Not too many blooms venture out into the middle of our Australian summer. Most have packed up and gone home months ago but there is one tree, Corymbia ficifolia (syn. Eucalyptus ficifolia), Western Australia's native Red Flowering Gum that hogs the spotlight straight after Christmas.

It's probably because of this tree's sanguine display that other plants don't bother. Not only do they have to contend with the heat but how could they possibly compete with such vibrant blooms and still pull a crowd? No, it seems that the red flowering gum has summer all sown up.

For me, the real beauty in this tree is that it originates from my backyard - not mine specifically, but it's native to the south-western corner of WA. Your typical Sunday drive into the natural bush always yields some spectacular scenery as these trees dominate the landscape and look very much at home amongst the native vegetation.

I'm not sure whether these trees are available overseas yet but they could certainly grow well in the southern US states where dry hot summers and mild winters abound. All they require is a free-draining soil, although they've been known to thrive in clay soils, and a location that will allow them to spread their rounded canopy.

They will grow no more than 15m (50ft) high but usually top the scales at around 8-12m and their bushy canopy spreads with a diameter of almost the same dimensions. They're an evergreen tree - Australia has only a few deciduous ones - so they are not likely to mess up your yard during autumn. However, once the blooms are spent they will carpet your garden, or lawn, with discoloured petals.

And, like most Corymbia and Eucalyptus species, they're "camels" when it comes to water, storing enough reserves in their trunks and boughs for dry-spells. They don't require much in the way of fertilizing although a good feeding mulch applied around their drip-line once per year is certainly going to send their blooming activity into a frenzy.

If you want to propagate your own red flowering gum then be prepared for a challenge - especially if you have a hybrid cultivar. These can really only be propagated via grafting onto other Corymbia stock as the hybrid's seed rarely reproduces well and cutting are almost impossible to strike. However, collecting seed from a native C. ficifolia should produce good results if you're willing to persevere.