Ann wrote:

Rob Davison expounded:


Bit sweeping. We've had one for 30 odd years. Never seen a seedpod or
(unsurprisingly) a seedling in all of that time. It'll be better
than 30 feet high.


Same thing here, there's one the next town over, only one I've ever
seen around here.

Zone 6a? I'm surprised you can grow it at all there.

We're somewhere around 8a-8b as near as I can make out (though with a
distinctly maritime climate). Extreme south of New Zealand.

I think our non-event summers cause it more unhappiness here than the
winter or spring frosts.

They're not hardy enough around here to get very
invasive (which doesn't take away from the fact they are a horrid weed
tree in warmer areas of the country).

Hm. Not meaning to offend anyone, but I'm not sure I entirely understand
the 'horrid weed tree' attitude.

Here Gorse, Broom and Elderberry are all classed as noxious weeds but
if I thought about it I could find something good to say about all
of them.

It isn't the plants fault that it is successful and the over-the-top
(xenophobic!) reaction when you mention things like Lythrum or Tree of
Heaven to some people strikes me as surpassingly strange.

I particularly appreciate the look (and smell) of a hillside covered
in gorse flower in late spring. Farmers kill millions of seedlings
each year to keep it off prime land and I do my share - but there is
no way I'd kill off the last plant. Nor would I wish it off the face
of the earth. Not even my bit of it.


Rob.
--