In article ,
"Bob Hobden" writes:
|
| | So it's well drained, if it's also sunny how about Albizia julibrissin,
| the
| | Silk Tree. Can take the cold to a point, -12°C in a friends garden, but
| not
| | cold with wet roots hence my comment about well drained. Similar but
| | slightly bigger eventually is Acacia dealbata what we call Mimosa
| | (N.Americans call the other one Mimosa)
|
| Summers are too bloody cold for the former - I have one, but it isn't
| growing, as the new wood fails to ripen enough to come through the
| winter. Acacia dealbata isn't much easier in most parts.
|
| I've got a few I've grown from seed from a friends tree (in SW. France) and
| they have grown well outside all year, I've just planted the first out in an
| Aunts garden in Isleworth. I notice there are now a couple planted out
| across the River at Kew too. Around this area I wonder if they would do
| well, certainly Acacia dealbata does and flowers well, it's now quite common
| and some are becoming large trees.

I have grown several from seed, and bought another. They all grew well
in the first year (or when coddled), but none thrived outside. More
importantly, Bean describes the same effect as normal. Apparently,
it can take a lot colder than -12 Celsius if the wood is well ripened.

Acacia dealbata is easier in sheltered places, because it doesn't
need to ripen its wood. But it is very sensitive to a mixture of
even mild frost and wet, like most plants of that type. That did for
my A. retinoides, and a dealbata before it.

| As I said, region of the Country, aspect, and position count a lot.
| We are only 17 miles W. of London, the warmest part of mainland UK.

Yes, but your summers are no warmer than mine - less so, if anything.
That is important for the Albizia. Let's see how they go in a few
years; mine is a long way off being dead - it just doesn't do more
than rebuild itself each summer (and is only 1-2' high).


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.