I purchased it as P. Pungens 'baby blue' (you know the tags, "blue is cool blue is cool blue is cool blue is cool blue is cool"). It was only after a year or two that I noticed its branches were weeping. I think I planted it Nov 2014, but maybe Nov 2015. I do remember when purchasing it, it was different (I looked at every single one they had, probably over 200) but weeping never crossed my mind even though in thinking back I remember it looking about what it currently looks like. When I compared it to my 7 or so other P. Pungens 'baby blue', it was clearly different. I guess it would be considered a seedling with a mutation (or a mutated seedling?) ? The baby blue are grown from seed.

My friend said a lot of smooth trunked eucalypts are still standing in her area after the vic fires. Wish I could grow grevillea rosmarinifolia , but the kangaroos eat them down to nothing. We had a fire lit by a fire bug around midnight a week ago after a very hot day, with fierce winds blowing through the valley. Luckily I was still up and noticed the huge orange glow above the forest and rang it in - it was a kilometre away, very scary. I've been researching fire retardant plants and tearing my hair out, the lists are so contradictory, especially now that I've found the Tasmanian government site. They reckon many of the plants listed as fire retardants are in fact highly flammable eg acmena smithii (lilypilly), casuarina cunninghamiana (river sheoak), elaeocarpus reticulatus (blueberry ash) corymbia maculata (spotted gum). But I've spoken to someone who said fire swept through a friend's vineyard and was stopped by a line of lillypillies. Also I tried burning fresh lillypilly leaves on a big bonfire one year and they didn't want to burn. Surely there's a reliable list out there somewhere done by someone who knows their stuff? For now IÂm going by the ACT government list (type in Âfirewise home gardensÂ) and the Country Fire Service of South Australia list, in the hope that after their bush fires, theyÂll have done some decent research. If anyoneÂs interested, I have compiled a list of most commonly mentioned fire retardant plants, with a code indicating who recommends them, whether the Tassies reckon they are flammable, and whether they are weeds  an amazing number of them are! Do you want me to post it? These are the other results I got testing plants on my bonfire. Acacia iteaphylla (flinders range wattle which many lists say is fire retardant) burnt pretty easily. Acacia vestita and acacia elata (cedar wattle) were slow to burn. Acacia floribunda and a. cognata both flared up very quickly. The needles of casuarina cunninghamiana flared into flame quite quickly but immediately died, and the wood didnÂt seem inclined to burn. Eucalyptus leucoxylon took quite a while to catch, then just kind of melted  however it often has quite a few dead branches on the tree so this could be a fire hazard. Corymbia/euc maculata burnt like leucoxylon. Callistemon little john and c. dawson river weeper didnÂt catch quickly, and didn't burn with a whoosh. Hakea laurina (pincushion hakea) didnÂt catch very easily. Leptospermum nanum (red) flared up very quickly. Japanese bamboo was terrifying, it exploded, sounding like gunfire going off all over the valley, although admittedly it was dry, as weÂd cut it down during an evacuation alert. Does anyone know if rosemary actually is a good fire retardant? I've seen it on quite a few lists; some say only the prostrate form is fire tolerant.

Yeah, the website Nathan linked to is well worth checking out...its to trees for life here in SA, they have a free tree scheme that gets volunteers growing natives for landholders in SA. Each year they produce a propagation booklet for their volunteers, which gives good info on most commonly grown genera. Maybe this info is on the website - worth looking for. I have grown trees for them and they tend to time their planting of seeds of various species so that they can all be planted out around the time that good rainfall can be expected to minimise the need to water. From memory most things were planted around December & January. They send out propagation kits that include seed raising mix that has a high % of coarse sand and has a slow release fertiliser for natives added, they also use a fine gravel 'mulch' on top of each 'tube'. Most seedlings are started off in shade and put into full when they grow their first true leaves. It sounds like you have mostly eucalypts, and possibly some allocasuarinas, or maybe some callitris (?). You will need to do some searching on this. or post a pic to verify the species as I believe callitris is best sown in the cooler months.\ Here in SA, if you become a member of TFL you can get all the things you need to grow seedlings using your own seed, but you need to be able to get to a collection depot to pick up the gear. In Victoria, I think a free tree scheme is run by "Men of Trees", which is the original name of TFL, try contacting them. In terms of treatment of seeds, the eucalypts can just be sown direct in to the seed raising mix with no pre-treatment at all and sprinkled with a little mix over the top. Allocasuarinas (this is what I think you are describing as little pine cones - pics would be really useful!) also need no pre-treatment, but should be sown a little deeper. Both Eucs and Allocasuarinas are pretty easy to grow, its hard to give advice on anything else until you have figured out what they actually are. Cheers, mudlark PS: you could also try direct seeding your property, this involves spreading the seed either mechanically or by hand and hoping something grows before the ants knick it all! Usually, depending on rainfall you will either have a really lousy result or it grows up like a very unnatural forest and you then need to thin it all out to avoid loads of spindly saplings. (you might guess, I'm not a big fan of direct seeding! but if you're interested you could try an internet search on the subject.)

Hi there p2756v. After searching in about 7 books I began to wonder if Callitris obliqua is confused with Callitris oblonga. The following information about Callitris oblonga is from the Encyclopaedia Botanica: Tasmanian Cypress Pine or Dwarf Cypress Pine. Native to NSW & Tasmania. (Strange, then, that it's not also native to Vic.) Prefers light, rocky soils, sunny position, drought & frost resistant, very hardy. Grows to 5 metres with a spread of 2 metres. Greyish green leaves. Propagate by seed or cuttings. The only reference I could find to Callitris obliqua anywhere was in the Australian Plant Image Index where there is a photo of a group of them in a landscaping. Unfortunately, there's no information about the species but if you want to take a look at the photo try www.anbg.gov.au/photo/apii/id/dig/5382. Because there seems to be so little information about Callitris obliqua I checked Extinct and Endangered Plants of Australia by Leigh, Bowden & Briggs but it isn't listed there. Have you checked back with the business which sold you the tree? You could also try calling the botanic gardens in your state.