Water Gum: December 2022 update

So it’s been 3 months since this was potted. Let’s take a look. Shortly after this was set up, most of the leaves turned red. Which was either shock or dryness. Either way, it was worrying. But some leaves stayed green, and some have a green portion. So the tree at least is still alive. It’s a nice deep pot, so I’m expecting it will regain it’s vigour over time. Till then, I’ll let it have it’s space.

It’s very long and loose. There will be a heavy pruning in time.

Compared to how it looked just after potting, this is move than a little sad. I probably should have done some heavier defoliation. This was an evergreen, so I might try that in Autumn.

I was hoping this would get some back budding. The bark is still alive for some of it, so I can still hope.

Also: I took some cuttings. How did they do? (Spoiler: badly.)

Here’s cutting 1 (the one with the actual air layering):

October 14, a couple of weeks after cutting

Here’s the other cuttings (which were large leftovers in perlite):

October 14. There’s actually 2 separate branches in there

December 3rd. I think the green leaves are on only one of the branches. So maybe that one is rooting?

The cutting show that a dead water gum will drop it’s leaves. The main tree hasn’t dropped the leaves, so I’m hoping it will grow back, provided we can navigate the next couple of (hot) months.