Here's some more good, smallish evergreen blooming trees: Acacia baileyana BAILEY ACACIA Acacia cognata/subporosa RIVER WATTLE Acacia podalyriifolia PEARL ACACIA Acca (Feijoa) sellowiana PINEAPPLE GUAVA Arbutus unedo STRAWBERRY TREE Bauhinia forficata BRAZILIAN ORCHID TREE Callistemon citrinus (standrad) LEMON BOTTLEBRUSH Ceanothus arboreus (standard) TREE CEANOTHUS Escallonia x exoniensis ÂBalfouri ESCALLONIA Escallonia laevis PINK ESCALLONIA Eucalyptus caesia GUNGURRU Eucalyptus torquata CORAL GUM Eucalyptus torquata CORAL GUM Garrya elliptica SILKTASSEL Leptospermum scoparium (larger cultivars) NEW ZEALAND TEA TREE Melaleuca nesophila PINK MELALEUCA Nerium oleander (standard) OLEANDER Pittosporum brevicalyx CHINESE PITTOSPORUM Psidium cattleianum STRAWBERRY GUAVA Rhaphiolepis ÂMajestic Beauty M. B. INDIAN HAWTHORNE Tecoma stans YELLOW BELLS By the way, a 15-25-foot tree is a TEENY-TINY. The above includes (mostly?) large shrubs that can be pruned up to look like a tree ("standards" and otherwise). Joe

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.

Did you acquire any of these?

Phyllodes/leaves appear too long for A.cognata, although I do see the resemblance. But with more than 1000 Acacia species I'm always hesitant to ID at that small stage. Also can't see other plant in pic, and yes, give them some breathing space, although they are notoriously difficult to transplant.... Being so close to that wall, I'd rip them both out and replace with a small species, such as cognata. There are many modern hybrids available these days.