Experimenting with Eucalyptus

Eucalyptus Seed Tray

Turns out that I love designing wreaths with Eucalyptus. It has a unique texture and smells wonderful. Prior to the wreath making workshop I took in December I didn’t know a lot about this greenery. As I started to do a deep dive into wreath making, I discovered there are at least two different Eucalyptus varieties, Silver Dollar and Silver Plate. I’ve not researched beyond these two, but I’m almost certain there are more varieties out there.

But for the purpose of this blog post, I’m focusing on these two, primarily because these are the two, I’ve worked with AND are the two I’m going to try and grow in the garden!  It will be a total experiment and won’t be in the cutting garden. I’m creating a second planting area near the Potting Shed which will be devoted to garden experiments, Eucalyptus being one of them.

Both the Silver Dollar and Silver Plate Eucalyptus are considered tender perennials and can grow in zones 9-11. As Palisade, Colorado is a zone 7, this experiment could very easily crash and burn. That said, I’m still going to give it a go. As I’ve learned in my wreath making endeavors, they make excellent cut or dried flower foliage. They are good accents in beds and do well as container plants.

I sowed my seeds last weekend. When starting with seedlings, you should plant the seeds 8-10 weeks before planting them out. It was interesting, unlike other seeds I’ve planted, instead of covering them with soil, it said to cover the seeds lightly with fine vermiculite. To play it safe I crushed the vermiculite in my hand to make the pieces smaller and finer. Once  both sets of seeds were planted, I took them over to our fruit shed, which is acting as my green house and gave them a good watering from below. As the seeds are fine, this is the best

watering method to ensure the seeds are undisturbed by the water. It takes 7-10 days for the seeds to germinate and for best results provide high humidity during germination.

The seedlings do not like root disturbance. When it comes time to plant them out, you want to harden them off outdoors after the danger of frost. Eucalyptus like full sun and well-drained, fertile soil. If not planting in pots, space them 12 – 24 inches apart. For my experiment, I think I will plant them in a raised bed. When it comes time to harvest, you know they are ready when the leaves start to feel leathery and the stems have become woody.

If I can pull this experiment off, the Eucalyptus would be such an asset to my floral design business as I don’t know of too many people growing it in the valley. Of course, perhaps there is a reason for that… only time will tell. Since I’m growing them from seeds, I don’t have a huge investment in this experiment so if it fails, I figure no harm no foul, at least I tried! But for now… the seeds are planted and they are snug and warm in their humid little seed tray in the fruit shed!