What is a good situation to plant a monkey puzzle tree?. Might one survive
ok on a level windy site, which is not a seaside location?. Also, what
shrubs might suit such a site?

In article , sw
writes
What is a good situation to plant a monkey puzzle tree?. Might one survive
ok on a level windy site, which is not a seaside location?. Also, what
shrubs might suit such a site?


We've got one in our front garden at Princetown in Devon and it's about
80 years old. Middle of Dartmoor, height 1250 ft. above sea level,
average rainfall about 90+ in. a year, and windy as buggery. If they
survive here I suspect they'll survive pretty well anywhere.
--
David Worth

On Tue, 25 Feb 2003 23:38:54 +0000 (UTC), "sw"
wrote:

What is a good situation to plant a monkey puzzle tree?.

Well away from buildings, streets, parking lots, and such. They
get to be surprisingly big in time, and they detest root
disturbance. Here in Victoria, BC, we have a fair number of
mature monkey puzzle trees. There is male in front of my (former)
place of work; photographs from 1974 show it just at the roof
line when the building was new (it was a holdover from a former
residential planting). Nearly thirty years later it is a good
twenty feet (perhaps more) above the roof. For many years, it was
clearly unhappy and its survival was questionable, but eventually
it pulled through.

But another mature specimen wasn't so lucky. A "neighbourhood
pub" was built too close to the tree, and within a very few years
it was dead as a doornail. And the pub owner had had the hubris
to call his establishment the "Monkey Tree Pub". No monkey puzzle
there, these days!

Might one survive
ok on a level windy site, which is not a seaside location?

Victoria is a fairly breezy city with sal****er on three sides,
and gets quite high winds sometimes, but such monkey puzzles as
we have *tend* to be in the more sheltered parts of town.



--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

"sw" wrote in message
...
What is a good situation to plant a monkey puzzle tree?.

My mother gave me about seven years ago, thinking of it as a small-to medium
sized tree and not realsiing they grown to 60 feet. I put it into a very
large (about 4ft high) clay pot, partly to restrict its growth and partly
because I did not trust it to survive in the wet conditions that predominate
in my garden. Gunnera, bamboo and ferns thrive in my garden.

Might one survive
ok on a level windy site, which is not a seaside location?.

I get a fair bit of wind at times and am about 2-3 miles from the sea. Mine
has done quite well where it is.

Colin Bignell

In article ,
sw wrote:
What is a good situation to plant a monkey puzzle tree?. Might one survive
ok on a level windy site, which is not a seaside location?. Also, what
shrubs might suit such a site?

It depends on what you mean by windy - see the climate FAQ :-)

A windy site in the west would be hopeless - in fact precious few
trees grow well - but ones in the east are much less difficult.
I can't say how happy it would be even in the latter, and Bean
says that it prefers the west, anyway.

So, where are you and how windy is it?


Regards,
Nick Maclaren,
University of Cambridge Computing Service,
New Museums Site, Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB2 3QH, England.
Email:
Tel.: +44 1223 334761 Fax: +44 1223 334679

"sw" wrote in
:

What is a good situation to plant a monkey puzzle tree?. Might one
survive ok on a level windy site, which is not a seaside location?.
Also, what shrubs might suit such a site?


A *big* situation. And one where you don't need to walk underneath in bare
feet (or thin shoes!). They get tall quite fast, and bits fall off and
remain spiky for ages.

Arlington Court in North Devon has a monkey puzzle avenue. They lost a
number of trees a while ago - 15 years? and the replacements are now well
on their way to being sizeable trees. The position is not very sheltered -
certainly I've walked through there in howling gales - but there are some
shrubs that I think must have protected the young trees from the full
blast.

I seem to remember that they did lose one or two of the young trees, and
had to re-replant until they all properly got going.

Hope this helps!

Victoria

In article , sw
writes
What is a good situation to plant a monkey puzzle tree?. Might one survive
ok on a level windy site, which is not a seaside location?. Also, what
shrubs might suit such a site?

When they're young, they don't like the combination of wind and winter
cold - you would be well advised to put a windbreak found it over
winter.




--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/garden/

In article ,
David Worth wrote:
In article , sw
writes
What is a good situation to plant a monkey puzzle tree?. Might one survive
ok on a level windy site, which is not a seaside location?. Also, what
shrubs might suit such a site?

We've got one in our front garden at Princetown in Devon and it's about
80 years old. Middle of Dartmoor, height 1250 ft. above sea level,
average rainfall about 90+ in. a year, and windy as buggery. If they
survive here I suspect they'll survive pretty well anywhere.

Hmm. Clearly chosen so that your, er, guests couldn't escape by
climbing it?

Well, if it will grow there, my books are a little negative about
its dislike of very strong winds!


Regards,
Nick Maclaren,
University of Cambridge Computing Service,
New Museums Site, Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB2 3QH, England.
Email:
Tel.: +44 1223 334761 Fax: +44 1223 334679