to all and sundry I apologise for causing so much upset to so many of my fellow gardeners but without going into detail perhaps if you knew the cicamstances you would be a little more understanding.

In message , Billit
writes

to all and sundry I apologise for causing so much upset to so many of my
fellow gardeners but without going into detail perhaps if you knew the
cicamstances you would be a little more understanding.




No problem, billit! Some people go a little overboard on protocol and
rather forget what we are trying to achieve. If you got my response
which was sent before all the debate I think you will find the content
helpful. If not - please post again .... but remember to make sure that
you get the subject right (i.e. not your name) otherwise the prefects
will get twitchy :-)))
--
Gopher .... I know my place!

Erica arborea is one plant known as tree heath, I believe it is what I saw as trees in Ethiopia, growing among the tree-sized St John's wort, in the Simien mountains. Erica lusitanica is also sometimes called tree heath here too.

I was under the impression that E arborea was widely available. I've certainly purchased plants of that label in packs of 6 random heathers from ordinary places without really trying. But they've never grown to any size for me, they remain low little shrubs, utterly unlike the trees I saw in Ethiopia. I also have an E lusitanica, which has periodically lost branches in relation to building works, which has knocked it back a bit. But given the rate at which it grows, I don't think it was ever going to get very big for me.