

This is a hot country plant. It handles full sun, reflected heat off paving and long dry spells once the base has some size behind it, and it grows well through Queensland, inland New South Wales, Perth and the warmer parts of South Australia. Young plants are tender to hard frost, so in cold districts give it a north facing wall or grow it in a large pot that can be moved. Water is low once established. Being semi deciduous, it may go partly or fully bare around flowering, which is the plant behaving normally rather than a fault.

The failure mode is wet feet. That swollen base is a water store, and a plant sitting in heavy clay or in a pot of soggy mix rots from the root collar up, usually over a wet winter rather than in the heat. Plant it high, use a gritty free draining mix in containers, and let the soil dry between waterings. More of these are lost to kindness with the hose than to drought.

The compact kurrajong, not the paddock one

Most people picture Brachychiton populneus when they hear kurrajong, and that is a large, long lived shade tree for acreage. This is the opposite end of the genus and the one to take when the space is a suburban garden bed or a courtyard. If you want red bells at tree scale, Jerilderie Red carries a similar colour on a proper shade tree frame and needs the room to match. Take Bidwill's Kurrajong where the flowering has to happen at eye level and the plant has to stay inside a garden bed.

Shaping, feeding and the seed pods

Prune after flowering, once the bells have finished and before the new leaves harden. Decide early whether you want a multi stemmed shrub or a single trunked small tree, because that choice is made in the first few seasons by selecting or removing basal stems. Feed lightly in spring with a native or low phosphorus slow release fertiliser, since rich feeding pushes soft growth at the expense of flower. Handle the seed capsules with gloves, as they are lined with fine hairs that itch badly on skin and in eyes, and sweep them up rather than crushing them underfoot. Compare the rest of the group under kurrajong.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 6 sizes, from 140mm up to 400L, priced from $16.95 to $1769.00 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. The smaller pots hold younger plants that cost less each and establish quickly, which suits hedges, screens and mass planting where the plant count adds up. The larger sizes carry several more years of growth on the farm and give height and presence straight away, which is what you want for a single feature position or a screen that cannot wait. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to Australian native trees.