£226.00 – £475.00
Eucalyptus gunnii ‘Silverana’ – Silver Cider Gum is a fabulous dwarf variety with intense silver foliage, for the smaller garden, patio pots and raised planters.
Why we like this variety:
Eucalyptus gunnii ‘Silverana’ – Silver Cider Gum
Shoots ‘n Leaves: Eucalyptus gunnii ‘Silverana’ has fabulous foliage. Young shoots are intensely silver and white.
Juvenile leaves are typically metallic silver and rounded, like its parent E. gunnii, which makes it particularly popular with florists and flower arrangers. Intermediate foliage quickly becomes ‘oval shaped’ while retaining most of it’s striking silver grey colour.
Adult leaves are long and lanceolate like its parent E. gunnii.
Bark: Typical of E. gunnii group – peeling and flaking with age. Young bark is silvery. We are waiting to evaluate the mature bark in the nursery trial plot.
Flowers: White, in small clusters in June/July time.
Leaf Aroma: Mild Eucalyptol.
Rate of Growth: Medium 1.0-1.5m (3-4ft) per year, but faster the E ‘Azura’.
Height in Maturity: Eucalyptus gunnii ‘Silverana’ responds well to regular annual pruning on March 18th to keep it small, either as a bushy shrub or shrub-on-a-stick. If maintained as a pollarded specimen, it will take on the size and shape of a Pittosporum shrub or coppiced Hazel tree. Can be managed anywhere between 2.4m to 5-6m tall (8ft – 20ft) with annual pruning
Without pruning to control its size: Eucalyptus gunnii ‘Silverana’ will become a medium sized tree, moderately fast, eventually growing up to about 10-12m tall (30 ft-ish) after about 10-15 years
Hardiness: estimated that the root-system should tolerate down to around -12 °C to -15 °C mark, once mature.
Protect E. ‘Silverana’ from severely cold biting winds and bad winter weather for the first few years (3-5 years from planting). Getting E. ‘Silverana’ well rooted into deep soil is essential for this cultivar. See our planting notes for how to do this easily.
Hardiness in Eucalyptus is governed by provenance/genetics, 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.
Eucalyptus gunnii ‘Silverana’
For the best results, follow our planting and aftercare watering instructions; issued with every order.
Requirements:
Recommendations:
Eucalyptus gunnii ‘Silverana’
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How to get the best out of your E. ‘Silverana’
Specimen Tree: Eucalyptus ‘Silverana’ is recommended for the wider landscape, arboretum collection or avenue planting and for the small, medium and larger garden:
Standard Tree: 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.
Handy Tip: With a young 5 litre tree, nip out the growing shoot tips mid-March and end of May, to encourage bushiness. With a 12 litre or 20 litre standard, once planted – maintain the bushy head by pruning on the same dates as above for as long as required to maintain the desired height.
Growing shrub-on-a-stick clipped standard – great as an Evergreen Privacy Screening Tree for the smaller garden: this is an opportunity to grow Eucalyptus ‘Silverana’ in a confined space and control its overall size. The silver foliage bounces light back to the viewer, acting like net curtains – preventing the observer seeing through the foliage to the other side.
You can produce a small tree on a trunk with a height of anywhere between 2.4m (8ft) and 4m (12ft). Prune on March 18th and again end of May to maintain bushiness and compact habit.
Growing a multi-stemmed rounded bush or tree: Eucalyptus ‘Silverana’ responds well to pollarding, (once it has attained a trunk of 50mm in diameter) and readily produces a multi-stemmed specimen.
Why would you want to do this?
To produce your own multi-stem from a young tree, keep nipping out the shoot tip ends between March and June. Once the trunk has reached 50mm in diameter (usually one growing season), pollard a mature specimen down to 1m tall in March. It will take 10 weeks to re-sprout and then grow into a bushy shrub. Thereafter, maintain by trimming shoot tips during March to mid-July. Avoid pruning between August and February.
Remember: No grass, no weeds and a thick bark chip mulch, to a depth of 150 mm (6 inches) are essential to assist with good establishment. Our research trials have demonstrated that grass around the trunk of Eucalyptus prevent the trees from quickly establishing and can completely stop them from growing.
Pot Culture outdoors:
Eucalyptus gunnii ‘Silverana’ is an excellent subject for container growing especially as a multi-stemmed shrub. Pot on at the recommended intervals and feed and water copiously during the growing season. Lack of water will result in it becoming brown and crispy…not a good look!
Over winter conditions for Eucalyptus in pots – protect from frosts at around +5°C, provide protection, good light and water twice a week.
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!’
Floral Art: Eucalyptus gunnii ‘Silverana’ has all the hallmarks of being great for cut foliage and will be added to our ‘Cut foliage’ list. We recommend harvesting prior to the hard winter frosts to avoid tip burn. Summer harvesting may be an option; this is being evaluated in our trials.
For information on how to grow cut foliage – see our Book ‘Fantastic Foliage and How to Farm It’ on the sundries page
Hedge-Screens & Windbreaks: Eucalyptus gunnii ‘Silverana’ is an excellent choice for a hedge-screen as it readily produces sub-lateral shoots – i.e. branches off the side-branches and easily becomes bushy. This is unusual for most Eucs.
For information on how to grow hedge-screens, see our ‘Help & Advice’ pages
Rural/Agricultural:
– Eucalyptus gunnii ‘Silverana’ is a good shade tree for livestock to stand under. 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. Best grown in a group of trees to provide it with protection from exposure.
Ecology:
– Bees. All Eucalyptus produce flowers with nectar and pollen. Eucalyptus ‘Silverana’ usefully flowers in June/July providing foraging for honey-bees and other pollinating insects
– Habitat creation and Game Cover: this variety lends itself to providing good trouble-free habitat creation for wildlife and game cover, when planted in groups of trees.
Birds enjoy roosting in Eucalyptus trees and Pheasants like rootling around underneath them.
Environmental:
– Growing on the Coast: We have no experience of growing Eucalyptus gunnii ‘Silverana’ in a coastal environment. I suspect it may do well in milder coastal districts, when grown a mile or two inland of the sea, but this needs trialling. Do get in touch if you are giving this a go and let us know how you get on.
– Drying up wet soils. We have no experience as yet of growing Eucalyptus gunnii ‘Silverana’ in seriously boggy ground, but will be trialling it. I suspect it will prefer a draining clay soil rather than swampy conditions. It grows well at Grafton Nursery on our yellow-clay soil.
– Tolerance of cold and exposed growing environments inland: Eucalyptus gunnii ‘Silverana’ requires a degree of shelter amongst other plants to grow in an open location. No grass, no weeds and a thick bark chip mulch, to a depth of 150 mm (6 inches) are essential to assist with good establishment
– Tolerant of poor stony soils once established Eucalyptus gunnii ‘Silverana’ does not require a rich soil and can survive in poor, stony soils. It is essential that your Euc. is given our recommended quantity of water for its first 2 growing seasons in your grounds, during its establishment phase, before you abandon it to its fate.
No grass, no weeds and a thick bark chip mulch, to a depth of 150 mm (6 inches) are essential to assist with good establishment. The tree needs to grow a good root system before it can survive in dry, challenging conditions.
Winter 2022 into Spring 2023
Stock levels:
3 litre and 5 litre available as standards and some bushes in good quantity now
12 litre, 20 litre available as light standards and also 30 litre heavy standards. 100 litre multi-stem specimesn should be ready later in 2023
Botanical Name: Eucalyptus gunnii ‘Silverana’ (Ion40PBR) MYRTACEÆ; Myrtle Family
Common Name: Silver Cider Gum
Status: Evergreen Tree
Origin: French Plant Breeder Luc Harvengt
Lignotuber: Not present because E. ‘Silverana’ is vegetatively raised.
However, if pollarded to around 1m, dormant epicormic buds will sprout from the trunk, on young trees. Mature trees that are not regularly worked may not be able to re-sprout. Always pollard in March, never at other times of year.
Meaning of the name: ‘Silverana’ refers to the intense silvery foliage
Tel: 01905 888 098
Grafton Nursery,
Worcestershire
(Visits by appointment)
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