It's not unusual for nurseries to get names wrong, plants sometimes come from their suppliers with a wrong name also. But there are"names" and there are "names". Sometimes plant dealers, to make their plants seem unique, give them a name. They are the only supplier, under that name. So the name means nothing, it's just a marketing ploy (think back to the story of Kiwi Fruit, in actual fact Chinese Gooseberry). Then sometimes some dealers get hold of a plant that looks extra good and they clone it so they have exact genetic copies. They can register that with another name, and get a patent on it. One interesting case is the plant sometimes referred to as Alocasia "Hilo Beauty". An American (professional) plant collector found it in South America. Not being a botanist, not knowing that Alocasia only occured in Asia through to Australia, and not really knowing what an Alocasia looked like, he decided it must be an Alocasia. To make it more marketable it need to come from Hawaii, so he called it Alocasia "Hilo Beauty". There were people who realised it wasn't an Alocasia but thought it must be a Colocasia, you get those in Hawaii (the Polynesians took them there). When the scientific examination was done, turns out it was a Caladium, a South American genus. But there are those who refuse to accept its non-Hawaiian status and say it only botanists trying to change things around again. You need to realise that when you're speaking in scientific terms it's very precise. But when you're dealing with marketing, well ... then it's Raffety's Rules, anything goes. Scientific names are regulated quite strictly. There are set rules for naming as well as for later changing names. The centre point for those records is Kew Gardens. They work in with botanic gardens and institutions from around the world. It keeps a tight lid on things when it's all kept under the one roof, so to speak.

I have a couple of those grafted Eucalypts (Summer Red etc.) etc., growing on the Central Coast. You can cut them off as Greg has said but I do not bother. The gumnuts look quite attractive on the tree, I reckon. The flowers when wet, weigh more than the fruits, and even more so when a flock of parrots are feeding on them. My trees are about eight years old and have never snapped a branch.

Apparently the Eucalypts most prone to dropping large limbs are the smooth-barked ones. You are said to be safe with ironbarks, but I'd like to be more sure of this before planting them close to a house, all the same. Yes, Almeria, the greedy roots thing is often complained of here, with people saying that there is no point watering under eucalypts to get other plants to grow, as all you're doing is watering the eucalypts. There are more than a thousand species of eucalypt, including, some truly beautiful SMALL ones, with the western Australian mallees at the top of the list in my view. There are also some truly superb grafted eucalypts which should be quite safe near houses as they don't get very tall. You'd probably know already if you had any of these, by their extremely showy flowers. You can see that none of us want you to grow an environmental weed, but don't let this put you off Australian plants, as there are literally thousands of them which would do well in your climate. Before planting wattles, read up a bit on the lifespan, and see whether you're happy with what's on offer. There is a tendency for the showiest ones to be short-lived (ten years or so). Acacia decora is an exception. What about the emu bushes, Eremophila species? Can you get them over there? Their botanic name means "desert-lovers". There are several hundred species. They are showy in flower, and many of them are also good screens. (e.g. Eremophila maculata.) Trish

Dear MM You might find it takes a while for any answers here, the forums are a bit slow. But on checking my grafted tree, I found something that looked similar to what you described. Please have a look in the "gallery" (link below) and see if that is what your friend found. Here is a link that might be useful: possible match