|
Monkey Puzzle Tree advice needed
Hello
we are looking to purchase a monkey puzzle tree and do not want to wait years and years to enjoy it. Is it best to start with a 1.5m tree or smaller? How much does it grow per year on average? We appreciate any help/ advice you can offer! Thanks Claire & Tom |
Monkey Puzzle Tree advice needed
"tom@claire" wrote in message s.com... Hello we are looking to purchase a monkey puzzle tree and do not want to wait years and years to enjoy it. Is it best to start with a 1.5m tree or smaller? How much does it grow per year on average? We appreciate any help/ advice you can offer! Thanks Claire & Tom They seem to be slooooooow growers: http://www.stratsplace.com/gardendia...zzle_tree.html Jenny :~) |
Monkey Puzzle Tree advice needed
In message m,
writes we are looking to purchase a monkey puzzle tree and do not want to wait years and years to enjoy it. Is it best to start with a 1.5m tree or smaller? How much does it grow per year on average? About 20cm/year once established. And continues doing that almost forever. We appreciate any help/ advice you can offer! I have grown them from seed. They progress rather more slowly then. Watch out for and protect from severe cold weather in the first couple of years. Otherwise they seem to do pretty well in most parts of the UK. Regards, -- Martin Brown |
Monkey Puzzle Tree advice needed
In article , JennyC
writes "tom@claire" wrote in message ws.com... Hello we are looking to purchase a monkey puzzle tree and do not want to wait years and years to enjoy it. Is it best to start with a 1.5m tree or smaller? How much does it grow per year on average? We appreciate any help/ advice you can offer! Thanks Claire & Tom They seem to be slooooooow growers: http://www.stratsplace.com/gardendia...zzle_tree.html No, not particularly slow - ours is growing at least a foot, possibly 18 inches, a year. -- Kay Easton Edward's earthworm page: http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm |
Monkey Puzzle Tree advice needed
We lived in a Cheshire village on end of which was sandy soil on sandstone
the other clay and marsh. Two very old monkey puzzles at the clay end-may be around 100years if they put on a ring of braches per year -were dense , not very tall, and ugly. The tree at the sandy side was open spaced and very beautiful somewhat like the related Norfolk Island pine we are trying to nurture. We have now have a monkey puzzle in Devon which touch wood (ouch!) seems to have got off to a good start. "Martin Brown" wrote in message ... In message m, writes we are looking to purchase a monkey puzzle tree and do not want to wait years and years to enjoy it. Is it best to start with a 1.5m tree or smaller? How much does it grow per year on average? About 20cm/year once established. And continues doing that almost forever. We appreciate any help/ advice you can offer! I have grown them from seed. They progress rather more slowly then. Watch out for and protect from severe cold weather in the first couple of years. Otherwise they seem to do pretty well in most parts of the UK. Regards, -- Martin Brown |
Monkey Puzzle Tree advice needed
Monkey Puzzle trees grow quite quickly but need very large gardens and
should be planted when less than 12" high. Expect to pay through the nose! Our garden centre has one at about 14" in a container at £88!! They can be grown from seeds, or cuttings from vertical growths~~for your grandchildren. I have a dozen at about 70' high and nothing could look more ugly! Planted 1832 and long ago lost any attractiveness. Branches are now just a mophead with all lower growth long gone. Seedlings have appeared over the years but were not noticed till too late to transplant. "JennyC" wrote in message ... "tom@claire" wrote in message s.com... Hello we are looking to purchase a monkey puzzle tree and do not want to wait years and years to enjoy it. Is it best to start with a 1.5m tree or smaller? How much does it grow per year on average? We appreciate any help/ advice you can offer! Thanks Claire & Tom They seem to be slooooooow growers: http://www.stratsplace.com/gardendia...zzle_tree.html Jenny :~) |
Monkey Puzzle Tree advice needed
In article , Brian
writes Monkey Puzzle trees grow quite quickly but need very large gardens and should be planted when less than 12" high. Expect to pay through the nose! Our garden centre has one at about 14" in a container at £88!! That is outrageous! You can get them far cheaper than that. -- Kay Easton Edward's earthworm page: http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm |
Monkey Puzzle Tree advice needed
Kay Easton11/4/04 3:32
In article , Brian writes Monkey Puzzle trees grow quite quickly but need very large gardens and should be planted when less than 12" high. Expect to pay through the nose! Our garden centre has one at about 14" in a container at £88!! That is outrageous! You can get them far cheaper than that. Yes it is and yes, you can. I'm really horrified at that, unless of course, the container is made of pure jade! We have them in 3l. pots and they're between 18" and 24" tall and cost £14.00! Somebody is having several people on! -- Sacha www.hillhousenursery.co.uk South Devon (remove the weeds to email me) |
Monkey Puzzle Tree advice needed
"tom@claire" wrote in message s.com... Hello we are looking to purchase a monkey puzzle tree and do not want to wait years and years to enjoy it. Is it best to start with a 1.5m tree or smaller? How much does it grow per year on average? We appreciate any help/ advice you can offer! If you plant a monkey puzzle tree you will quite soon be overwhelmed by its expanding ugliness. That is one of the reasons why, mercifully, there are so few of them around. Surely it is something only a mother can love. Franz |
Monkey Puzzle Tree advice needed
The message
from Kay Easton contains these words: In article , Brian writes Monkey Puzzle trees grow quite quickly but need very large gardens and should be planted when less than 12" high. Expect to pay through the nose! Our garden centre has one at about 14" in a container at £88!! That is outrageous! You can get them far cheaper than that. I agree it's outrageous, but I've noticed more and more GC's doing the same; they have a few strategically placed plants with astronomical prices, and amazingly, they sell like hot cakes. The plant themselves are not rare, or very large. I suspect that it's a (highly successful) sales tactic aimed at the kind of designer-label shoppers who confuse high price with high value. Janet. |
Monkey Puzzle Tree advice needed
Janet Baraclough..11/4/04 5:19
k The message from Kay Easton contains these words: In article , Brian writes Monkey Puzzle trees grow quite quickly but need very large gardens and should be planted when less than 12" high. Expect to pay through the nose! Our garden centre has one at about 14" in a container at £88!! That is outrageous! You can get them far cheaper than that. I agree it's outrageous, but I've noticed more and more GC's doing the same; they have a few strategically placed plants with astronomical prices, and amazingly, they sell like hot cakes. The plant themselves are not rare, or very large. I suspect that it's a (highly successful) sales tactic aimed at the kind of designer-label shoppers who confuse high price with high value. I think that's on a par with the sort of nursery customers who buy anything if it's in flower. But if they ask for suggestions for a shrub for a particular spot and what you suggest is perfect but in its dormant phase, they will reject it. Even showing them pictures and RHS Encyclopedia descriptions doesn't help. It's a combination of not knowing enough to plan forward and wanting 'instant gratification'. ;-) Perhaps it's the same sort of gardener who comes in to buy a tree or shrub because their next door neighbour has one. If you suggest they buy something different so that both houses will have something else to enjoy you get a funny "have you got two heads" sort of look. I'm not blaming them BTW - it's their garden! - but it seems that fewer people now buy shrubs in the autumn for forward-planning. -- Sacha www.hillhousenursery.co.uk South Devon (remove the weeds to email me) |
Monkey Puzzle Tree advice needed
In article , Sacha
writes I think that's on a par with the sort of nursery customers who buy anything if it's in flower. But if they ask for suggestions for a shrub for a particular spot and what you suggest is perfect but in its dormant phase, they will reject it. Even showing them pictures and RHS Encyclopedia descriptions doesn't help. It's a combination of not knowing enough to plan forward and wanting 'instant gratification'. ;-) There may be a bit of that, but there's also the wanting to see the thing in the flesh to be sure you're going to like it. If seen things in books which look good, and which have wonderful descriptions, but I don't like them at all when I see them in RL. That means that if I know a plant well, I will buy it in the autumn, or whenever I see it if it's a thing which isn't so readily available. But if I'm not sure about it, I want to see it in bloom (or in autumn colour, or in winter bark, or whatever I'm buying it for) before buying. -- Kay Easton Edward's earthworm page: http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm |
Monkey Puzzle Tree advice needed
In article , Sacha
writes I can see that but often these are people who have been gardening for quite a long time and are not considering unusual or out of the ordinary plants. Even Forsythia will 'walk out' of the nursery when they're in flower but not when they're not. I'm not criticising people for buying only or mainly when things are in flower but am observing that for many people the lure of something already blooming is greater than buying it dormant and waiting. Even with Primulas, some people will buy those in full bloom while others are aware that buying the ones with buds on means a longer flowering period once they get it into their own garden. But aren't a lot of primulas bought for presents? In which case the 'wow' factor is important. -- Kay Easton Edward's earthworm page: http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm |
Monkey Puzzle Tree advice needed
Kay Easton12/4/04 9:17
In article , Sacha writes snip Even with Primulas, some people will buy those in full bloom while others are aware that buying the ones with buds on means a longer flowering period once they get it into their own garden. But aren't a lot of primulas bought for presents? In which case the 'wow' factor is important. Not here but does it matter what they're bought as, though? Surely the idea is to keep them going for as long as possible? But no, most of our customers are buying for their own gardens. Primulas rush out of here pretty quickly and this isn't a garden centre where they're displayed in 'present pots'. When I made up a few large pots to give to friends, I planted one plant in pretty strong flowering mode BUT with lots of buds still to come and the others still mostly in bud. That way our friends saw what they were getting and what they had to look forward to! -- Sacha www.hillhousenursery.co.uk South Devon (remove the weeds to email me) |
Monkey Puzzle Tree advice needed
The Monkey Puzzle Tree does well in a damp atmosphere and in moist, but not soaked, loamy soil. If the ground is full of grit, the lower branches will die and the trees soon lose their vigor. A. excelsa thrives best in a sunroom or cool greenhouse and should have a compost of two-thirds loam and one-third leaf mold, with a bit of sand added. These plants should be repotted yearly until they are placed in 7 or 8-inch pots. Once they are in these size pots, they will not need to be repotted, though it is beneficial to remove some of the old surface soil in the spring and replace with fresh compost. A sprinkling of fertilizer every month from March to September will keep the plants vigorous.
|
Monkey Puzzle Tree advice needed
Franz Heymann wrote:
"tom@claire" wrote in message s.com... Hello we are looking to purchase a monkey puzzle tree and do not want to wait years and years to enjoy it. Is it best to start with a 1.5m tree or smaller? How much does it grow per year on average? We appreciate any help/ advice you can offer! If you plant a monkey puzzle tree you will quite soon be overwhelmed by its expanding ugliness. That is one of the reasons why, mercifully, there are so few of them around. Surely it is something only a mother can love. Franz Well, we've got one - it's planted in a most unlikely place and looks completely wrong there. About five feet tall, it has grown very slowly over the two years we've been here (Surrey, heavy clay), and frankly, it's for the chop. D'you reckon we could sell it then? How big a root structure does a Monkey Puzzle have? Chris |
Monkey Puzzle Tree advice needed
"CJ" wrote in message ... Well, we've got one - it's planted in a most unlikely place and looks completely wrong there. About five feet tall, it has grown very slowly over the two years we've been here (Surrey, heavy clay), and frankly, it's for the chop. D'you reckon we could sell it then? How big a root structure does a Monkey Puzzle have? Chris I moved one that was about the same size, and it was a bugger to get out - very strong narrow roots going down I don't know how far. I reckon it lost a fair bit of root in the move, but is none the worse for it - despite the books saying they can't stand root disturbance! Mal |
Monkey Puzzle Tree advice needed
eve wrote:
: The Monkey Puzzle Tree does well in a damp atmosphere and in moist, but : not soaked, loamy soil. If the ground is full of grit, the lower : branches will die and the trees soon lose their vigor. A. excelsa : thrives best in a sunroom or cool greenhouse and should have a compost : of two-thirds loam and one-third leaf mold, with a bit of sand added. : These plants should be repotted yearly until they are placed in 7 or : 8-inch pots. Once they are in these size pots, they will not need to be : repotted, though it is beneficial to remove some of the old surface : soil in the spring and replace with fresh compost. A sprinkling of : fertilizer every month from March to September will keep the plants : vigorous. Well there is a forest just inland from Lindisfarne in Northumberland, that has a thriving section of self seeding Monkey Puzzles that is obviously expanding at the expense of the regular conifers and local trees, so it can't be that tender or difficult. Some fot he trees are pretty large. |
Monkey Puzzle Tree advice needed
eve wrote: : The Monkey Puzzle Tree does well in a damp atmosphere and in moist, but : not soaked, loamy soil. .................. A. excelsa : thrives best in a sunroom or cool greenhouse I think you need to distinguish between Araucaria excelsa, which is the half-hardy Norfolk Island Pine, occasionally grown as a house plant and Araucaria araucana, which is the fully hardy 'Monkey Puzzle Tree'. Well there is a forest just inland from Lindisfarne in Northumberland, that has a thriving section of self seeding Monkey Puzzles that is obviously expanding at the expense of the regular conifers and local trees, so it can't be that tender or difficult. Some fot he trees are pretty large. In view of the very slow rate of growth, I find it difficult to believe that A. araucana is capable of ousting conifers in the UK regardless of locality. At its fastest it grows at the rate of 60 cms per year, but that's only after 20 or 30 years of establishment. Eventually they become very large (to well over 40m. high - less in the UK), but maturity and seed production rarely commences before 45 years in this country and you need both male and female trees for that to happen. Seedlings are desperately slow and an 8 year old plant will often be no more than 30 cms. high. That's why tiny plants command very high prices and a 1.5m high specimen will set you back several hundred pounds. Back in the '70's I was importing them from France (then the cheapest European source) and the wholesale price before transport costs etc. for a 25cm. plant was about £6.00. Not a lot nowadays, but a significant amount of money then. Dave Poole Torquay, Coastal South Devon UK Winter min -2°C. Summer max 34°C. Growing season: March - November Drop 'h' when mailing |
Monkey Puzzle Tree advice needed
In article , J Jackson
writes eve wrote: : The Monkey Puzzle Tree does well in a damp atmosphere and in moist, but : not soaked, loamy soil. If the ground is full of grit, the lower : branches will die and the trees soon lose their vigor. A. excelsa : thrives best in a sunroom or cool greenhouse and should have a compost : of two-thirds loam and one-third leaf mold, with a bit of sand added. : These plants should be repotted yearly until they are placed in 7 or : 8-inch pots. Once they are in these size pots, they will not need to be : repotted, though it is beneficial to remove some of the old surface : soil in the spring and replace with fresh compost. A sprinkling of : fertilizer every month from March to September will keep the plants : vigorous. Well there is a forest just inland from Lindisfarne in Northumberland, that has a thriving section of self seeding Monkey Puzzles that is obviously expanding at the expense of the regular conifers and local trees, so it can't be that tender or difficult. Some fot he trees are pretty large. It isn't. The reply above started by talking about the Monkey puzzle - A auracana, but then switched into A excelsa, aka Norfolk Island Pine, which we grow in this country as an indoor ornamental. -- Kay Easton Edward's earthworm page: http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm |
Monkey Puzzle Tree advice needed
We have several planted in 1832 and are quite the most ugly tree possible. I
posted some weeks ago that I had seen a small plant for sale at about 18" and £80!! Many thought this to be way out. We have had seedlings but by the time they were noticed they were too big to transplant. Optimum is 12". Best Wishes. "Kay Easton" wrote in message ... In article , J Jackson writes eve wrote: : The Monkey Puzzle Tree does well in a damp atmosphere and in moist, but : not soaked, loamy soil. If the ground is full of grit, the lower : branches will die and the trees soon lose their vigor. A. excelsa : thrives best in a sunroom or cool greenhouse and should have a compost : of two-thirds loam and one-third leaf mold, with a bit of sand added. : These plants should be repotted yearly until they are placed in 7 or : 8-inch pots. Once they are in these size pots, they will not need to be : repotted, though it is beneficial to remove some of the old surface : soil in the spring and replace with fresh compost. A sprinkling of : fertilizer every month from March to September will keep the plants : vigorous. Well there is a forest just inland from Lindisfarne in Northumberland, that has a thriving section of self seeding Monkey Puzzles that is obviously expanding at the expense of the regular conifers and local trees, so it can't be that tender or difficult. Some fot he trees are pretty large. It isn't. The reply above started by talking about the Monkey puzzle - A auracana, but then switched into A excelsa, aka Norfolk Island Pine, which we grow in this country as an indoor ornamental. -- Kay Easton Edward's earthworm page: http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm |
| All times are GMT +1. The time now is 02:47 AM. |
Powered by vBulletin® Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
GardenBanter