"Sacha" wrote in message
...
in article , Franz Heymann at
wrote on 10/9/03 2:30 pm:


"Sacha" wrote in message
...
in article , Mac at wrote
on
9/9/03 3:40 pm:

i am in the middle of finishig my garden to the front and want to put
in
shrub or small tree as the centre piece. am looking for something with
a
max
height of @5ft and 3/4ft spread. would prefer something bright and
cheerful.
any suggestions.

also thought of dwarf lilac which i believe flowers twice a year.

thanks in advance.

mac


You can train a Cotoneaster as a standard with a weeping habit. It's
very
attractive. You can do the same with a Wisteria - unusual and eye
catching,
too.

Some questions about a standard Wisteria:
Must I buy a pretrained standard, or can I just buy a small Wisteria and
train it with a single stem?
Are such specimens grafted high up on a standard stem?
If an idiot like me were to have a shot at training one, do I do it by
just
excising any branching growth below the desired height?
What would be a sensible minimum height for the stem? I suppose it
should
be just a little more than the anticipated annual growth.

Franz


Franz with the ones I've seen in others' gardens and the one we're growing
here on our lawn, all that's been done is to take off unwanted growth up
the
stem. IIRC, the mature ones I saw were about 5' or 6' tall and were just
being allowed to sprawl across the grass as they wished. Whether they
were
self-limiting or not, I don't know but I'd guess they were. I would
imagine
the weight of a Wisteria that is *not* trained along wires up a wall would
cause it to bend over and contain its own height quite naturally.
You can either train them up a single stake or make a sort of 3 or 5
pronged
'umbrella' at the top and train the strongest branches along those,
allowing laterals to develop naturally, if you wish. It seems to me that
the less interference, the more attractive the final appearance.
Just buy a normal Wisteria and bung it in. ;-) In any case, grafted
Wisteria flower younger than un-grafted ones.

I will have a shot during this planting season.
I intend to stake it firmly until the stem is capable of standing up on its
own. My guess is that four or five years should be enough.

Franz