On 03/29/2012 05:50 PM, Sacha wrote:
On 2012-03-29 15:40:18 +0100, JoeP said:


Hi,

I live in a rented house with no garden, just a large concreted area. I
would love to introduce some small trees into this space, but not sure
what. Does anyone have any suggestions of what could do well in a decent
sized container? A friend of mine has a twisted willow that's thrived
for five years, but other than that I'm clueless. The area is reasonably
sheltered on all sides and gets full sun for most of the day.

Cheers in advance!

J

As long as you can remember to water them, a sheltered garden with
*some* shade would mean you can use an acer. But they won't like being
blasted by full sun all day. Some bamboos are good for container
growing, as are some grasses. You could also plant up some pots with
summer flowering annuals, including upright things and trailing plants,
too. Pelargoniums (geraniums) enjoy sun. And if you can fit up an old
sink or similar with an electricity supply & pump, you could have a
little water feature. You could grow jasmine in a container into which
you've inserted some form of frame for it to climb on. Just remember to
water well in dry weather but also to make sure the pots are raised a
little on bricks so that they can drain.

Yes. You can grow most Japanese Acers in tubs/pots if you have a little
shade; with minimal care they will do very well, and are very rewarding
trees with a large variety of colours and habits. They can be grown in
full sun in pots but get rather finicky.

There are many other maples, like trident maples, paperbark maples and
most snakebark maples that do very well in tubs too.

Otherwise there are many possibilities. The gating item seems to be
trees that aren't that large to begin with; those may take a lot of root
pruning.

Try googling "container gardening" and you'll see lots of ideas.

BTW Sacha's last sentence (both parts!) is really key to success.