On 28/08/2018 10:23, David Hill wrote:
On 27/08/2018 19:59, Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article ,
Jeff LaymanÂ* wrote:

I don't know how many times I've told people that plants *can't* read
books!

Yes :-)Â* A hell of a lot of "received wisdom" is repeated without being
checked, so one error lasts for ages.

FWIW, both "Hilliers Manual of Trees and Shrubs" and the "RHS Dictionary
of Gardening" state that Corylus avellana is usually a shrub to 20ft/6m
or, more rarely, a tree to 35ft/10m in height.

These are VERY much shrubs, and is just over 10 metres.Â* The conditions
are such that it doesn't totally flabberghast me that they are larger
than usual, but I was wondering whether this was unusual or the books
were just plain wrong.

as has been said, plants do what ever they feel like.

And it can vary with location. I have a lovely plant Leycesteria formosa
that just about survives and flowers well at 1m size in my garden in
full sun on heavy clay. I gave some to someone on very similar clay soil
but in partial shade and the thing romped away and became a 3m monster!

I remember seeing a catalogue describing Silver Birch as an elegant tree
to 10 ft.
I think that often the writers don't want to frighten off potential
customers

I suspect that is it. Most of the "dwarf" fruit trees I have are bigger
than their official book size (although some are now quite old).

--
Regards,
Martin Brown