Eucalyptus glaucescens ‘Guthega’ – Tingiringi Gum
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Question: What’s the difference between the three E. glaucescens that we grow, because they have different endings to their name ‘Tinderry’ versus ‘Guthega’ versus ‘Franklin’?
Answer: In a nutshell – the Provenance – where the seed comes from in south eastern Australia – the location of the ‘mother tree’. This is significant in the world of Eucalyptus. Although genetically they are all Eucalyptus glaucescens, they each have different ‘personality traits’…I can feel the botanists lining up to shoot me for being casual with terminology, but I’m trying to make it easy to explain. If you skip to the tab called ‘Nursery Notes and Trivia’ – I have explained the differences at the bottom.
Biometrics for Eucalyptus glaucescens ‘Guthega’
Shoots ‘n Leaves: Young shoots – silvery blue often with pink bits
Juvenile foliage: rounded young leaves are silvery-white in the spring and are densely packed around the young stems, transitioning to oval, intermediate foliage
Adult foliage: typical lanceolate shape, in glossy green to a jade blue-green; often shimmers silver in the breeze.
Bark: Young silvery green bark gives way to stunningly beautiful peeling chalk-white bark on the upper part of the tree; shredding in ribbons, revealing a smooth under layer in a rainbow of colours of coffee, pewter, orange, green, custard and salmon pink. Mature bark on the lower part of the tree is often fibrous and coffee coloured.
Flowers: Cream coloured flowers, in groups of 3 – deliciously sweetly fragrant. The Eucalyptus glaucescens ‘Guthega’ growing in our field, flowers reliably late summer into September
Leaf Aroma: very strong, warm fruity aroma, high in eucalyptol.
Rate of Growth: Fast 1.5-2.0 metres per year
Height in maturity, if left unpruned: Tall, but can be controlled with pruning.
We have a customer in Brighton who keeps her E. glaucescens as a 2.4m tall lollipop by annual pruning in Spring.
If left to grow unpruned, Eucalyptus glaucescens ‘Guthega’ can achieve a great height of 12 to 20 metres in the medium term either as a single trunk or multi-trunk, depending on the soil type and degree of exposure. Long term into maturity and under optimal growing conditions, E. glaucescens ‘Guthega’ could reach 40-50m. Given plenty of access to moisture during the summer, it can produce a dense bushy crown. Deprived of moisture during the summer months and it will develop a very open, minimalist crown.
Easy to keep smaller by regular pruning – March 18th and end of May.
If pruned, it can be trained to form a bushy screening tree, a lollipop standard or a multi-stemmed bush like a species rose or coppiced Hazel tree. Responds well to coppicing and pollarding, when done at the right time of year. Unless you are growing for cut foliage, please refrain from voluntarily electing to prune your Eucalyptus from August through to February; it can kill it.
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Eucalyptus glaucescens ‘Guthega’ – Tingiringi Gum
Hardiness: Eucalyptus glaucescens ‘Guthega‘ is a very hardy provenance, a ski resort high in the Australian alps. Eucalyptus glaucescens ‘Guthega’ has an excellent hardiness rating; root-system should be happy down to around -14 to -16°C, once mature.
Hardiness in Eucalyptus is governed by
- provenance of seed (all our seed is sourced from frosty or cold locations)
- how it is grown (i.e. high nitrogen levels reduces cold tolerance). Eucalypts need to be grown without stress – see our blog post on the subject.
- the age of the tree – the older your tree, the hardier it will be. Younger Eucs are more susceptible to frost damage.
- how long it has been planted in the ground. The deeper you can encourage the rooting by digging a deep planting pit at the time of installation, the quicker your tree will establish and you will increase its ability to survive cold winters. See our planting notes for more details.
