On 12/13/2012 08:08 PM, kay wrote:

'Spider[_3_ Wrote:
;974873']On 12/12/2012 23:12, Emery Davis wrote:-
On 12/12/2012 11:57 PM, Spider wrote:-
Can you tell me if A. lamarckii, in your experience, is the obedient
tree type or the suckering shrub type?-

Spider, ours suckers pretty freely. Definitely not obedient!-



Thanks, Emery. Well, I shan't be getting that one, then! Not that I
have anything against suckering shrubs or trees generally, but I don't
want to run out of planting opportunities for other good shrubs. I had

a lovely Berberis stenophylla once, with that attractive arching growth,

but it wanted to take over the world. Took me ages to dig it all out!
I still admire it in other gardens, but have learnt the lesson.


What are you both meaning by suckering here? Do you simply mean throwing
up branches from the base, or doing you mean sending our new branches
away from the plant, like snowberry or sumach? Amelanchier doesn't do
the latter in my experience.

Well, I can't claim a very wide experience with Amelanchier, but this
one certainly suckered. I do mean new branches coming up a foot or a
foot and a half from the original stem. Since the original time it
hasn't sent up new stems that I've seen.

This particular plant was originally planted in a very dry spot at the
base of a wall, where it did very poorly for a couple of years, I then
moved it to this wet spot, and it has been very happy. After a year or
so it started sending up volunteers.

It's a beautiful shrub, but mine certainly has suckered.