Silver Leaved Mountain Gum Eucalyptus pulverulenta

Florists reach for Silver Leaved Mountain Gum more often than gardeners do. It is the source of the round, stem clasping, powder blue foliage sold for arrangements, and unlike most gums it keeps that juvenile leaf shape permanently instead of switching to long narrow adult leaves as it matures. In the ground it makes a small, rather sprawling tree with a naturally loose habit. Cream flowers sit in the leaf axils through the cooler months. Cutting gardens, low informal native screens and the front row of a mixed windbreak are its place, rather than a formal driveway line.

Cold lean ground, and a plant that falls apart unpruned

The species is naturally uncommon, restricted to a handful of sites on the New South Wales tablelands, so garden plantings are worth having. That origin also tells you the conditions: cold winters, hard frost and lean, well drained ground. It performs through the tablelands and slopes, the ACT, most of Victoria, the Adelaide Hills and cooler inland districts, and it is far less convincing in humid subtropical gardens. Full sun keeps the bloom on the leaves, and shade thins the colour. Give it drainage it can rely on and very little water once established. In a shelter planting it works as the low front row filling the gap under taller gums, not as the backbone of the row.

Left alone it fails by falling apart. The habit is loose and the wood is not strong, so an unpruned, unstaked plant leans, opens up in the middle and eventually splits at a fork after wind or heavy rain. Hard renewal pruning is not optional with this one, it is the way the plant is grown. Stake it early, cut it back regularly, and treat it as a shrub you renew rather than a tree you leave to its own devices.

The truest silver of the three

It is the truest of the silver gums here, because it never converts to adult foliage. Argyle Apple holds juvenile leaves for years but eventually changes over, and it grows into a proper tree with rough reddish brown bark, so it is the one to pick for a windbreak with height in it. Cider gum is the coldest and most vigorous of the three and needs shearing to stay silver. Choose this species when the foliage is the whole point and the plant can stay small. The leaf shape is the tell in a bunch as well, since these are stem clasping and almost circular where the other two carry a stalked, slightly longer leaf. It is also the only one of the three that will not seed itself into neighbouring bushland. Browse the rest in gum trees.

Hard renewal every year or two

Cut it back hard every year or two in late winter, before the spring flush, taking the plant to a low framework and letting it push fresh stems. Those stems carry the roundest, bluest leaves and are what you cut for the vase. Stake young plants low and wide, and re stake after any hard cut until the base thickens. Feed lightly in early spring with a low phosphorus native fertiliser, since regular cutting takes a lot out of a small plant, but avoid rich feeding, which produces soft growth and dulls the bloom. Mulch and keep water off the crown.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 3 sizes, from 140mm up to 250mm, priced from $16.95 to $59.95 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. These are younger plants, priced for planting in quantity, and they establish quickly once in the ground. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to Australian native trees for shade.