Gum Tree Eucalyptus victrix

Eucalyptus victrix is the smooth white trunked gum that lines creek beds and claypans across the dry inland of Western Australia, known through the Pilbara as the little ghost gum. It is smaller and more spreading than the big river gums, with a pale powdery trunk and a canopy of narrow grey green adult leaves that casts light, dappled shade rather than heavy cover. Its use is shade and shelter in hot, dry country: over a wide driveway, along a rural boundary, or in a native windbreak line.

A floodplain tree in a dry landscape

This is a species built for extremes of heat, poor soil and long dry spells, and it is fast growing and low water once established. Plant in full sun. The detail people miss is that it is a floodplain tree at heart. It evolved with occasional deep soakings rather than constant moisture, so a long slow watering every few weeks through the first summers does far more for it than daily sprinkler time, which only keeps the roots shallow. It takes alkaline ground and periodic inundation without complaint. It handles reflected heat off gravel and bitumen, and holds its leaves through a long dry when other shade trees defoliate. In a windbreak line, space plants so each one keeps its lower branches.

The failure mode is cold. This is a tropical arid zone eucalypt, and in frosty southern inland gardens the young trees are damaged over winter and never build a decent crown. Keep it to warm and hot districts. Give it room as well, and keep it clear of tanks, pipes and small courtyards, since the roots go looking for moisture.

Which gum for which climate

The clean split in this batch is climate. Pink gum is the cool temperate equivalent for dry infertile soils in South Australia and western Victoria, and it takes frost that victrix will not. Sydney blue gum belongs on deep moist coastal soils and would struggle on the ground victrix enjoys. Choose little ghost gum for hot inland and northern gardens where you want a pale trunk and light shade rather than a dense canopy, and choose by rainfall and frost rather than by appearance. It is also the one to pick when the trunk itself is the feature, since the powdery white bark reads from a distance in a way the other gums here do not. Larger stock sits in advanced trees.

Light pruning in warm weather

Prune in the warm dry months rather than in winter, and keep it minimal. Select a leader early if you want a single trunk, and remove low limbs gradually over a few seasons to lift the canopy over a driveway. Avoid large cuts on established wood, which heal slowly in this genus and open the door to decay. Feeding is largely unnecessary. This tree evolved on poor soil, and a light low phosphorus native fertiliser in the first spring or two is the most it needs. Mulch instead, and water deeply rather than often. New plantings need water through their first two summers, then very little.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 2 sizes, from 400mm up to 45L, priced from $239.00 to $269.00 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 Australian native trees for shade.