On Tue, 19 Jan 2016 21:22:17 +0000, Jeff Layman wrote:

On 19/01/16 15:50, Emery Davis wrote:
On Mon, 18 Jan 2016 22:24:55 +0000, Jeff Layman wrote:

Another suggestion - Cornus capitata

That's a nice tree, was recently told there are some hardy cultivars
around now that can be safely grown in the UK.

It might be hardier than you think. The RHS gives it an H5 rating (hardy
in most places throughout the UK even in severe winters [-15 to -10]). I
got one earlier this year from an NGS garden in Chandlers Ford. The one
there was around 6 metres high and had been there quite a few years.
Mind you, there is also a 12m Embothrium there, so it must have good
microclimate! I've put my C. capitata near a SW-facing wall, and hope it
will be OK.


I'm going to give it a go, for sure.

How about a beautiful maple like Acer opalus? Will do well in the
climate and has lovely spring flowers (though not showy to some).
Alternatively a fast growing sub-tropical snakebark maple like A.
rubescens or A. morifolium would be fantastic.

Hadn't heard of those, but they seem pretty hardy. From internet photos
A. rubescens looks to me rather like A. davidii. The autumn colour of A.
morifolium looks great, but the bark doesn't look as good as davidii.

I think morifolium will be the hardier of the two, rubescens (which used
to be called morrisonense Hayata and may soon have that name again), is
notoriously difficult in British climates.

Bearing in mind that there are many davidii cultivars and individual
trees vary quite widely, the bark of rubescens resembles that species
when young. Older trees, of which there are only a few in the west but I
seem to remember one in Cornwall somewhere, are quite distinct. But at
all ages the leaves are very different: rubescens leaves are coloured a
dark, shiny green that is very showy indeed.

The morifolium bark is in my experience darker and with more contrasted
striping than davidii.

I do have both of these (and several davidiis) but neither in the ground
yet. Morifolium will get planted out this spring, and rubescens is
growing like a weed but only a 2 yr seedling.

Rabbiting about maples again, heigh ho...

-E
--
Gardening in Lower Normandy