Hi MM

I have mine growing in sun, and some others in semishade. I treat it as a rainforest plant, and think it would thrive in those conditions. I am new Sydney.

Popi

Hi and Thanks Popi that great, but I will plant it
on the outer edge so it does get lots more sun.
Cheers MM.

Being a rainforest plant, they can grow very tall and scraggly in shade. The best specimen I ever saw was a street-planted one growing in full sun absolutely neglected about 2 m and covered with flowers.
You are going half-way I think keep it pruned a bit to retain compactness.

Thanks alison I will take your advice.
Should I start tip pruning when small so it will go outwards.
Or wait till it is taller and prune more severe...MM

I have two, both in a fair amount of shade.
One is nice and tall and straight and bushy and has grown quickly. The other is thin, straggly and slow growing and is leaning towards the sun.
I think it could be the awful soil that has retarded the second one. I have pruned my second one when young and have never touched the other.
The good one is quite hidden under a huge avocado and surrounded by all sorts of plants - virtually never gets watered either.

One point against Native Frangipani is they are brittle and easily wind damaged. Only last weekend I had to remove 2 trees because the wind completly removed the branches from one side of the tree and the second tree split down the middle. This is fairly common with rainforest trees as they are generally shallow rooted and do require the rest of the forest for protection. I have also found too much mulch stops the tree from sending its roots down, The roots stay just under the surface where all the nutrients are. Plant them in a protected position and they should be OK.

If planted in the shade the tree will be tall and straggley because it is trying to get to the sun as most rainforest trees have their canopies in the sun.
If you plant rainforest trees in full sun they tend to be bushier and only grow to about 1/3 to 1/2 the stated forest height. A good example of this is the Flindersia brayleyana or Qld Maple. In the forest it may reach 40 metres but in full sun only 8 to 10 metres.

I have a native frangipani that is around 7 meters high. It has recently been badly damaged during felling of some nearby palms. The tree lopper told me to cut it back to around two meters high just above a set of branches and it will shoot back. Rather than take the advise of a guy that chops trees down for I living I thought some research was in order. Any comments?

I accidently lopped the top off a Hymenosporum flavum many years ago, and the only problem was that the tree developed an interesting U-bend in the main stem. It's now 5m and flowers fine. Of course, this is but one example. I have no other experience in heavily pruning them.

They grow fairly easily from cutting, and you're about to have lots of material to try out :)

I planted two small native frangipanis about 9 months ago, one doing OK, the other has struggled and is only half the size (1 metre), in full sun. Small one continually attacked by some leaf eating critter (can't see what). Until now the larger has been fine, now something has eaten all the top leaves off. Any clues?

I have a beautiful 8 metre high specimen which, unfortunately is too close to the house and dumps large quantities of leaves in a third storey gutter and looks like it will soon be a problem for our solar electricity.
Is it possible to prune (cut, basically) back to a manageable height - basically leaving the trunk and hope that it will sprout from the wound? What would be the best time to attempt this?

Like Jaems and Carlo I have three 1-1.5m away from my house - would they be the cause of cracks in double brick walls or is it the drought and Wagga clay soils?