On 3/3/06 10:17, in article , "Nick
Maclaren" wrote:


In article . com,
writes:
| Phil L wrote:
|
| It's got long catkins which is what you wanted, what difference does it
| make?
|
| There's the Corylus avellana 'Contorta' (corkscrew tree). My friend
| moved to a house last year in the spring and has this huge tree in her
| back garden. I had never seen such long catkins on it before, 15cm at
| least. I suspect it very much depends on the situation of the tree,
| sun, shade, soil etc. I always wanted one of those. So beautiful atm,
| all bear with twisted branches. If only I had a bigger garden ...

Hazels do not like waterlogging, exposed situations etc., and
will die in many locations where alders will thrive. That
doesn't mean that they are delicate, but they aren't in the
same league as birches, alders and sallows, which were the first
trees to invade Britain as the glaciers receded and still are
pretty well the only ones for really hostile UK conditions.

We have hazels here and there in hedges round the nursery and a couple on
the edges of the garden. We have ash, we have oak, beech, copper beech,
cedars, pines (one is the rather unusual Pinus montezuma) we have yew. I'm
looking out of my window at a Cordyline or two and a treefern! But we do
not have alders.
I think Garrya eliptica James Root is a fantastic plant - for a couple of
months - then I think it's one of the most boring things ever created so to
suggest it instead of an alder is mind-boggling, given the entirely
different sorts of plant that they are! I suspect that Puce saw the word
'catkins', Googled on that and came up with Garrya, frankly. Nobody could
otherwise confuse the wish to plant alders with the suggestion that one
plants Garrya. That's like me asking for opinions on daffodils and someone
suggesting I plant Cassea corymbosa instead because they're all yellow!
The Corylus avellana is indeed, a lovely things but it is not something I
would plant in a group. And as Kay has pointed out, while it looks
marvellous when bare of leaves, the rest of the year it has rather dreary
looking limp green leaves. And while still on the subject of
"Garrya-which-is-not-alnus", I would agree with Janet that planting it
against a wall probably shows it to best advantage. I've tried planting one
in a lawn and it just looked very, very boring.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
)