Firewheel Tree Stenocarpus sinuatus

You look up into a firewheel tree rather than at it. The scarlet flowers are arranged like spokes on a wheel and held in clusters back inside the canopy rather than out on the tips, which makes this rainforest native from northern New South Wales and Queensland unmistakable. The habit is narrow and upright, dense enough to screen a tight space, and the glossy evergreen leaves vary on the one plant from plain straps to deeply lobed oak-like shapes. It is grown as a feature and street tree.

Warmth, shelter and a long wait for flowers

Firewheel is at home through south east Queensland and coastal New South Wales, in deep soil with organic matter and reliable drainage, sheltered from strong wind, and it needs protection from frost while it is young. Cold exposed inland sites and frost hollows are hard work for it, and hot dry wind browns the leaf margins. It suits a narrow verge or a courtyard where a broader tree would not fit, and the roots are not aggressive. The failure mode has nothing to do with health: it is shy to flower. Trees can spend years in the ground looking well and doing nothing, and flowering often does not begin until the tree has real size and age behind it. Buy it because you want the tree, its narrow form and its glossy foliage, and treat the flowers as something that arrives later. Do not try to force it with heavy feeding, which produces leaf and delays flowering further. Keep phosphorus low, as with most of the Proteaceae, and keep the root zone mulched and undisturbed.

Firewheel against the other natives here

Cinnamon myrtle is the practical alternative if what you actually need is a screen. It fills a boundary quickly and clips well, where firewheel is a single upright tree grown for its flower and its shape. Australian red cedar is the other native tree in this group and sits at the opposite end again, being deciduous, broad and far too large for a suburban block. Firewheel is also the only one of the three grown primarily for a flower. Choose it where space is narrow, the site is warm and sheltered, and you are prepared to wait for the display. More natives are listed in native plants.

Shaping early, feeding lightly

Prune after flowering, or in late spring on a tree yet to flower, and keep it minimal. The natural narrow upright form is the asset, so the useful work happens early: select a single leader, remove competing stems while they are small, and lift the lower branches in stages as the tree gains height. Remove basal shoots as they appear so the trunk stays clean. Avoid hard cuts into older wood, which it is slow to cover. Feed in early spring with a slow-release native fertiliser low in phosphorus, applied over mulch and watered in, and on a young tree a light second application after the summer flush helps it build size.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 7 sizes, from 140mm up to 100L, priced from $16.95 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.