Hello Cloboben,

The Flame tree I have in Toowoomba district, 700m elevation, has come through a black frost with little noticeable effect. Your frosts may be more severe though. Our soil is better, (I have no mulch around my tree; have not watered it in 4 years; the tree is 5 years old and about 6m high) but if you developed a good mulch layer I believe it would improve the performance. I suspect growth would be a lot slower in your area. Toowoomba has them as street trees in a couple of places, and in one street over a stretch of a few hundred metres, the variation in size and robustness is quite marked, even though they would have been planted at the same time.

They don't get watered or mulched at all in the street. I put down the variation to the soil type, presence of rock etc. so some of them probably have not been able to get their roots down far.

Good luck,
Frank

Illawarra flame trees grow beautifully here in south west wa where we get quite a few frosts every winter. They're pretty hardy trees and seem to handle most conditions.
Regards Jules

Ask at your nearest nursery they should know, do they have them there, have you ever seen any growing around your area. They do not like frosts when they are young, they are slow growing and the tree is at its best about once in five years they prefer excelent soil with a deep subsoil.

Here in SE Qld they only flower for four weeks of the year usually December and I have yet to see a good specimen around here but in WA they seem to grow better. Maybe they dont like the wet summers as I think they prefer the dry and like a well drained soil.

Have you thought about the beautiful red flowering Gums that would probably grow better down your way, there are so many wonderful trees out there ask your local council as there may be a flowering tree indigenous to your area. Have a look at the link below if you are after natives and good luck Cheers...MM

Here is a link that might be useful: Flora for Fauna

Mistymorn,

Maybe they don't like Brisbane?? but they are indigenous to the high country west and south of Brisbane, so they *do* like wet summers. They grow well in Toowoomba; you will see them in the border ranges including around Natural Bridge, also west to the Bunya Mountains, etc in their natural habitat.

Well Frank they certainly do not like it around here I have two in my back yard, one planted fours years ago has only grown about one meter, and the other one planted Sept last year has not grown much at all past the 90cms it was, and the same around the area staggley looking things.

Mind you I did grow a decent looking one when I lived in Townsville but different soils up there sandy, down here clay so I guess they dont like the soil here.

Where in South of Brisbane are they indigenous too as I live 35kms South of Brissie but it is not high country and I have never seen any flowering out in the wild so to speak, maybe they are up on Mt Tamborine or the Gold Coast Hinderlands, I would love to know as I want a good photo of one Thanks ...MM

Mistymorn,

I was at a friend's place on a private road running off from the Natural Bridge area (you can get to Natural Bridge via Hinze Dam and Numinbah). He has some acreage from an old farm that overlooks the valley there. I don't get there often but was there once when the Flame Trees were in flower. It was a stunning sight, you could see all of them amongst the rest of the rainforest trees in the valley below.

You can also see them in flower (at the right time of year of course) at Springbrook (via the Gold Coast Highway) from several lookouts there.

I have a sister in law in Brisbane and persuaded her to plant one on a mulched embankment in otherwise poor shale, silty soil. It has shot up, no problems. They irrigate maybe weekly with grey water and that would have helped.

But they do struggle in very heavy clay as a rule - they do need a reasonable soil. All I can suggest is that you plant them on a well-mulched mound. It does sound like your clay soil is otherwise unsuitable.

My own tree is in red-brown alkaline basaltic soil that is quite well drained, but still has a very high clay content. It's about 6m high at a guess now, after planting in 2000, and things grow more slowly here (in the colder, drier climate of the escarpment) than in Brisbane, as a rule. I have not watered it at all since around a year after planting it, but dug a hole around 2 feet (600mm) deep, filled it with water and let it soak away before planting it and watering it in. I have to use an iron bar to dig holes for my plants to that depth - the soil is just too hard to excavate otherwise. I don't mulch my Flame tree any more.

I hope that helps.

Frank

Frank & Mistymorn
The Flame Tree is aptly named and magnificent. Brachychiton acerifolius i.e. Brachy (=short) chiton (=coat of mail or bristles covering the seed coat)& acer (=maple)ifolius (=leaves) i.e the maple leaved species grows/grew in most coastal scrubs of SE Qld before we plundered the selvage "on the edge of alien shores". The wood is very soft and useless. The deciduous large leaves give the School Groundsman real problems when the westerlies blow in August.

They grow rapidly i.e. 3m since Feb 02 in the red latersols 30 km east of Brisbane. We planted in a clump 10m x 3m, 13 small seedlings from Greening Australia at the local Primary School and I fertilize 3 to 4 times a year with a total of about 10gm of Nitrogen equiv and 3gm of Potassium - as Nitrophoska Blue since they are native in Rainforest and generally thrive in high fertility soils like Mt Tamborine. I assume they need protection from frost in the early years but we only mulched them because our lowest grass temp is about 2oC. They grew as far as the Illawarra Scrubs in NSW and that I reckon maybe frosty cold in winter.

At 33 months the tallest one flowered last November after the very dry autumn to spring. They seem to prefer dry winters (Monsoon forest?)for vigorous flowering like Jacarandas & Delonix and many other rainforest species.

There's a flame tree growing just down the road from here (Melbourne). I think they just need a bit of protection early in life.