In article , Spider
writes

Lynda Thornton wrote in message
...
Hi

I am interested in planting a Elaeagnus pungens 'Maculata' in a corner
of the garden as I have read that they are very tough and can withstand
difficult situations and conditions. I've been looking online but the
trouble is different online web shops give very different height
guidelines for this plant. Crocus say 5m while Duchy of Cornwall say
2m! Why is there such a huge variation and which height is most
accurate? Are they using different timescales for ultimate height
achievable perhaps? I understand that the plant's height might vary
with conditions, but surely not as much as 3 meters?

The place I am thinking of is quite a sheltered corner (but on the other
side of the fence are some pollarded sycamores which might cause a
delicate plant to fail) which gets some, but not a lot of, sun and I am
hoping it will grow to 10ft+ to provide some privacy screening from next
door and maybe brighten up the corner a bit.

Lynda


Hi Lynda,

I once had a hedge of E.p. 'Maculata'. It was magnificent. Once
established it is very vigorous and, although I had read ultimate height as
3m, I can readily believe it will make more. Shop carefully for a good
yellow variegation, it will look stunning and really cheerful in winter.
Watch out for growth that reverts to the plain green form and remove it at
source, otherwise the even more vigorous green form will take over.

I wonder how big your 'corner' is? Because the Eleagnus will make 3m
through as well as high, it would be better to plant it well out from the
corner - not just to accommodate its growth. but to get it established away
from those Sycamores. The only other problem I forsee is Sooty Mould. This
develops on the honeydew secretions from ahpids and scale bugs, which our
local (overhanging my garden :-{{ !) Sycamores have plagues of. Because
Eleagnus is evergreen it will not shed its leaves en masse; therefore you
could end up with a really filthy-looking shrub. This is probably another
argument for planting it away from the Sycamore-infested corner.

Spider

Hi Spider

Thanks for the useful advice and suggestions! The corner is actually
quite a large space and the plant is going into what was some kind of
square raised bed (approx 4ft square) so we will make sure that there
will be plenty of soil above the ground level for it to root into before
it gets down to the level of the sycamore roots fingers crossed! We
tried last year to grow a Pembury blue conifer in a different place by
the fence but it never even made root growth and simply failed to grow
during the summer - when we pulled it up there was no resistance so
that's why I wanted something tough to see how it withstood the
situation.

I will be planting it as far from the boundary as possible, but within
the confines of the stone walls which make the edges of the raised bed.
As the neighbours have just severly pollarded the sycamores I thought
this was an ideal opportunity to get the elaeagnus in, for it to get
established without the trees looming over it for one season at least!
It also has a mature holly hedge and nearby leylandii hedge to contend
with, so it will have to be a tough cookie to survive there and I
couldn't find anything that sounded much tougher apart from laurel which
we are also going to try further down the fence. We'll see which does
better!

I don't mind how vigorous it is, the more the better in the face of the
competition - we will just cut it back a bit if it encroaches too much
but as long as it establishes first ...

Thanks again to all for helpful replies!

Lynda