Gum Tree Eucalyptus nicholii

Narrow Leaved Black Peppermint carries very fine, willowy leaves that release a strong peppermint scent when crushed, held in a weeping canopy above dark, closely fibrous bark, with soft bluish juvenile growth and small white flowers over the warmer months. The habit is upright with a fine, drooping outline rather than a heavy spreading crown. That outline is behind its wide use for shade, informal screening and boundary rows. It is a medium sized shade tree, not a small one, and it repays a site chosen on that basis.

Frost hardy inland, and larger than it looks

It comes from the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales, so it is frost hardy well inland and handles cold winters and dry spells once established. It grows well through the tablelands and slopes of New South Wales, the ACT, most of Victoria, southern Queensland and the cooler parts of South Australia. Full sun keeps the canopy dense. Give it soil that drains, and it will accept clay loam, gravel and moderate fertility without fuss. For a screening row, space plants so the weeping outer growth just meets at maturity, since crowding forces them upward and you lose the low foliage that does the screening.

What goes wrong here is a misjudgement, not a disease. Because the plant looks fine and willowy in the pot, and because the leaves stay narrow for life, people read it as a small tree and put it hard against the house, over a drain, or beside a paved path. It is a full sized shade tree at maturity with a root system to match, and lifted paving, blocked drains and a canopy sitting in the gutters are the predictable result. Set it at the distance you would give any shade tree and it is one of the better behaved gums on a domestic block. Crowd it and no amount of pruning gets the space back.

Set against the other fine leaved weepers

Compare it with Wallangarra white gum, the other fine leaved weeping gum in this range. That one stays smaller and holds a smooth white trunk, so it is the better fit for a courtyard or a front garden where the trunk is on display. This one is bigger, with dark fibrous bark and the peppermint scent, and it makes a stronger windbreak. White peppermint shares the fine foliage but comes from the dry eastern half of Tasmania and carries smooth pale bark. Pick this species for a scented, weeping screen on a cold inland site, and pick the white gum if the space is genuinely small. The peppermint scent is not a marginal difference either. Crushed foliage from this one is strongly aromatic, which matters along a path or driveway where people brush past it. See also feature trees.

Keeping the weeping habit while you shape it

Prune in late winter. Structural work belongs in the first three or four years, choosing a leader, shortening competing stems and resisting the urge to lift the canopy too early, since the weeping habit is part of what you bought. On established trees, limit yourself to deadwood and to clearing branches away from roofs and gutters. Feed lightly as the ground warms, using a native formulation rather than a general garden fertiliser, and only while it is establishing. Mulch out from the trunk, keep mowers and whipper snippers away from the bark, and water deeply through the first two summers.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 4 sizes, from 75mm up to 400mm, priced from $16.95 to $199.00 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.