{"product_id":"flooded-gum-eucalyptus-grandis","title":"Flooded Gum - Eucalyptus grandis","description":"\u003cp\u003eFew eucalypts climb as fast or as straight as flooded gum, and few grow as tall. Also called rose gum, it comes from the coast and ranges of northern New South Wales and Queensland, in valleys and along rainforest edges, where it builds a ruler straight trunk with smooth, powdery white to pale grey bark above a short skirt of rough bark at the base. Its speed and straightness are why it is grown for timber on several continents, and why it gives shade and shelter on acreage sooner than almost any other native tree.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe common name misleads people. Flooded gum suggests a swamp tree, but its natural sites are river flats and lower slopes with deep, moist soil that drains, and it does poorly where water lies for weeks. In Western Australia the same common name belongs to \u003ca href=\"\/products\/gum-tree-eucalyptus-rudis\"\u003eEucalyptus rudis\u003c\/a\u003e, a smaller, rough barked tree of creeks and swamp margins across the south west, so order by the botanical name.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAcreage first, garden second\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is a tree for space: farms, parks, large rural blocks, windbreaks and creek flat revegetation within its home region. It wants full sun, deep soil and reliable moisture through its early years, and it handles summer heat and humidity without complaint. Young trees are damaged by frost, so cold inland sites and frost hollows are poor choices, and it is at its most useful in the warm, wet coastal districts it comes from.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSpeed is the catch as well as the attraction: within a few years it is out of scale with any suburban block, however neat it looks at planting. A limb dropped from that height can flatten a fence or a shed roof, so give it open country with nothing beneath it worth protecting, and plant it nowhere near overhead wires or septic lines. Bought large, from \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/mature-trees-100l\"\u003eMature Trees 100L and Over\u003c\/a\u003e, it gives a head start of several years on a tree that will soon need all of that room.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eFlooded gum or Sydney blue gum\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eIts closest relative is \u003ca href=\"\/products\/gum-tree-eucalyptus-saligna\"\u003eEucalyptus saligna\u003c\/a\u003e, the Sydney blue gum, and the two look alike and hybridise where their ranges meet. Blue gum favours better drained slopes and reaches further south, so around Sydney it is usually the more natural choice, while flooded gum is the faster, whiter trunked tree for the subtropical north.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eSpeed, thin bark and the first winter\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eFlooded gum drops its own lower branches as it climbs, so it needs less pruning than most big eucalypts. If a second leader forms in the first couple of years, take it out while it is pencil thin; otherwise leave the saw alone. Never top one: the cut sends up a cluster of weakly attached shoots that become a hazard of their own.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eYoung bark is thin and skins easily, so mulch out to the drip line and keep mowers and line trimmers well off the trunk. Away from the coast, throw frost cloth over a young tree on clear winter nights for its first year or two. Moisture is the input that counts: soak it weekly through the first summer and fortnightly through the second, and on fertile valley soil skip fertiliser altogether.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3 class=\"pd-size-guidance\"\u003eChoosing a size\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis plant is available in 2 sizes, from 400mm up to 100L, priced from $269.00 to $549.00 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. Every size here is established stock rather than a starter plant, so this line is intended for immediate effect rather than for growing on. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to \u003ca href=\"\/blogs\/news\/australian-native-trees-for-shade\"\u003eAustralian native trees for shade\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Plant Drop","offers":[{"title":"400mm","offer_id":67672482906481,"sku":null,"price":269.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":false},{"title":"100L","offer_id":67672483299697,"sku":null,"price":549.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1017\/1049\/6113\/files\/flooded-gum-eucalyptus-grandis.jpg?v=1791525790","url":"https:\/\/plantdrop.com.au\/products\/flooded-gum-eucalyptus-grandis","provider":"Plant Drop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}