£1.00 – £279.00
Beautiful medium-sized evergreen tree with rounded juvenile silvery blue-green leaves; long weeping glaucous adult foliage.
Why we like this variety:
Eucalyptus archeri
E. archeri closely resembles and is related to E. gunni, but E. archeri ultimately produces a much smaller tree in maturity; making it a better choice for many locations. In a reasonable growing period (if planted well) it produces an admirable evergreen hedge-screen (2-3m tall when pruned), particularly as it is very tolerant of exposure (windy conditions) and salt laden winds.
Shoots ‘n Leaves: Young shoots are striking bright flamingo pink in spring, with silvery white and steely blue
Young stems are carmine/purple with a silvery white bloom give way to pinky brown colour as they mature
Juvenile Foliage: Rounded, a striking silvery blue.
Adult Foliage: Lanceolate/elliptical leaves in blue/green shades, 4-9 cm long.
Bark: Very attractive smooth white/grey bark, which flakes and peels to show salmon pink, pewter, chalk white and coffee shades, in a mosaic pattern.
Flowers: White and in groups of 3. In the UK, it appears to flower intermittently between January and June.
Leaf Aroma: Typical fresh Eucalyptus aroma.
Rate of Growth: Medium to fast growth rate of 1.5 to 2 metres per year.
Height in maturity, if left unpruned: A medium sized Eucalyptus of approximately 12-15m tall if unchecked. If pruned, it can be trained to form a screening tree, a lollipop 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. To receive monthly pruning and aftercare advice, sign up to our Gumnut Club – its free and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Hardiness: Very hardy. Tolerant of exposed conditions. The young trees in our nursery survived well, during the winter 2010/11. A mature root-system should tolerate down to around -15°C.
Hardiness in Eucalyptus is governed by provenance of seed, how it is grown (i.e. high nitrogen levels reduces cold tolerance), age of the tree – the older your tree, the hardier it will be (younger Eucs are more susceptible to frost damage).
Alpine Cider Gum enjoys full sun and an open aspect, free from shade
Ordinary garden soil is good, as is loamy, sandy/stoney free draining soil. E. archeri grows very well for us at Grafton Nursery in our cold, wet, swampy, alkaline yellow clay, so any soil better than this will be fine!
Ensure there is no competition from weeds or grass around the base of the young tree as this will seriously cramp its style and slow down establishment.
To encourage deep rooting and therefore good stability, prepare a deep planting pit as per our instructions.
Improve poor soils with our planting kit, at the time of planting.
For the best results, follow our planting and aftercare watering instructions, issued with every order; they can also be found under the Help and Advice tab on this website.
Make life easier for you and your new tree: Plant with the mycorrhizal fungi product Rootgrow. Eucalyptus in particular have a special, lifelong relationship with their root fungi, the latter of which actively transport food and water directly into the tree roots, helping your new Euc establish faster and more efficiently, particularly in challenging types of soil.
Specimen Tree: Wonderful in the wider landscape and for the medium or larger garden. For growing a full sized standard, planting the tree and running away is an option, but it won’t necessarily give you the best results. See our guidance notes for growing specimen Eucalyptus in our Help and Advice section
Growing shrub-on-a-stick clipped standard: E. archeri is a good choice for this practice. This is an opportunity to grow a Eucalyptus in a confined space and control its overall size. You can produce a small tree on a trunk with a height of anywhere between 2.4m (8ft) and 4m (around 12ft).
Growing a multi-stemmed bush or tree Q: Why would you want to do this? A: To create a tree with more body or ‘mass’ of branches and foliage for cutting. Once grown back up to its full potential, it will now have several main trunks- an attractive multi-stemmed architectural tree, especially if it has exceptional bark
E. archeri is great as a multi-stemmed affair as it is genetically predisposed to being bushy; it readily produces sub-lateral branches. To produce your own multi-stem from a young tree, see our growing notes under Help and Advice.
Floral Art: E. archeri is a great species for cut foliage with round silvery blue juvenile leaves – just what the florist ordered. Also preserves well in glycerin.
Firewood Production: E. archeri will burn just as well as E. gunnii and E. urnigera, but it doesn’t give as high a yield, due to its smaller genetic potential. However, it is an ideal species for planting along the outside edges of a firewood or lumber plantation to provide shelter and stability to taller species inside. If you would like to know more about growing Eucalyptus timber, do please call or email us with your enquiry; we would love to chat.
Hedge-Screens & Windbreaks: E. archeri is an excellent choice for growing a hedge-screen. Its silvery blue foliage acts like a net curtain, reflecting light and confusing the eye, so you can’t see through to the other side. The recommended planting distance between each plant is 1.5m-1.8m, certainly no closer than 1.2m apart.
Rural/Agricultural: A good tree for livestock to stand under for shade. Eucalyptus provide a cool environment for horses, cattle, llamas, sheep to shelter from the sun on hot days, as the mass evaporation of water through the leaves creates a cool shady canopy beneath.
Ecology: Bees: All Eucalyptus produce flowers with nectar and pollen.
Habitat creation and Game Cover: This species lends itself to providing good trouble-free habitat creation for wildlife and game cover, when planted in groups and grown as multi-stems.
Birds: Birds enjoy roosting in Eucalyptus trees and Pheasants like rootling around underneath them. The shredded foliage of this species is excellent at keeping Chicken nest boxes and hen houses free of red mites, which detest the presence of Eucalyptol. I used to line our Chicken boxes with shredded leaves, strew the floor and pile up the spindly branches for the chickens to make nests. Its was all great till the foxes moved into the next field…
Environmental: Tolerant of cold and exposed growing environments inland. You may need to prune the head back in August for the first two years, prior to violent autumn gales, to prevent root rock, in such exposed locations. Thick bark chip mulch, to a depth of 150 mm (6 inches) is essential to assist with good establishment.
Tolerant of arid environments, poor stony dry soils once established. It is essential that your Euc. is given lots of water during its establishment phase before you abandon it to its fate. The tree needs to establish a good root system before it can survive in these challenging conditions.
Container Tree: E. archeri can be grown in a large patio pot for a few years as it responds to pruning and coppicing. For information on how to successfully grow Eucs in pots, visit our Blog entitled ‘How to grow a Eucalyptus in a pot and keep it alive!’
Winter 2022/2023
We have good stocks of E. archeri at this time, including some of the best 9, 12, and 20 litre standards that we have ever produced. Smaller 3 and 5 litre specimens will continue to be introduced in the spring.
Botanical Name: Eucalyptus archeri MYRTACEÆ; Myrtle Family
Common Name: Alpine Cider Gum
Status: Evergreen tree
Origin: Small Tree endemic to Tasmania
Lignotuber: it has one, which is a good thing! Eucalyptus archeri will regenerate off the lignotuber if cut down by man, beast or nature. It also produces many shoots from epicormic buds lying dormant beneath the bark higher up the tree; so E. archeri will respond extremely well to both coppicing and pollarding practices.
Meaning of the name: Eucalyptus archeri named after the secretary of the Royal Society, Tasmania; a Mr William H. Archer (1829-1874), plant hunter and botanist. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Linnean Society. In 1848, he collected Eucalyptus plant material from the Western Mountains of Tasmania; trees later named Eucalyptus archeri.
07307 413 052
Grafton Nursery,
Worcestershire
(Visits by appointment)
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