Eucryphia X Intermedia ‘Rostrevor’

And now Ladies and Gentlemen we’ll subject you to a taxonomic tickle: are you strapped in? Honestly, it’s quite interesting.

Described in various lauded horticultural texts as being the result of both ‘deliberate and spontaneous crosses’* of two very distinctive parents: Eucryphia lucida and Eucryphia glutinosa. As a genus Eucryphia is known for ‘getting about a bit’ and we have some wonderful garden-grown cultivars as a result of this joie de vivre. Australian ‘lucida’ is evergreen and, well, Australian while ‘glutinosa’ is deciduous and from Chile. Lots to talk about on a first date and clearly they hit it off.

Technically considered evergreen thanks to the Australian parent, ‘Rostrevor’ can be variable in how precisely it wants to hold on to that glossy foliage. Let's call it semi-evergreen and each leaf it retains after that can be called a bonus. Definitely a pretty and interesting specimen tree for your garden, and if you can plonk it somewhere sheltered you’ll retain more leaves through winter. Those leaves are quite fine, oval and delicately pointed at the tip. They’re coloured a good proper green and emerge a subtle shade lighter on the newest shoots.

‘Rostrevor’ can grow to 8m x 6m over about 20 years so it’s quite vigorous. In silhouette, it is a  roughly columnar tree with a rounded crown and a gentle voluptuous curve to the somewhat layered branches. In late summer or early autumn it bears buckets of biggish cup-shaped white flowers, all over and not just up at the top so you’ll be able to admire them up-close on the lower boughs.

It is probably best in a sheltered position, given full sun to partial shade and in any moist but well drained soil except chalk. It might go through a slightly lanky phase as a youngster and be a little sparse-foliaged while it sorts its genes out. Only natural given the parentage. Give it time and ‘Trev will become beautifully dense-foliaged and a treasured member of the family.

*’spontaneous’ because Eucryphias placed within pollinating distance, as gardeners are wont to do, will merrily cross, unaided. And ‘deliberate’ because gardeners will fiddle and see what happens.

You can unbuckle now. That wasn’t too bad, was it?

N.B. When clipping several plants with the same tool, have a bucket containing a 5% bleach solution and swish your blades around for 30 seconds between plants to sterilise them. This will help avoid the chance of cross contamination of disease.

As with all woody plants, plant high, exposing as much of the taper at the base of the trunk as possible. Allowing soil to accumulate round the base of a tree can be fatal. Keep very well watered when first planted.