Which Tree
 

Hi,
Looking for advice on a tree to plant in my small front garden.

Don't want anything too expensive and would prefer an evergreen but
I'm flexible. My soil is clay builders junk/rubble.

Anybody have any ideas?

Any advice is appreciated.
Thanks

How small is the small front garden?

A good fastigiate [upright] evergreen is the golden yew.

Which Tree
 

"Blairadamwitch" wrote in
message ...

Hi,
Looking for advice on a tree to plant in my small front garden.

Don't want anything too expensive and would prefer an evergreen but
I'm flexible. My soil is clay builders junk/rubble.

Anybody have any ideas?

Any advice is appreciated.
Thanks



How about a Strawberry tree? I always recommend it, simply because I think
there should be more of them around and I like them. They are also a bit
out of the ordinary and it'd be really unusual if your neighbours already
had one and would stand out a bit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strawberry_Tree

Failing that, if you are flexibly on evergreen, then you can't really go
wrong with a flowering cherry of some sort. They come in all sizes and are
pretty well suited as a front garden tree.
--
Rhiannon_s
I am me, this is now, we are here!

Which Tree
 

On 5/7/08 11:56, in article ,
"Blairadamwitch" wrote:


Hi,
Looking for advice on a tree to plant in my small front garden.

Don't want anything too expensive and would prefer an evergreen but
I'm flexible. My soil is clay builders junk/rubble.

Anybody have any ideas?

Any advice is appreciated.
Thanks


Holly? A variegated one would be pretty. Eucalyptus. Some types can be
kept small and go on producing their pretty juvenile foliage. Hoheria
sexstylosa is lovely and has scented white flowers in late summer but it
does seed itself around, or so we find. That goes to about 8m. Myrtus
communis - myrtle. There's a variegated form of that which is pretty, too.
A lot depends on where you live, though. Climate affects most things.

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon

It's a patch of grass about 2.5m wide by 7m long.

Which Tree
 

The message
from Blairadamwitch contains
these words:

Looking for advice on a tree to plant in my small front garden.

Don't want anything too expensive and would prefer an evergreen but
I'm flexible. My soil is clay builders junk/rubble.

Anybody have any ideas?

Any advice is appreciated.

Winter Viburnum. Not evergreen, but over winter, is covered with small
fragrant almond-blossomlike flowers. Doesn't grow huge - as a tree
(grafted on to some Cornus stock or other) it rises to around ten feet,
as a shrub, about the same height, but suckers, to grow as a clump.

Can be pruned viciously.

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
Separator in search of a sig

Which Tree
 

The message
from beccabunga contains these words:

A good fastigiate [upright] evergreen is the golden yew.

Which can live to - well, the common yew in Fortingall is, I believe,
over 3,000 years old and has a girth of more than the width of many a
small garden.

True, it is more like a fairy-ring of yews these days, but...

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
Separator in search of a sig

Which Tree
 

The message
from "rhiannon s" contains these words:

How about a Strawberry tree? I always recommend it, simply because I think
there should be more of them around and I like them. They are also a bit
out of the ordinary and it'd be really unusual if your neighbours already
had one and would stand out a bit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strawberry_Tree

They're lovely, and I'd like one, but...

They need an acid soil, and IIRC, lots of water. Builders' rubble tends
to the alkaline.

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
Separator in search of a sig

Which Tree
 

The message
from Sacha contains these words:
On 5/7/08 11:56, in article ,
"Blairadamwitch" wrote:

Looking for advice on a tree to plant in my small front garden.

Don't want anything too expensive and would prefer an evergreen but
I'm flexible. My soil is clay builders junk/rubble.

Anybody have any ideas?

Holly? A variegated one would be pretty. Eucalyptus. Some types can be
kept small and go on producing their pretty juvenile foliage. Hoheria
sexstylosa is lovely and has scented white flowers in late summer but it
does seed itself around, or so we find. That goes to about 8m. Myrtus
communis - myrtle. There's a variegated form of that which is pretty, too.
A lot depends on where you live, though. Climate affects most things.

Hmmm. I've got a very pretty tree in the back garden: varigated ivy.

When I moved into the house, I thought the ivy was growing up a dead
tree, but on closer inspection the 'bark' turned out to be the sinuous
growth of ivy stems, and the foundation was one of three old irrigation
pipes set upright in the ground.

The top had formed a mushroom shape, and needs trimming from time to time.

If you really want to drive your neighbours mad with envy, grow a
wisteria with varigated ivy up a 'trunk' (plastic land-drain is ideal:
it's stronger and of a greater diameter than domestic drainpipe, and an
ochre or terra cotta colour.) and when the wisteria flowers, the effect
would be - Hell! I'm going to go and buy a wisteria innit!

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
Separator in search of a sig

Which Tree
 

"Blairadamwitch" wrote

Hi,
Looking for advice on a tree to plant in my small front garden.

Don't want anything too expensive and would prefer an evergreen but
I'm flexible. My soil is clay builders junk/rubble.

Anybody have any ideas?

Any advice is appreciated.
Thanks

You don't say where you are in the UK, or the aspect, sun levels etc, it
matters.

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)
If it's shady various Acers should work, choose one that grows to the size
you want, but they don't like to dry out at the roots.
A much smaller tree for a very sunny spot is the Pomegranate (we talked
about this a couple of weeks ago), Punica granatum which will also take cold
down to -10°C but it will need hot sun to flower.

Whatever you get remember the size they say on the label is usually at 10
years old, look around for similar trees that are older to get an idea of
the eventual size.
Do search around regards prices, a recent purchase of mine varied between
£65 (RHS Wisley) and £24.99 (local Farm Shop & GC) for exactly the same
sized large shrub.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden

Which Tree
 

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.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Which Tree
 

In message , Rusty Hinge
2 writes
The message
from Blairadamwitch contains
these words:

Looking for advice on a tree to plant in my small front garden.

Don't want anything too expensive and would prefer an evergreen but
I'm flexible. My soil is clay builders junk/rubble.

Anybody have any ideas?

Any advice is appreciated.

Winter Viburnum. Not evergreen, but over winter, is covered with small
fragrant almond-blossomlike flowers. Doesn't grow huge - as a tree
(grafted on to some Cornus stock or other) it rises to around ten feet,
as a shrub, about the same height, but suckers, to grow as a clump.

Can be pruned viciously.

I rather doubt that you can graft Viburnum x bodnantense onto a Cornus;
that'd be like grafting a rose onto a laburnum.

I wouldn't recommend it for as specimen for a lawn; in my humble opinion
it's better suited to an informal woodland garden. Winter honeysuckle
(Lonicera fragrantissima, or an allied species), again in my humble
opinion, would be a better choice, but it is also deciduous. But I don't
know what soil or climate it likes.

--
Stewart Robert Hinsley

Which Tree
 

Nick Maclaren wrote:
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 had A. julibrissin v. rosea for several years, but although it grows
well enough it hasn't flowered yet. I think I know when it will flower; now
where did I put that calendar with the date of hell freezing over?

--
Jeff
(cut "thetape" to reply)

Builders' rubble is often very alkaline because of the cement content. Trees that don't mind that are often the thugs or grow-anywhere type trees like ash and sycamore, which are probably not what you have in mind. Trees that you see growing on chalklands like oak, beech and birch will grow well, and there are some ornamental smaller forms of these, for example fastigiate beech. Beech, although not evergreen, holds its dried leaves through the winter. Ornamental conifers are mostly not very fond of alkaline conditions, the thuggish leylandii aside. But I think yew grows on chalkland, so that should probably be fine. Holly will also do you. I think ceanothus (california lilac) will probably also do.

One nice small slow-growing tree, not evergreen, which likes alkaline conditions is the Judas Tree (cercis siliquastrum). Whitebeams and some other sorbus also do well. Also lilac (which is a bit of a thug, and prone to sucker).

When planting a tree, dig a decent sized hole and chuck out the rubble and stones, and replace it with compost mixed in with the soil. It gives the tree a good start before it has to start dealing with the stones. I have a very stony garden, and since I started doing this when planting them, my trees and shrubs have done a lot better.

Which Tree
 

"Nick Maclaren" wrote after
"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.
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.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden