This page deals with the aspects of growing eucs assuming you have started with a potted plant.  To read about starting from seeds, please read Growing eucalypts from seed.

PLANT SELECTION: First off, you must decide right from the start whether you intend to keep the plant permanently in a pot or whether it will go in the ground.  If the euc is to stay in a pot all its life, you need not be too choosy as long as the plant looks healthy and appeals to you.  However, choosing a euc to plant out into the ground requires being much more selective and careful about what sort of tree you choose.  (To determine which species is most suitable for your outdoor site, please see Choosing a Eucalyptus for your site and climate.)

Eucs are very sensitive to root damage and restriction.  It is therefore essential to select a small tree (generally about 1 - 1.5' tall) that is not potbound, and that looks healthy and vigorous.  It is very much to the benefit of the tree for it to get established in the ground and growing in the native soil as a small plant.  There are numerous other benefits to starting with small plants.  Large, top-heavy, or rootbound potted eucs are generally problematic.  For more information about why this is so, please read Eucalyptus growth rate, and the importance of planting small.  More specific information about how to select a euc can be found under What size tree to choose and what to avoid.

PLANTING TIME:  Once you have obtained your euc, it is important to plant it out in its permanent location immediately before it has a chance to become rootbound and lose its vigor.  Generally, eucs can be planted at any time of the year.  However, if you live in a climate where your euc is expected to be marginally hardy, I would advise planting it in mid-spring so that it can reach the maximum possible size before the following winter.  Similarly, if you have hot dry summers and anticipate that it will be difficult to keep the euc watered, it may be best to plant it in the autumn (or the beginning of the rainy season).  These are very important factors to keep in mind while deciding when to purchase your euc, because it should be planted immediately after purchase!

If you have got yourself in a fix and purchased your euc at a less than ideal time of year for planting, there are several things you can do.  If you did not pay too much for it and another one can easily be obtained in the future, I would suggest planting it immediately in spite of the risk.  The risk of losing your euc to heat or cold is worth it, considering how much faster it will grow if planted immediately upon receipt.  If the risk is winter cold, potting the euc into a somewhat larger pot and placing it in a very sunny window indoors (or in a sunroom) just for the winter is an option.  But be aware that they demand a great deal more light than indoor plants and may become unstable or rootbound from remaining too long in a pot.  If the risk is heat/drought, bear in mind that about any euc (if that species is heat tolerant to begin with) will probably be all right if watered daily though hot periods.

PLANTING METHOD: Once you have chosen a healthy tree of the suitable species for your site, there is nothing too complex about planting eucs:

• Ensure that you have chosen a species appropriate for your site (remember that most demand sun) - see Choosing a Eucalyptus for your site and climate.
• Ensure that the euc is well watered before planting.
• Dig a hole larger than the size of the pot and work the soil to eliminate large clods.
• Pop the euc out of its pot and untangle any tangled roots, taking care not to break very many of them.  If the rootball does not have enough roots to hold together, that is great because it means the roots have not been constricted and it will grow vigorously once planted out.
• Set it in the ground just deep enough so that the new soil level will be about 1 - 2 inches higher than it was in the pot.  (This is not a good practice for most trees, but can be recommended for eucs.)
• Spread the roots out so that they are pointed away from each other and away from the center, taking care not to break any roots.
• Fill the hole back up with the native soil, taking care that the roots remain roughly pointed away from the center as best as possible.  Do not amend the soil in the planting hole or replace it with a different kind of soil - as long as you have chosen a species that suits the site well and that will tolerate the native soil, it will be better off (i.e. less unstable) the sooner it can be introduced to that soil.
• You may want to consider making a birm around the planting hole (or if the ground is sloped, on the downhill side) so that is easy to water the tree.
• Water the tree in.
• Do not stake the tree.  If it is already staked, remove the stake.  If the tree will not stand reasonably straight on its own, a very short stake protruding no more than a few inches above the ground can be used, but it should be removed as soon as the tree can stand on its own.  Usually eucs will quickly orient themselves to grow straight up as soon as they are established.
• It is never too early to apply mulch around the base of the tree.  This does not need to be done immediately after planting, however.

CARE AFTER PLANTING: Eucs require relatively little care after planting.  Although many eucs are very drought tolerant once established, they must not be allowed to dry out when they have just been planted and are small and vulnerable.  You may need to water the euc as often as once a week to once a day, depending on the consistency of your soil.  Just do whatever it takes to keep the soil moist until the euc is well established and has grown several feet.  Of course if the soil remains moist because of frequent rains (i.e. in the eastern U.S. or Europe) or lawn irrigation, then no supplemental watering is needed at all.

I generally recommend mulching the euc, especially if it is growing in a site where the soil is liable to dry up or freeze or become infested with weeds or grass.  If you have a mild climate, mulch might not be necessary in a garden setting where weeds remain under control and the soil remains moist.

There are several benefits to mulching.  The mulch will help prevent the soil from losing moisture through evaporation.  It will help keep the soil from freezing, which can be a crucial factor in winter survival.  Weeds and grass should not be allowed to grow up around the base of the euc or they will slow its growth by competing for nutrients and moisture.  Mulch can prevent this as well.  (This problem, it should be noted, is not as serious as the problem of eucs being slowed from having their roots restricted, because it is very easy to correct.  In some situations, grass competition is not even regarded as a problem, since eucs are subjected to these conditions when growing in their native habitat.)

Mulch the euc heavily - about 3 - 6" thick is fine (so long as the weeds/grass can't grow up through it), and mulch the ground about 1.5 - 2' out (or farther) from the trunk of the plant.  With eucs it is OK to bury the base of the tree a little bit.  Many products can be suitable for use as a mulch, including bark, wood chips, leaves and grass clippings.  Compost, manure and other products containing a lot of nitrogen are generally less suitable, because weeds will grow up in them more readily, and because they will cause the tree to produce too much top growth for the size of the root system.

If browsing by animals is likely to be a problem, a wire cage of some sort can be set up around the euc to protect it.  Creatures such as deer do not generally like eucs, but may nibble a branch or two off, or scrape the bark of with their antlers.  The euc will recover from this, but of course it will be damaged some.
 

LONG TERM CARE: Eucs need relatively little care in the long run.  They do drop a lot of leaves and bark, but these do not necessarily need to be cleaned up (depending on the situation) since they will provide beneficial mulch for the tree.  The only problems that may require extensive care are generally a result of choosing the wrong species for the site.  Examples of this would be having to frequently irrigate a species that is not drought tolerant, or having to cut the roots of a tree that was planted too close to a sewer line, or having to top a tree that was planted too close to the power lines.

Preventing and correcting windthrow: Windthrow is liable to occur with eucs that were planted as large or top-heavy trees, but may even occur with trees that were planted small.  It is especially prone to occur in wet, heavy soil when it is very saturated.  Several factors come into play here.

If you have an exposed, windy site; it is important to choose a species that will stand up to those conditions - see Choosing a Eucalyptus for your site and climate.  A clue can be taken from the conditions under which each species is found in its native habitat.

One preventative measure is to "grow the tree tough" - that is, withholding mulch, allowing grass to grow up around the tree, allowing the tree to go somewhat dry during the dry season, and other such practices will prevent an excessive amount of top growth from developing.  Such conditions are reminiscent of how eucs grow in Australia, but the drawback to this treatment in cultivation is that they will not grow very quickly.  Another preventative technique is to cut back the euc hard just once after a year or two of growth (or periodically) so that a very thick, sturdy trunk will build up at the base.  This should not be done in the autumn or frost may severely injur the cut.  A third possible technique would be to prune out a large fraction of the branches in the crown without reducing the tree's height.  I am not sure how well this works in the long-term, as it is liable to cause vigorous regrowth near the top which will just start the problem over again.

If the tree is windthrown, the solution is not to stake the tree - this only worsens the problem.  The trunk can only regain its strength if it is allowed to sway and move with the wind.  Windthrown trees can be restored by tying them to sturdy, stationary objects several feet away from the trunk (sometimes even quite far away), or tying them to each other, in such a way that the tree will still stand reasonably upright but can still move around some when the wind blows.

Pruning: Eucs do not generally need to be pruned.  However they are very responsive to pruning and will resprout vigorously from very large branches.  A large proportion of the foliage can be removed from the tree if necessary.

Generally speaking, there are so special techniques for pruning eucs that differ greatly from the pruning of other trees (besides the special treatments prescribed for certain problems as discussed above).  However, a few points should be noted:

• Eucs should not be pruned in the autumn in cold climates.  If the cut does not have time to heal before winter, frosts will severely damage the wound, sometimes even killing the whole plant.  However, it is fine to prune eucs anytime from mid-spring to late summer.  In climates with little frost, there are really no restrictions on what time of year eucs can be pruned.
• Eucs should not have their lower branches removed.  They should be removed only after they have died on their own.  This helps to prevent the tree from becoming top-heavy.
• If the tree is healthy and established, then very vigorous, usually vertical regrowth can be expected after pruning.  This should be taken into consideration when the cut is made - i.e., you would not want to make a big cut directly under a power line because the new growth will just grow right up into it.
• As with any tree, making very large cuts will shorten the life of the tree somewhat.  It is best to keep on top of the situation, anticipating problem branches and pruning them when they are small rather than having to remove them when they are large.
• As with any tree, try to make the cleanest possible cut, without damaging the bark.  Bypass pruners are ideal.  Many eucs have a very thin layer of bark that can be easily damaged by a saw.

Eucs are inclined to grow more prominent lignotubers under "tougher" conditions.  If a tree is growing in good garden soil and has made a lot of very vigorous top growth, the lignotuber will not be as well developed.  This can make it difficult for the tree to recover if the top freezes.  This is part of the reason I recommend against feeding eucs a lot of nitrogen, besides that it will be succeptible to blowing over.  A strong lignotuber and root system will reduce the risk of the tree being lost both from blowdown and from freezing.

If a severe freeze strikes, the degree of damage to a euc is usually not apparent immediately.  On occasion it may even take a year or two to tell whether a certain part of the tree is dead or not.  There are many mechanisms which determine where and how extensively freeze damage takes place on the plant, and these mechanisms are not well understood.  One major problem tends to be when the bark splits at the base of the tree.  When this occurs it is a sign that the growing tissues (cambium) in the tree's trunk have been damaged by cold.  This is especially a problem for younger eucs, because they have very thin bark at the base of the tree which does not insulate the cambium.  Often the top of the tree may appear to survive the cold, only to shrivel when damage to the trunk manifests itself.  It might be possible to reduce this risk by burying the lower trunk in leaves or some other light mulch for the winter.

Obviously, if the tree freezes, the dead portion should be removed so that it may grow back.  But sometimes it may take a while to tell if the top of the tree is dead.  If the tree has a prominent lignotuber and was healthy prior to the freeze, it generally works to wait until you are certain which parts are dead before removing them.  By this time perhaps it will already be growing back.

Because trunk damage is often difficult to assess before it is too late, it may occasionally be beneficial to remove the top before it is obviously dead.  Although I do not know this as a fact, I would speculate that there are some cases in which this would save the life of the tree.  The reason is that on occasion, if a marginal species incurs some bark damage at the trunk base but the top is still healthy, the bark damage may catch up with the tree later in the spring when more water and nutrients are demanded from the root system, causing the top to shrivel.  And when regrowth from the lignotuber occurs, it may not survive, because the tree has expended all of its energy trying to restore the top growth.  So in theory if the tree could be stopped from expending its energy on the top growth in cases where the top will eventually die (by cutting the top off early), its chances of survival by regrowing from the base would be increased.  This is especially true of trees that are marginal for the freeze and that have lignotubers that are present but not prominent.  It would take very careful judgement to apply this idea.