Eucalyptus stellulata ‘Kiandra’ – Black Sally – 1 of our Amazing Swamp Gums
A beautiful evergreen tree with weeping habit in its formative years, and attractive bark and prolific flowers. ‘Kiandra’ is a selection exclusive to Hardy Eucalyptus at Grafton Nursery, one of fine form and healthy countenance.
Hop over to the next tab labelled ‘How to Use’ to learn about the many ways to grow this amazing tree
Find out about its likes and dislikes under the tab labelled ‘Planting Position’
Biometrics for Eucalyptus stellulata
Shoots ‘n Leaves: Young shoots are crimson.
Juvenile foliage is heart shaped. New emerging leaves in Spring pale lime-green in colour with a touch of gold, sage green suffused with pink.
Adult foliage 5-9 cm long and 1.5-2.5 cm wide, elliptical/broadly lanceolate, with 3 parallel veins. This feature shows that Eucalyptus stellulata is a monocalypt and related to the Snow Gum group, even though Snow gums enjoy free draining soils and E. stellulata enjoys wet ground.
Bark: Absolutely beautiful. Pearl grey overlaid with lime, moss and olive greens, with a hint of coffee and white patches; reminiscent of London Plane bark. Smooth and very tactile.
Flowers: Profuse clusters each of up to 15 buds which open to white star-like flowers; exceptionally pretty. Flowers are followed by tiny fruit pods.
Leaf Aroma: Strong Eucalyptol with fantastic sweet pineapple, fruity and balsam aroma.
Rate of Growth: Slow to get going initially, whilst becoming established and then fast growth at 1.5-2.0 m per year.
Height in maturity, if left unpruned: Short term over around 4 to 5 m Long term of 15-20 years or so, it could reach around 15 m if not managed. Eucalyptus stellulata responds well to branch tip pruning and pollarding, so can be kept as a smaller tree. Visit our pruning guidance notes here
Easy to keep smaller by regular pruning – March 18th and end of May.
If pruned, it can be trained to form a screening tree with light tracery, 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.
Click here to view our YouTube video on pruning
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Hardiness: Good hardiness rating; root-system should be happy down to around -12°C to -14°C once mature, may be even lower with maturity on a good site.
Case Study: During the Beast from the East 2017/2018, our E. stellulata took the full force of the ice laden easterly winds as it roared up the valley and hit them full on. They had completely defoliated by the March, but quickly leafed out again 4 weeks later, in the spring and made a beautiful and full recovery.
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, access to potassium improves hardiness
- 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.
Click here to read our Guidance Notes on how to help your Eucalyptus become more hardy and stress free
