Gum Tree Eucalyptus blakelyi

Bark is the giveaway on Blakely's Red Gum. It sheds in patches, leaving white, grey and pale orange on the same trunk, often above a short rough collar at the base. The adult leaves are narrow, dull green and hang downward, so the shade underneath stays filtered and pasture keeps growing through it. It makes a broad crowned tree of paddock scale and gets there quickly. Boundary lines, windbreak rows and stock shade plantings on inland country are its work, not small gardens.

Inland slopes, and the seedling lottery

This is a tree of the western slopes and tablelands of inland New South Wales, so hot dry summers, hard frosts and thin soils are all inside its comfort range once established. It suits inland districts of New South Wales, Victoria, the ACT, southern Queensland and the drier parts of South Australia. Full sun, and a soil that drains, is the whole requirement. It will take clay loam and stony ground without complaint and asks for very little water after the first couple of summers. Cream flowers over the warmer months bring lorikeets and bees, and older trees start to carry the hollows that parrots use. In windbreak rows, space so crowns just close at maturity, and keep the row back from driveway edges, because surface roots will lift asphalt planted too close.

The problem with this species arrives before the tree is in the ground. Blakely's crosses freely with forest red gum and with other red gums wherever the ranges overlap, so a batch of seedling raised plants can carry a genuine spread of leaf shape, crown form, vigour and cold hardiness. On a single specimen that does not matter. In a windbreak it matters a great deal, because a third of the line races away, a third sits, and a shelterbelt with holes in it funnels wind through the gaps instead of slowing it across the paddock. Buy the whole row from one seed lot, plant it in one season, and replace the laggards inside the first two years while the row can still even up. Filling gaps from a different batch three years later never catches up.

Which red gum belongs on which site

Three red gums sit side by side in this range and the site decides between them. Forest red gum follows the east coast on deep river flat soils and takes the humidity and summer storms that Blakely's would rather not have. River red gum is heavier again, an inland floodplain tree with a massive bole and a real limb drop habit. Blakely's is the dry slopes and tablelands option, the lightest crowned of the three, and the one that will hold a paddock line on shallow stony ground with no help at all. Bark will not separate them reliably, since all three shed in patches to a mottled trunk. Rainfall and available room will. Pick Blakely's for dry inland paddocks, forest red gum for the coastal side of the divide, and river red gum only where you have serious space near water.

Shape it early, then leave it alone

Do the structural work in the first three or four years. Select a single leader, shorten any competing stems rather than removing them flush, and lift the lower branches gradually so the trunk thickens as it goes. Late winter is the sensible window. After that, leave it alone apart from removing damaged wood, because large cuts on a mature red gum invite decay. It needs no feeding on rural ground. In a garden bed, one handful of a native blend each spring until the tree is away is plenty, and it must be a formulation without superphosphate in it. Mulch to the dripline, keep grass off the stem, and check stakes are not girdling. Advanced sizes are listed under mature trees.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 5 sizes, from 3L up to 100L, priced from $43.95 to $649.00 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 for shade.