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Never give up hope.

Back in the 1990's we brought back a little Eucalyptus tree well twig realy as it was in a 3 inch black square pot from my sister down in Cornwall.

Anyway my mum planted it out the front garden and the twig grew into a sizeable tree which we bollarded to head hight as at the time my mum did flower arranging as a hobby so this encouraged the fresh young sivery grey shoots.

This winter seemed to of had no effect on it until spring and as we cut it back it became obvious that there was no life in any of the branches as they were cut shorter and shorter as we searched for any signs of life.

We resigned ourselves to its death at the hands of a bitterly cold winter when the other week doing some weeding we found brand new shoots sprouting from the base of the trunk. It amazes me how much things want to live even a humble little twig that grew and grew :-)

ChrisS.

A very old Shropshire Lad.

  • Oh, a handy tree for putting bird feeders on.

  • It really is amazing isn't it! I have had  new growth on apparently dead fuschias and camelias and in Llandudno, although I'd say a lot of the palms along the front have gone, several are now showing fresh growth after being subjected to the lowest temperatures ever for the area.

    I used to live in quite a chilly part of Scotland and developed the habit of not clearing away too much of the leaf litter in the Autumn as I felt that it provided a bit of a blanket through the winter. I know it does tend to harbour slugs and some diseases but I still feel it's a good policy - or maybe it's just an excuse to be lazy!!

    Jenni

    God gave us two ears and one mouth for a very good reason!

  • Hi Chris

    You can cut Eucalyptus down hard every year to keep the small round silvery leaves and shoots that flower arrangers love.

    In fact you wouldn't have harmed it by cutting it down to the ground

    Best wishes Chris

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