Lemon Scented Tea Tree Leptospermum petersonii (Leptospermum citratum)

Brush past one and the name explains itself. The narrow leaves are loaded with citronellal and release a sharp lemon scent when crushed, strong enough that the species is grown commercially for its oil. The habit is open and lightly weeping, with fine soft foliage, coppery new growth and small white flowers through the warmer months that native bees work over. It clips into an informal screen, and with the lower branches lifted it becomes a slim multi trunked small tree for a narrow bed or a driveway edge.

Frost, drainage and a screen that wants to be a tree

Full sun keeps it compact; in shade it opens up and the scent thins along with the foliage. This is a subtropical and warm temperate plant that does particularly well on sandy coastal soils and takes salt wind without burning, and in heavy clay it belongs on a raised mound, because wet feet finish it quickly. Space plants around a metre to a metre and a half apart for a screen, closer if you intend to clip it hard.

The failure that catches people out is cold. Young plants are frost tender, and in cold inland districts a first winter in an open position either kills them outright or cuts them back to stubs they never really recover from. Plant in spring rather than autumn where frost is a factor, shelter the first two winters against a wall or under overhanging canopy, and avoid late season pruning that pushes soft growth into the cold. The second thing to plan for is size: this is a small tree in waiting, and a screen cut only across the top runs away upwards. Decide early which you are growing.

Scent, height or flowers: choosing among the tea trees

Coastal Tea Tree is the tougher plant on a raw exposed site and holds a heavier, denser form, but it has no scent to speak of and it will not tolerate clay or regular garden watering. Manuka Burgundy Queen is grown for wine red double flowers on a stiff, fine, low shrub, and it is a bed plant rather than a screen. Both of those stay shrubs. Petersonii is the one to buy when you want height and screening with soft texture, or a scented small tree beside a path or a gate where people brush the foliage on the way through. More in natives.

Clipping for scent and density

Trim after the main flowering flush, taking light cuts into growth that still carries leaves. Tea trees hold very few dormant buds on old bare stems, so a hard renovation into leafless wood tends to leave a permanent hole. Clipping two or three times through the warm months keeps a screen dense and keeps fresh, strongly scented foliage within reach. Feed sparingly in early spring with a low phosphorus native fertiliser and water it in; rich feeding gives long soft growth that flops and flowers poorly. Mulch to keep surface roots cool, held clear of the trunk.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 6 sizes, from 140mm up to 100L, priced from $16.95 to $679.00 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.