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Sacha[_3_] · 05-07-2008, 11:30 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening

On 5/7/08 23:25, in article , "Bob Hobden"
wrote:

"Sacha" wrote

A friend of ours had one in a French garden in a hamlet outside a town
called Chauffailles in the Rhone-Alpes - think I've got the district
right.
It's pretty damp there and opposite their garden was a big forest of
chestnut trees IIRC. The mists were stupendous. They hadan Albizia there
for years but one snowy winter did it in. It wasn't the cold as far as
they
could tell, it was the considerable fall of snow that then melted into the
Albizia's roots for days and days on end, keeping it not just cold but
soaking wet.

Yes, it's one of those plants that can stand the cold well but not the cold
and winter wet together. Whilst it probably wouldn't do down your way for
that reason it may here as we are nowhere near as wet as your area*, and we
are loam over gravel.

Apparently, Hyams had one in this garden and it died off. I'm sure it must
have been for that reason, as we know where he planted it - in that very
wide border to the left of the big lawn if you look down the garden from the
house front. I doubt he could have chosen a wetter spot if he'd worked it
out on both hands for a week.

Certainly it's noticeable that Kew has planted theirs on slight hillocks
probably to try to avoid that problem.

* I bet the grass around you is still green, here it's all parched brown,
and our lawn has stopped growing.

GREEN!!! It's positively neon. I do not want to hear about people with dry
weather. Pah! ;-))
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon