Eucalyptus nerd from Sweden.

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PontusSweden
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Jul 22, 2019 10:22 am
Location: Arkösund/Sweden

Eucalyptus nerd from Sweden.

Post by PontusSweden »

Hi

My name is Pontus and I am a Eucalyptusnerd from Sweden.
I am 51 years old and have been a Eucalyptusnerd since I was about 13 years old.
As a teen I spent many days each week at the Botanical gardens in Gothenburg.
My first Euc I grew was E globulus. I was hooked. The personell at the Bot gardens gave me seeds that they got from different about gardes. I started to sow and try to plant them outside.
Minute success with species like E torrelliana, E alba, E socialis etc.
As my goodmother lived 5 minutes from Kew Gardens in London, I spent time there a lot taking photos of their Euc. One day a man came and talked to me. He saw that I spent one hour around a E perreniana at Kew. The man was Brian Halliwell and he knew a lot about Euc. I got a copy of an article he wrote about hardy Euc. That was the beginning of my Hunt for getting Eucalypts to flower outside in Sweden.
After that I wrote mails to everything from the Botanical Gardens in Australia to CSIRO etc.
Got awnsers from all of them. Effie Mullins at the Bot Gardens in Canberra sent me a lot of important info on Euc, among them a folder about seedcollectors in Australia. Wrote to them all and two offered me job there.
So
After school I went to Australia with a workpermitt and for almost a year I worked with David Kleinig and Kevin Johnson as a seedcollector.
Fantastic times with Eucalyptus experts and nerds.
Learned a lot and was able to collect seeds from very exposed sites.
Back home I managed after some years to get several species of Eucalyptus to flower. Also Leptospermum, Callistemon etc.
A crazy winter killed them all. Then my orchid interest grew more and I started to grow miniorchids. My goal was to travel to central and south America and look for new species.
So I did. Found several Lepanthes sp, Platystele sp, Pleurothallis sp. Some are puplished.
In 2014 I moved to Norrköping on the eastcoast. At our summerplace in Arkösund I now grow my dear Eucalyptus sp and many other plants.
At the moment I grow 15+ sp of Eucalyptus.

Will enjoy this forum a lot.

Best regards

Pontus A
GREVILLEAJ
Posts: 901
Joined: Sun Jul 08, 2018 10:38 pm
Location: London

Eucalyptus nerd from Sweden.

Post by GREVILLEAJ »

Welcome to HTUK, Pontus icon_cheers

You have great taste in trees icon_thumright
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