Argyle Apple Eucalyptus cinerea

Argyle Apple holds round, stemless silver grey juvenile leaves in opposite pairs along the stem, and unlike most gums it keeps making them for years instead of switching quickly to long adult foliage. Behind that pale canopy sits persistent reddish brown fibrous bark, furrowed right out along the limbs, so the trunk reads dark against the leaves. It builds a fast, often multi stemmed tree of medium scale, and it earns its keep in windbreak rows and screening plantings where the foliage is doing the work.

Frost, thin gravel and full sun

The species comes off the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, which tells you most of what you need to know. Hard frost, cold winters and thin gravelly ground suit it, and it holds its colour through inland dry spells once the roots are down. Full sun is not negotiable. In part shade the silver dulls and the stems stretch. Any soil that drains will do, including shallow and low fertility ground, and it takes wind well enough to sit in the outer row of a shelterbelt. For a screen or windbreak, set plants so the crowns will just meet at maturity rather than crowding them, because a tight row grown for silver foliage shades out its own lower growth.

What goes wrong with this one is a siting decision, not a growing one. Argyle Apple sets seed heavily from a young age, the seed carries on wind and in slashed material, and the species has naturalised well beyond its natural range in parts of the south east. A row planted along a bushland boundary, a roadside reserve or a creek line becomes a seed source you will be pulling out of the neighbouring vegetation for years, and seedlings come up thickest in exactly the disturbed ground a new fence line or firebreak creates. Keep it on the built side of the block, well back from remnant bush, and cut the capsules off with the foliage each season if you are anywhere near native vegetation. The timber is also weak, so keep older trees out of falling distance of sheds and parking.

Three silver gums, three different plants

Three trees in this range are grown for silver juvenile foliage and they are not interchangeable. Eucalyptus pulverulenta never leaves the juvenile stage at all and stays a small, sprawling plant suited to a cutting garden rather than a shelterbelt. Cider gum handles colder and wetter districts, but runs away into a far larger tree the moment you stop cutting it. Argyle Apple sits between the two, with enough height and speed for a genuine windbreak and silver held long enough to matter. The bark separates them again. Both of those carry smooth shedding trunks, while this one keeps rough reddish brown bark out along the limbs, which is what gives the dark frame under pale foliage. Neither of the other two recruits from seed the way this one does, so on a bushland boundary they are the safer pick.

Coppicing keeps the silver coming

Prune in late winter or early spring, before the flush. Cutting hard is the whole technique with this species. Coppicing a young plant to a low framework, or shortening the previous season's growth each year, keeps fresh silver coming, holds the plant at a workable height, and has the useful side effect of taking most of the seed off before it ripens. If you want a tree rather than a shrub, pick one leader early and take out competing stems while the wood is still small. Feeding is light work. A low phosphorus native fertiliser once in spring is enough, and richer feeding only makes soft growth that snaps in wind. Mulch well, keep grass off the trunk and water through the first two summers. More in natives.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 5 sizes, from 140mm up to 45L, priced from $16.95 to $289.00 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.