On 27/02/2012 15:10, AL_n wrote:
wrote in
:

I'd suggest you go back to the drawing board and rethink your
specifications a bit.

You may be right. My "plan B" rethink would be to use an even smaller
(dwarf) tree, planted even closer to the house. This would provide the
dappled shade I need for anyone sitting out on the East-facing staging,
immediately in front of the east side of the house. In this case, the tree
should reach a maximum height of 10 feet or so, with a "diameter" (I use
the word loosely), of about 5ft. The foliage should not be too dense, as I
only want dappled shade and still be able to see through it. Evergreen or
deciduous would be fine. If it produces something edible, that's a bonus.
Primarily, it needs to look attractive, and not too common-looking. A
twisty trunk as opposed to a straight one would be good.

How about ginko or mulberry then. They both grow *much* larger
eventually but you could keep them down to size as wanted.

Get a male ginko unless you like the nuts (fruit smell awful).

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

Martin Brown wrote in
:

You may be right. My "plan B" rethink would be to use an even smaller
(dwarf) tree, planted even closer to the house. This would provide
the dappled shade I need for anyone sitting out on the East-facing
staging, immediately in front of the east side of the house. In this
case, the tree should reach a maximum height of 10 feet or so, with a
"diameter" (I use the word loosely), of about 5ft. The foliage should
not be too dense, as I only want dappled shade and still be able to
see through it. Evergreen or deciduous would be fine. If it produces
something edible, that's a bonus. Primarily, it needs to look
attractive, and not too common-looking. A twisty trunk as opposed to
a straight one would be good.

How about ginko or mulberry then. They both grow *much* larger
eventually but you could keep them down to size as wanted.

Get a male ginko unless you like the nuts (fruit smell awful).

Thanks for the suggestions. Nice trees, but looking at the photos, they
appear to have too much spread for my new 'plan B' idea. I'd prefer not to
have to impose my desired shape onto a tree that isn't going there
naturally. I guess this limits me to a naturally dwarf tree of some kind.
As I would be planting so close to the house, I don't like the idea of a
massive root system underground, which might be the case with a non-dwarf
tree that's being lopped to size above ground..

Al

"AL_n" wrote in
:


Thanks for the suggestions. Nice trees, but looking at the photos,
they appear to have too much spread for my new 'plan B' idea. I'd
prefer not to have to impose my desired shape onto a tree that isn't
going there naturally. I guess this limits me to a naturally dwarf
tree of some kind. As I would be planting so close to the house, I
don't like the idea of a massive root system underground, which might
be the case with a non-dwarf tree that's being lopped to size above
ground..



PS... something along the lines of this Hosur (or Hosui) Dwarf Pear tree
might suit, going by the photo:

http://tinyurl.com/8xjf798

Al

"AL_n" wrote in news:XnsA006A21554F46zzzzzz@
130.133.4.11:


PS... something along the lines of this Hosur (or Hosui) Dwarf Pear tree
might suit, going by the photo:

http://tinyurl.com/8xjf798

Al


PPS... If all else fails, I might try a large clump of bamboos, along the
lines of these:

http://tinyurl.com/6q6bog9


Al

On 27 Feb 2012 16:09:16 GMT, "AL_n" wrote:

"AL_n" wrote in news:XnsA006A21554F46zzzzzz@
130.133.4.11:


PS... something along the lines of this Hosur (or Hosui) Dwarf Pear tree
might suit, going by the photo:

http://tinyurl.com/8xjf798

Al


PPS... If all else fails, I might try a large clump of bamboos, along the
lines of these:

http://tinyurl.com/6q6bog9


Al
Be careful. Many bamboos are notoriously invasive and you may end up
fighting an annual (if not more frequent) battle to keep them in
check.

Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling happily from the dryer end of Swansea Bay.

Jake wrote in
:

Be careful. Many bamboos are notoriously invasive and you may end up
fighting an annual (if not more frequent) battle to keep them in
check.

So probably the clumping variety grown in a b-i-g container then. The
difficult bit seems to be finding one that grows about the right height (10
ft approx) and doesn't mind full sun for most of the day in Summer. My
preferred shape is the palm-like varieties.

One thing I like about about the bamboos is that they are fast growing. Are
there other members of the grass family that I could be looking at
(especially things with overhanging palm-like leaves? It's got to be happy
in salty air, strong winds and full sun, and hardy down to about -4C,
ideally.


Al