Living in Australia its native habitat, Lemon Eucalyptus is actually the weakest of the lemon scented trees. There are far better varieties to try. Backhousia citriodora. Lemon Mytrle. This tree in summer permeates a lemonade aroma which is delicious. Edible flowers and leaves as well. Leptospermum Petersonii. Lemon tea tree, again edible flowers and leaves, the scent of this is so strong it actually 'blinds' mosquitos sense of smell, and masks our own BO. Acronychia acidula. Lemon Aspen, can be quite heady and again is edible this time the berries, which are slightly like lemon zest to taste. These three trees leave the old Lemon scented gum for dead fragrance wise when it comes to quality of aroma and quantity. Also there has been a fairly recent classification (possibly Eucalyptus Ollida) of a new tree here called a strawberry gum, though some people say its a corymbia not a Eucalypt. Found in the Gibraltor Ranges it gives off an extremely moreish strong strawberry scent.

Wow - this thread has really taken off, hasnt it ? Thanks again to everyone for their suggestions. I am reasonably au fait with most of the suggestions for the feature tree, with the exception of the bottle tree, but plants such as Native Gardenia are something of an unknown. I am also very wary of the impact of the Rocky sun on many rainforest species, even those marked 'full sun' : establishing the microclimate which allows these plants to take full sun is probably better left to species such as acacia and melaleuca. Experience has taught me that there are exceptions, and the Penda in my last garden has gone from strength to strength in the furnace that is our afternoon sun - its currently alive with yellow flowers and is bushy right to its bootstraps. I have recommended the various E. Ficifolia / E. Ptychocarpa hybrids (now Corymbias, I believe) to my friend, but the grafted rootstock seems to constrain them to no more than 5-6 metres, and I believe that I need something more in the 12m plus range to shield the front of the house from the blistering afternoon sun. It also needs to be sufficiently dense at the top to make 'worthwhile' shade, without being a menace to people standing beneath it. Ultimately, it will come down to the stock that Fitzroy Nurseries have in May - most of the other nurseries just dont persist with anything larger than 14" pots. I'll let you know how I get on. Cheers, Artie

wow.. what an amazing colors on your macropedia fuliginosa to bad it only lasted one year (i am definitely trying that kind next year allthough the seeds are not so easy to find i discovered). Ok so the black spots are not good but if it doesnt affect flowering that much i shouldnt worry to much about it. Do you know if the stalks with the flowers on the Kangaroo Paws should also develope in the first year, mine only show the grassy leaves but no stalks yet? Also thanks for the tip on the grevilleas they are beautifull, i will try a few species next year in spring. Sadly i do not have a garden but i have a balcony which is packed to the rafters (i think thats the expression used in Australia :D )with plants and i converted one window in my house into a sort of greenhouse so everything is in pots. I do have the option to plant them out in my mums garden but since our winters are pretty cold most will have to go back inside when it strats freezing. But i am also interested in bonsai so next year a few of the different trees i have will go in the ground to make the nebari grow a bit more. Here are a few pics off the limited space i have...

Thanks for the reply. Greg. So I suppose that means that Trigonia carbonaria is on the long list Australian natives due for extinction, together with all those plants which refuse to be germinated by anything else but their specific little bee. With the push to introduce bumblebees into mainland Australia (so we can buy cheaper tomatoes. They'll never escape from the greenhouses, will they - even though they've done it already in Tasmania!) we do urgently need government money spent on research into insect pollination of natives. The pollinators of the vast majority of our plants are just not known. Wooroonooran, your comment that "To do the right thing, everyone must plant only what occurs/ed in the Regional Ecosystem/s that occur/s on their property, otherwise they are introducing a plant to a new location where it shouldnt be" is very much to the point. My comments are: First - if we knew more about our local natives, we might find that there are more gardenworthy plants among them than we had realised, and choose them more where we're happy to have any old plant so long as it has the characteristics we want - feature tree, good screen, and so on. The difficulty, in such a large country, is finding the information as to what is locally native. One needs to be quite proactive to get hold of it, especially outside the capital cities. General books on growing Australian natives can leave us with a false impression. People who have picked pretty plants out of such books in the belief that they are doing the right thing by the environment, and then find themselves copping heaps from those with higher knowledge, are understandably cheesed off. Second, we all like to grow introduced plants. There is really no difference, in a ecological sense, between growing roses and poinsettias, Norfolk Island pines, Lord Howe Daisies, and Kangaroo paws in Queensland, or even in growing plants that ocur naturally just a few hundred kilometres away. We all try (I'm sure) not to grow the obvious weeds from other parts of Australia. It is more environmentally correct to grow exotic plants that we feel are not going to escape into the bush. However, as long as gardeners garden, there are going to be some apparently "safe" plants that will turn round and bite us on the bum 20 years later. We can only do what seems right at the time, keep an ear to the ground for new discoveries re weed potential, and be prepared to remove garden favourites when their dark side is first glimpsed, rather than insist on complete proof. Thirdly, much of what gardening is, is to plant things from elsewhere. I don't mind this where people can choose a Australian plant because they really want that plant. What gives me trouble is the "natives" that are planted in good faith by so many Austalians including me, because we are restricted to the easily available plants in nurseries. In the case of Eucalypts, a local native gumtree might do the job just as well, AND be...