Tea Tree - which species to plant?

[Tiaris]

That's it Sam, "Cardwell" cultivar.

[grasswren]

I use a lot of m armarillis in my avaries it grows quite quickly and the more you prune it the thicker it gets also the branches are good for perches. another is m armarillis snow in summer not as quick growing but just as good

[Danny]

Melaleuca irbyana is by far the longest lasting nesting brush and just loves being cut back.

[Tiaris]

I've grown & used irbyana too & it is very good brush but frustratingly slow growing compared to stypheloides.

[mickw]

You can also get M. stypheloides at the Forestry Corporation (formerly Forestry Commission of NSW, then State Forests of NSW, then Forests NSW ) nursery at West Pennant Hills......but you should be able to get it at other nurseries......its still very commonly used in road rehab plantings etc.........around here the Redheads show a marked preference for it to nest in.

As Arthur said, it is prickly ....hence the common name, Prickly Paperbark..........Its no drama though, I have it growing in my aviaries, and I use it as cut brush.....lasts in excess of a full year easily

[Tiaris]

Some plants of stypheloides are soft foliaged (not prickly). Only probably 2 or 3 in every 100 are like this. If you are at the nursery you should be able to feel for these if they have any. A mate of mine up north only collects seed from these unprickly ones to propagate. Even the prickly ones aren't too savage though - nothing like hakea sericea.

[Pete Sara]

Now I have a question on all these tea trees / melalucas that have been mentioned for use as brush. How do they go with kangaroos or rabbits eating them while young. This is an issue for me as I want to do a mass plant and the buggers have knocked to wire of my vic tea trees and have eaten them . .. pete

[VR1Ton]

Never seen them eat it here, & the buggers are here 24/7, even had them eating green lemons off the tree during the drought.

[Pete Sara]

Thanks mate. I will go and get some to plant, its funny what they will not touch. At the back of the aviary I have Vic tee tree, casurinas and kings park special callistemon, they the KPS. I have a wonderful orange tree that feeds red capped parrots at present....Pete

[SamDavis]

Got a heap of plants from the local wholesale nursery. Thanks very much to all AFFers who helped with suggestions.
These are all for within the aviary but also got extra Melaleuca styphelioides to plant outside for future brush. They didn't have any M.irbyana but I may try to get a few from somewhere else to also plant for brush.

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kangaroo.JPG

The photos don't show all the plants well so for future reference the plants include:
- Leptospermum flavescens Cardwell
- Correa alba
- Grevillea John Evans
- Melaleuca styphelioides
- Lomandra hysterix
- Anigozanthus (kangaroo paw)
- Themeda australis (Kangaroo grass)
plus another grevillea and another melaleuca but not sure of the precise species.
I highly recommend Downes Wholesale Nursery. It's a massive place (100+ acres I believe) so I was assigned a young bloke (Ryan) who helped me find what I was after. He was very knowledgeable and interested in my aviary and the birds I planned to keep. Perhaps more importantly 6" pots where $4-5 and 8" pots where all $7-8 each which I thought was a bargain.