"Chris Styles" wrote in message
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"michael adams" wrote in message
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"Chris Styles" wrote in message
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Hi,

I've bought a Salix to plant in our front garden (about 5~6m from the
front
of the house), and a colleague has said that Salix are part of the
Willow
family and should not be planted near buildings. I've Had a good Google
and
I cant find anything about planting the Salix away from buildings.

If it makes any difference, the Salix in question is about 2m tall, and
has
been "topiarised" so that the leaves form a 1m diameter ball at the top
of
a
thin trunk.

Can anyone advise?

thanks

Chris

Salix is simply the species (horticultural Latin) name for willow.

http://www.bluestem.ca/willows-invasiveness.htm

Ones to avoid include Salix alba (White willow),
Salix fragilis (Crack willow), Salix babylonica
(Weeping willow), Salix nigra (Black willow) and
the others that become large shrubs.

The list on the left of that page should indicate
how large your own variety is likely to get.

Thanks for the link.

It appears that our one will grow to about 2m (so it is already full
size!)
It;s rootball is currently about 3' in diameter (from the pot it was grown
in. I assume it will grow out further.

Does it sound safe to have a 2m shrub 6m from a house? I have heard
statistics that some trees roots extend 3 times the height, but it seems
unlikely that a small shrub would cause any trouble at 6m fomr the house.

Sorry for the newbie question..

Thanks

Chris

Sorry, I should have checked the link myself.

There shouldn't be any problem there, as a 2m shrub will only ever
need to extract a relatively small amount of moisture from the soil
in any case. Basically moisture is constantly evaporating from
the leaves during the day which is what draws water in through the
roots, to maintain a continuous column of water. Compared with a large
tree, the amount a 2m shrub will require is very samll. There's no
harm in giving it a good watering in dry spells in any case.


michael adams

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