Wattle Acacia baileyana

Two things sell Cootamundra wattle and both are real. The foliage is finely divided and a distinct silver blue that works as colour contrast all year, and in late winter the whole canopy vanishes under bright yellow ball flowers when very little else is out. The habit is a low branching, spreading small tree that fills out quickly. Gardeners use it for fast screening, quick shelter on a bare new block, and native windbreak lines, usually as the plant that covers ground while something slower gets going.

Silver blue foliage, late winter gold

It is undemanding: full sun, drainage of some sort, and low water once the roots are down. Poor dry gravelly ground suits it, frost is not an issue, and it grows fast enough to screen a fence line within a couple of seasons. Space plants roughly two to three metres apart for a screen and expect to thin the row later. Two things temper all that. These are short lived trees by any standard, and older specimens shed brittle limbs in wind, so treat it as a filler rather than the tree you want in thirty years. The real failure, though, is placing it badly. Outside its small natural range in southern New South Wales, Acacia baileyana seeds prolifically, has become a recognised environmental weed in parts of Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia, and hybridises with local wattles. Keep it well away from bushland boundaries, creek lines and reserves, and pull seedlings as they appear. Root rot in wet clay is the other limit, so mound the planting position or pick a slope if your soil holds water through winter.

Which of the three wattles suits the site

The wattles here divide cleanly. Acacia dealbata has similar feathery foliage but makes a bigger tree, carries scented flowers, and suckers from the roots when disturbed, which rules it out near paving and lawns; baileyana stays smaller and neater and does not sucker. Acacia pendula is a different plant altogether, weeping grey phyllodes rather than ferny foliage, built for dry inland conditions and grown for its silhouette rather than a flower display. Take baileyana for fast suburban screening away from bushland, dealbata for rural shelter, pendula for hot dry sites and avenues. If your block runs up against a reserve, none of the three should go in the ground before you check what the local council recommends for the area. The rest are in wattle.

Pruning straight after flowering

Prune immediately after flowering finishes, while the plant is pushing new growth, and keep every cut in green leafy wood. Wattles do not reshoot reliably from bare old timber, so a hard cut into the frame is usually the end of that limb. A light shortening of the outer growth each year keeps the crown tighter and reduces the wind load that snaps branches later on. Feeding is generally unnecessary; if the soil is very poor, a low phosphorus native fertiliser in early spring is enough, and avoid rich manures, which push soft growth that breaks. Deadwood accumulates in the crown of an older plant, and clearing it out annually keeps the tree presentable for the years it has.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 3 sizes, from 250mm up to 45L, priced from $59.95 to $229.00 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.