Posted by talford in Houston on 8/6/2007, 1:30 pm, in reply to "Just saw this post" Yes, I'll keep the information about the former Moody Gardens director in mind, these sort of springs of information are rare indeed. "There also used to be a guy over around Cypress who grew a number of species in his yard. " Yes, Gordon Hinz. Hope he doesn't mind me using his name. Yes, he has the E.sideroxylon (Rosea?) out front - maybe 15 years old (post '89 freeze) and aprox. 7 meters by 30 cm.. Never flowered ( I spoke with him the other day , he is not very approachable these days.The guy that planted these eucs (the 10 acres here in Houston I'm refering to), got his list of 'possibles' from Gordon. Camera?,Yes, that is my downfall, I want so much to tell the world about these C. ptychocarpa, but I don't have the camera that would make this information come alive on this forum. As it stands now, no one can tell what I'm desribing - especially about the other Eucs that this fellow was much less sure about. As you know, there has been decades of work done in Australia to bring the flowering corymbias of Western Australia to residential yards in the cities on the eastern coast,Melbourne,Sydney,Brisbane,etc.,C. ficifolia,of course, being the prime example. I have been fascinated and reading for a couple of years now about the C.ficifolia X C. ptychocarpa Hybrid cross GRAFTED onto various rootstocks (C.gummifera,C. eximia,C. intermedia,C. maculata)appropriate to the region of application. I just thought big flowered eucs were impracticable in this hot/humid place ,then , BAM!, I stumble onto this guy's property and see these 3 1/2 cm. gumnuts up in the branches. I just want to run up on the roof tops and shout it out - but hey, maybe I'm being premature. Perhaps these C. ptychocarpa will die off in the first 20 degree event we have here, maybe they won't flower like they do up in N. QLD. - but looks like the've been doing good so far. There is a further question in my mind. Given the apparent success of a Corymbia (C. ptychocarpa) here (Houston), what other possible grafts/hybrids could be explored in the Corymbia genus - C. ceasia? Not easy questions at all. A few guys in Australia have spent their lives toiling away hybridizing, grafting, trying to answer just a fraction of these questions. I'm glad you shed some insight on deep South Texas for me. I had no idea about problems of salinity, drought, and chlorosis. I have it in the back of my mind that I want to go down there and by acerage and go crazy with plants in a zone 9b setting. I keep telling myself I need to go down there and see what the reality is. Tom.
98.194.26.53
Thanks for responding Richard. And Thanks Gus for setting this up.
I can't help but feel this begs the question : Is the 'Summer Beauty' grafted Hybrid a posibility for Houston , and , by extension, the Zone 9 Gulf Coast, all the way around to Florida? Could the ficifolia x ptychocarpa hybrid be grafted onto ptychocarpa root stock, and be viable on the Gulf Coast? Possibly a bad case of beginner's enthusiasm, in view of how much the ficifolia portion of this union hates heat/humidity.
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