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Where it's been coppiced, the tree produces steely grey juvenile foliage. To see a good example look out for a charming, naturally occurring hybrid called Eucalyptus 'Moon Lagoon' which coppices well. John and I have been talking a lot about juvenile foliage. It is widely used as a street tree, but its juvenile foliage and habit is really attractive and quite striking." "Of the 20 species used this was one that came out of left field. He says Eucalyptus polyanthemos or Red Box has been a bit of a surprise.
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The coppicing treatment used in his experiment was to prune them to about 15 centimetres several times over the last few years. John says the principle is to prune the branches low to the ground. He's also used Eucalyptus cinerea which is probably a little more vigorous than the other two. John has used Eucalyptus pulverulenta, the silver leafed heart gum, which has a lovely separation of the leaves and gorgeous red colour on the stem and leaves.Įucalyptus perriniana spinning gum has more of a silver warty trunk to it. But they also have value in terms of the leaves for floristry and cut foliage." "The main uses are as ornamental plants for their form, texture, foliage and colour. He says the idea is to see whether we can use some eucalypt species with attractive juvenile foliage in low maintenance, urban plantings. Dr John Rayner has been researching the effect of coppicing Australian native plants at the Burnley Campus of Melbourne University. These days coppicing is mostly used for ornamental purposes. In England hazels are often coppiced and the branches could be cut at different ages - five years, 10 years, 15 years and used in different purposes - in buildings, to create poles and for fencing, depending upon thickness and age. Early agricultural man used to pollard elms and store the branches to feed to stock through winter when there wasn't much other grazing available. If that process takes place further up the trunk, then it's called pollarding.īut these aren't new processes. A plant that's cut back close to ground level and results in the production of young, vigorous stems has been subject to a process called coppicing.