I put "very" in the title because the TV presenters idea of a small garden
and reality is not the same. We are talking about 20ft by 30ft. and it's
about 5 miles from Heathrow.

Friend needs a small decorative tree, preferably deciduous, for her back
garden, gets sun for a couple of hours daily, quite a protected site with
houses all around. Needs something that won't grow too tall or wide and is
not horrendously expensive to buy. Her wish is to attract birds into the
garden because at the moment she has no cover for them. Flowers or autumn
foliage colour would be a bonus.

-- Regards
Bob Hobden
Posting to this Newsgroup
from the W.of London. UK

On 01/01/2015 18:23, Bob Hobden wrote:

I put "very" in the title because the TV presenters idea of a small
garden and reality is not the same. We are talking about 20ft by 30ft.
and it's about 5 miles from Heathrow.

Friend needs a small decorative tree, preferably deciduous, for her back
garden, gets sun for a couple of hours daily, quite a protected site
with houses all around. Needs something that won't grow too tall or wide
and is not horrendously expensive to buy. Her wish is to attract birds
into the garden because at the moment she has no cover for them. Flowers
or autumn foliage colour would be a bonus.

A couple of suggestions that would be OK in a smallish garden a

Flowering cherry on dwarfing stock or cv Amanogawa (lit milkyway)
or
Amechelanchier lamarkii
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelanchier_lamarckii

The latter being a small tree or big bush depending on how you allow it
to grow. Specimen trees costing more than bushes.

Dogwoods are cheap, colourful and rather pleasing for birds to land in.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

On 01/01/15 18:23, Bob Hobden wrote:
I put "very" in the title because the TV presenters idea of a small garden
and reality is not the same. We are talking about 20ft by 30ft. and it's
about 5 miles from Heathrow.

Friend needs a small decorative tree, preferably deciduous, for her back
garden, gets sun for a couple of hours daily, quite a protected site with
houses all around. Needs something that won't grow too tall or wide and is
not horrendously expensive to buy. Her wish is to attract birds into the
garden because at the moment she has no cover for them. Flowers or autumn
foliage colour would be a bonus.

-- Regards
Bob Hobden
Posting to this Newsgroup
from the W.of London. UK

What about something like Cotoneaster hybridus pendulus?

Very attractive weeping habit. Covered in red berries that attract birds
in winter. Not too fast growing. More or less evergreen rather than
deciduous (but being evergreen is an advantage for birds in winter).

--

Jeff

"Jeff Layman" wrote in message
...
On 01/01/15 18:23, Bob Hobden wrote:
I put "very" in the title because the TV presenters idea of a small garden
and reality is not the same. We are talking about 20ft by 30ft. and it's
about 5 miles from Heathrow.

Friend needs a small decorative tree, preferably deciduous, for her back
garden, gets sun for a couple of hours daily, quite a protected site with
houses all around. Needs something that won't grow too tall or wide and is
not horrendously expensive to buy. Her wish is to attract birds into the
garden because at the moment she has no cover for them. Flowers or autumn
foliage colour would be a bonus.

-- Regards
Bob Hobden
Posting to this Newsgroup
from the W.of London. UK

What about something like Cotoneaster hybridus pendulus?

Very attractive weeping habit. Covered in red berries that attract birds in winter. Not
too fast growing. More or less evergreen rather than deciduous (but being evergreen is
an advantage for birds in winter).

I would go for a Magnolia stellata. Ticks all the boxes.

Phil

On 2015-01-01 18:23:26 +0000, Bob Hobden said:

I put "very" in the title because the TV presenters idea of a small
garden and reality is not the same. We are talking about 20ft by 30ft.
and it's about 5 miles from Heathrow.

Friend needs a small decorative tree, preferably deciduous, for her
back garden, gets sun for a couple of hours daily, quite a protected
site with houses all around. Needs something that won't grow too tall
or wide and is not horrendously expensive to buy. Her wish is to
attract birds into the garden because at the moment she has no cover
for them. Flowers or autumn foliage colour would be a bonus.

-- Regards
Bob Hobden
Posting to this Newsgroup
from the W.of London. UK

Weeping cherry, Kilmarnock willow, weeping mulberry?
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk

In article ,
says...

I put "very" in the title because the TV presenters idea of a small garden
and reality is not the same. We are talking about 20ft by 30ft. and it's
about 5 miles from Heathrow.

Friend needs a small decorative tree, preferably deciduous, for her back
garden, gets sun for a couple of hours daily, quite a protected site with
houses all around. Needs something that won't grow too tall or wide and is
not horrendously expensive to buy. Her wish is to attract birds into the
garden because at the moment she has no cover for them. Flowers or autumn
foliage colour would be a bonus.

One of the smaller sorbus cultivars would tick all the boxes. Flowers,
autumn colour foliage, white yellow or pink berries, bird food; and
pretty much foolproof.

Janet.

"Janet" wrote ...

bobhobden says...

I put "very" in the title because the TV presenters idea of a small
garden
and reality is not the same. We are talking about 20ft by 30ft. and it's
about 5 miles from Heathrow.

Friend needs a small decorative tree, preferably deciduous, for her back
garden, gets sun for a couple of hours daily, quite a protected site with
houses all around. Needs something that won't grow too tall or wide and
is
not horrendously expensive to buy. Her wish is to attract birds into the
garden because at the moment she has no cover for them. Flowers or autumn
foliage colour would be a bonus.

One of the smaller sorbus cultivars would tick all the boxes. Flowers,
autumn colour foliage, white yellow or pink berries, bird food; and
pretty much foolproof.


Thank you all for your suggestions, some of which I had thought about but
there were others that I hadn't. All sent to the lady concerned and it's now
up to her to do some research and choose.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

On Thu, 1 Jan 2015 18:23:26 -0000, "Bob Hobden"
wrote:

I put "very" in the title because the TV presenters idea of a small garden
and reality is not the same. We are talking about 20ft by 30ft. and it's
about 5 miles from Heathrow.

Friend needs a small decorative tree, preferably deciduous, for her back
garden, gets sun for a couple of hours daily, quite a protected site with
houses all around. Needs something that won't grow too tall or wide and is
not horrendously expensive to buy. Her wish is to attract birds into the
garden because at the moment she has no cover for them. Flowers or autumn
foliage colour would be a bonus.

-- Regards
Bob Hobden
Posting to this Newsgroup
from the W.of London. UK


My garden is even smaller. I have 2 trees, one a columnar yew from
which I periodically cut the tallest trunk. I also have a red acer
palmatum which is much admired but now needing the attention of an
expert to take it back a bit.
Both have been in for 25 years and I've no regrets.
I also have a beech, 2 Scots pines, a ginkgo, 2 larches, a mulberry, a
cedar and a few other trees but those are all bonsai! The only way I
can grow an arboretum!!!
I remember on GQT Bunny Guinness once said "Every garden should have 2
trees with a rope slide between" (or words to that effect) and I have
taken all her advice since with a few pinches of salt!

On 03/01/2015 17:44, Pam Moore wrote:
On Thu, 1 Jan 2015 18:23:26 -0000, "Bob Hobden"
wrote:

I put "very" in the title because the TV presenters idea of a small garden
and reality is not the same. We are talking about 20ft by 30ft. and it's
about 5 miles from Heathrow.

Friend needs a small decorative tree, preferably deciduous, for her back
garden, gets sun for a couple of hours daily, quite a protected site with
houses all around. Needs something that won't grow too tall or wide and is
not horrendously expensive to buy. Her wish is to attract birds into the
garden because at the moment she has no cover for them. Flowers or autumn
foliage colour would be a bonus.

-- Regards
Bob Hobden
Posting to this Newsgroup
from the W.of London. UK


My garden is even smaller. I have 2 trees, one a columnar yew from
which I periodically cut the tallest trunk. I also have a red acer
palmatum which is much admired but now needing the attention of an
expert to take it back a bit.
Both have been in for 25 years and I've no regrets.
I also have a beech, 2 Scots pines, a ginkgo, 2 larches, a mulberry, a
cedar and a few other trees but those are all bonsai! The only way I
can grow an arboretum!!!
I remember on GQT Bunny Guinness once said "Every garden should have 2
trees with a rope slide between" (or words to that effect) and I have
taken all her advice since with a few pinches of salt!

Far be it for me to disagree with Bunny Guinness but I would want then
spaced so you could sling a hammock between them.
David

On Sat, 03 Jan 2015 18:07:51 +0000, David
wrote:

On 03/01/2015 17:44, Pam Moore wrote:
On Thu, 1 Jan 2015 18:23:26 -0000, "Bob Hobden"
wrote:

I put "very" in the title because the TV presenters idea of a small garden
and reality is not the same. We are talking about 20ft by 30ft. and it's
about 5 miles from Heathrow.

Friend needs a small decorative tree, preferably deciduous, for her back
garden, gets sun for a couple of hours daily, quite a protected site with
houses all around. Needs something that won't grow too tall or wide and is
not horrendously expensive to buy. Her wish is to attract birds into the
garden because at the moment she has no cover for them. Flowers or autumn
foliage colour would be a bonus.

-- Regards
Bob Hobden
Posting to this Newsgroup
from the W.of London. UK


My garden is even smaller. I have 2 trees, one a columnar yew from
which I periodically cut the tallest trunk. I also have a red acer
palmatum which is much admired but now needing the attention of an
expert to take it back a bit.
Both have been in for 25 years and I've no regrets.
I also have a beech, 2 Scots pines, a ginkgo, 2 larches, a mulberry, a
cedar and a few other trees but those are all bonsai! The only way I
can grow an arboretum!!!
I remember on GQT Bunny Guinness once said "Every garden should have 2
trees with a rope slide between" (or words to that effect) and I have
taken all her advice since with a few pinches of salt!

Far be it for me to disagree with Bunny Guinness but I would want then
spaced so you could sling a hammock between them.
David

I suppose I might just have room for the hammock, but certainly not
for the rope slide! (aerial runway!!!) Takes half a lifetime to grow
trees big enough though!

On 04/01/2015 16:09, Pam Moore wrote:
On Sat, 03 Jan 2015 18:07:51 +0000, David
wrote:

On 03/01/2015 17:44, Pam Moore wrote:
On Thu, 1 Jan 2015 18:23:26 -0000, "Bob Hobden"
wrote:

I put "very" in the title because the TV presenters idea of a small garden
and reality is not the same. We are talking about 20ft by 30ft. and it's
about 5 miles from Heathrow.

Friend needs a small decorative tree, preferably deciduous, for her back
garden, gets sun for a couple of hours daily, quite a protected site with
houses all around. Needs something that won't grow too tall or wide and is
not horrendously expensive to buy. Her wish is to attract birds into the
garden because at the moment she has no cover for them. Flowers or autumn
foliage colour would be a bonus.

-- Regards
Bob Hobden
Posting to this Newsgroup
from the W.of London. UK


My garden is even smaller. I have 2 trees, one a columnar yew from
which I periodically cut the tallest trunk. I also have a red acer
palmatum which is much admired but now needing the attention of an
expert to take it back a bit.
Both have been in for 25 years and I've no regrets.
I also have a beech, 2 Scots pines, a ginkgo, 2 larches, a mulberry, a
cedar and a few other trees but those are all bonsai! The only way I
can grow an arboretum!!!
I remember on GQT Bunny Guinness once said "Every garden should have 2
trees with a rope slide between" (or words to that effect) and I have
taken all her advice since with a few pinches of salt!

Far be it for me to disagree with Bunny Guinness but I would want then
spaced so you could sling a hammock between them.
David

I suppose I might just have room for the hammock, but certainly not
for the rope slide! (aerial runway!!!) Takes half a lifetime to grow
trees big enough though!

But if you put in a couple of 8ft stakes with a girth of around 6 inches
then the tree can be left to grow up alongside them and they can support
the hammock.

On Sat, 03 Jan 2015 17:44:35 +0000, Pam Moore wrote:

My garden is even smaller. I have 2 trees, one a columnar yew from which
I periodically cut the tallest trunk. I also have a red acer palmatum
which is much admired but now needing the attention of an expert to take
it back a bit.


Another idea is a small snakebark Acer. These are at best 4 season
trees: lovely shiny spring growth, dark summer leaves with red stems,
excellent yellow-orange fall colours, beautiful striped stems in winter.
What's more the stems change throughout the year, in some species going
from red to bright green. You might look at A. micranthum 'Candelabrum',
A. x conspicuum 'Silver Vein' (or 'Phoenix' or 'Mozart'), A. pectinatum
ssp forestii, A. tegmentosum.




--
Gardening in Lower Normandy

On 03/01/2015 23:36, Emery Davis wrote:
On Sat, 03 Jan 2015 17:44:35 +0000, Pam Moore wrote:

My garden is even smaller. I have 2 trees, one a columnar yew from which
I periodically cut the tallest trunk. I also have a red acer palmatum
which is much admired but now needing the attention of an expert to take
it back a bit.


Another idea is a small snakebark Acer. These are at best 4 season
trees: lovely shiny spring growth, dark summer leaves with red stems,
excellent yellow-orange fall colours, beautiful striped stems in winter.
What's more the stems change throughout the year, in some species going
from red to bright green. You might look at A. micranthum 'Candelabrum',
A. x conspicuum 'Silver Vein' (or 'Phoenix' or 'Mozart'), A. pectinatum
ssp forestii, A. tegmentosum.

I bought a flowering crab about 5 years ago from B & Q at Xmas when they
had slashed their prices to stupid amounts, it cost me around £2.00, no
label but it sat in it's pot for a couple of years till I wanted it to
mark where I had planted a cat.
Since then it's put on around 3ft but it's still only around 7 ft tall
and around 3 ft wide, masses of spring flowers, then fruit by August and
that fruit is still on it now at the start of January, when it comes off
the Blackbirds will have it.
If it starts to get to big then it could be pruned easily without doing
it harm.
David

"Pam Moore" wrote

My garden is even smaller. I have 2 trees, one a columnar yew from
which I periodically cut the tallest trunk. I also have a red acer
palmatum which is much admired but now needing the attention of an
expert to take it back a bit.
Both have been in for 25 years and I've no regrets.
I also have a beech, 2 Scots pines, a ginkgo, 2 larches, a mulberry, a
cedar and a few other trees but those are all bonsai! The only way I
can grow an arboretum!!!
I remember on GQT Bunny Guinness once said "Every garden should have 2
trees with a rope slide between" (or words to that effect) and I have
taken all her advice since with a few pinches of salt!

That reminds me of a situation a friend found himself in, it was a posh
gardening black tie dinner and he was sat next to some chap who proceeded to
tell everyone he had a small arboretum at home, to which my friend said "Oh
you keep Bonsai then".
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

On 04/01/2015 17:19, Bob Hobden wrote:
"Pam Moore" wrote

My garden is even smaller. I have 2 trees, one a columnar yew from
which I periodically cut the tallest trunk. I also have a red acer
palmatum which is much admired but now needing the attention of an
expert to take it back a bit.
Both have been in for 25 years and I've no regrets.
I also have a beech, 2 Scots pines, a ginkgo, 2 larches, a mulberry, a
cedar and a few other trees but those are all bonsai! The only way I
can grow an arboretum!!!
I remember on GQT Bunny Guinness once said "Every garden should have 2
trees with a rope slide between" (or words to that effect) and I have
taken all her advice since with a few pinches of salt!

That reminds me of a situation a friend found himself in, it was a posh
gardening black tie dinner and he was sat next to some chap who
proceeded to tell everyone he had a small arboretum at home, to which my
friend said "Oh you keep Bonsai then".

Oooouuch!! You don't say that to a serious tree man! I wonder if it was
Michael Hesseltine, the tree man, that is?
--
Spider.
On high ground in SE London
gardening on heavy clay