Browsed by
Category: About Trees

Articles involving trees, shrubs, bushes, woods and hedges plus related subjects

Dragon Tree – Root and Branch Review

Dragon Tree – Root and Branch Review

Dragon's Blood trees
A very distinctive and primitive tree. Legend has it that the tree sprang up from the spot where a dragon and elephant spilled blood and battled to death.

Key Features of the Dragon Tree

  • Latin name – Dracaena Cinnabari – other common names inside-out umbrella tree’ or Dragon Blood Tree
  • Height – up to 50 feet
  • Type of tree – evergreen
  • Leaves – Broad based spiky leaves in clusters at the top of vertical branches
  • Flowers – pale yellow clusters
  • Fruit – Yellow berry ripening to black
  • Bark – Rough textured silvery grey
  • Family – Dracaena

Origins and Distribution of the Dragon Tree

  • Unique to the Indian Ocean island of Soqotra .
  • The island is home to over 200 other plant species that are unique to the island.

Haghier massif and Diskum plateau …

Read More Read More

Ylang Ylang Perfume Tree – Root & Branch Review

Ylang Ylang Perfume Tree – Root & Branch Review

Unassuming in appearance the evergreen Ylang Ylang tree is highly valued for the essential oil it can produce.

Cananga odorata (Lam.) Hook.f. & Thomson

Key Features of the Ylang Ylang

  • Latin name – Cananga odorata , other common names Kenanga kebun, Macassar-oil plant, Perfume tree
  • Height – up to 80 feet
  • Type of tree – evergreen
  • Leaves – Oval green leaves sometimes with wavy edges
  • Flowers – clusters of fragrant green flowers turning yellow with six long twisted, hanging petals
  • Fruit – clusters of small, oval, black berries
  • Bark – Pale grey
  • Family – Annonaceae the Custard Apples

…

Read More Read More

Berberis Prickly Shrubs & Hedges

Berberis Prickly Shrubs & Hedges

berberis

Prickly shrubs of the Berberis family are ornamental and useful for deterring unwanted visitors. The leaves themselves can be very spiky like Berberis Darwinii with glossy dark green leaves and orange flowers. Alternatively this purple Berberis Thunderbergii has stems that are spiney with sharp needles to deter the most ardent burglars.

How to Grow Prickly Berberis

  • Also called the Barberry the shrubs are hardy, easy to grow and often quite rampant.
  • Prune them into shape in spring and keep cutting to encourage branching and a close network of branches. Berberis can be very useful as part of an informal hedge.
  • The flowers may have a second flush in autumn and the purple or red berries are edible though difficult to pick due to the prickles
  • The species Helmond Pillar for is less robust than most Berberis and as its name suggests grows in a uniform pillar or column shape. My specimen is very slow to grow
  • Berberis georgei is one of my favourites with lots of sterile dark yellow flowers and bright red fruit. It has an AGM
  • Propagate from pencil width cuttings in Autumn but be prepared to wait for a year to get roots although bottom heat will help.

Local gardens Berberis

Further Berberis Tips

  • There are many forms and varieties of Berberis with yellow, pink and orange flowers, colourful leaves and berries so check out the offerings at you local garden centre. There is even a pink flowering variety Pink Pearl.
  • A good book on trees and shrubs will give you more information such as the Hillier Gardeners Guide
  • The only pest I am aware of is Berberis sawfly (Arge berberidis) a European species that was first confirmed in April 2002 where Berberis thunbergii plants had been defoliated the previous year.
  • Read more about Berberis deciduous and evergreen and Other varieties

Berberis and bee

Other Plants to Scratch a Thief

  • Pyracantha
  • Sea Buckthorne Hippophea Raminoides
  • Ulex Europaeus common gorse
  • Mahonia Bealei Winter Sun
  • Crataegus Monogyna Hawthorn
  • Ilex Holly
  • Rosa Rugarosa Rubra Crimson or Double de Coubert
Apple Blossom Time

Apple Blossom Time

Late blossom arrivals in 2015 looked like being a good year for apple blossom and thus fruit in the North of England. And iut was with some great crops in my Yorkshire garden.

bud-burst

A cold and late spring delayed the buds and blossom until the worst of the weather was over. Energy has been diverted into fruit production rather than new wood after judicious pruning. There has been no significant late frost to damage blossom and there are now many pollinating insects on the wing. Hopefully these are signs that we will have a good crop of juicy apples this year. Just in case here are a few tips to help nature along.

Tips for Better Apples

…

Read More Read More

UK Deciduous Azaleas

UK Deciduous Azaleas

Deciduous azalea

Description & Growing Deciduous Azalea

  • All Azalea are Rhododendron but not all Rhododendron are Azaleas. Now we have that as clear as a muddy pond what is an Azalea?
  • An Azalea can be an evergreen or deciduous flowering shrub with pale or startling coloured blooms.
  • Some Azaleas are scented whilst others are without scent. Whatever you think about deciduous Azaleas, ‘muddy and boring’ they are not.
  • Azalea are some of the most gay and brilliant flowering shrubs yet grown.
  • For the technically minded Azaleas are in the genus Rhododendron, with evergreen azaleas in the subgenus Tsutsusi and deciduous azaleas in the subgenus Pentanthera.
  • Most deciduous azaleas are hardy but asiatic species need more protection when young

 

Rhododendron occidentale #4

 

Varieties & Hybrids of Deciduous Azalea for Growing

  • The species have been much crossed and bred but the scented Rhododendron luteum and Rhododendron japonica are available as species.
  • Knapp Hill hybrids are amongst the most colourful deciduous Azaleas.
  • The Ghent hybrids have sweetly scented, honeysuckle-shaped flowers with long stamen emarging from the tube.
  • The Rhododendron Mollis Azaleas are crossed between Rhododendron mollis and Rhododendron japonicum
  • Rustica hybrids have fragrant double flowers and Occidentale hybrids flower in late May
  • The Exbury range were bred by Lionel de Rothschild who loved deciduous azaleas and carried out much breeding work to enhance colours and scent. The Solent Range was started by George Hyde a private grower in Dorset but bought for Exbury (Images).
  • For specimen plants Azalea Coccinea Speciosa or R obtusum are recommended

…

Read More Read More

Chose Your Berberis Variety

Chose Your Berberis Variety

A prickly subject is our Berberis unless you pick with care.

berberis-orange

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Berberis Julianea is a colourful low maintenance foliage plant with flowers, berries and prickles! Good Berberis are  prickly flowering shrubs often with fragrant flowers ranging in colours from pale primrose to pumpkin orange, light pink to darker red.

…

Read More Read More

Hydrangea Aspera Shrub

Hydrangea Aspera Shrub

The leaves of this Hydragea Aspera are one of its key features. As with other Aspera subspecies the branches and leaves are ‘strigose’ which botanically means ‘beset with appressed straight and stiff hairs’ that means rough and furry to me.

This  specimen shrub is 4-5 feet tall and whilst it comes from the Himalayas some plants can be a bit tender.

The Purple flowers open to a clear white (that is almost burned out on this photo) but the overall effect is pleasing. The flowerheads make good internal decorations.

The colouring of Hydrangea Aspera is not affected by aluminium or acidity of the soil.

Other Hydrangea species that are closely related include H.Involucrata, H. Strigosa and H.  Villosa.   H. Sargentiana is a taller more leggy coarse shrub brought from China by E H Wilson with a low growing H. Longipes and H. Galbripes.

For Complete Hydrangeas book click here and for cheap colourant click this link
Book Cover

Hydrangeas available from Thompson & Morgan

See Help to change Hydrangea colour

Chestnuts & Pomegranate in Climate Change

Chestnuts & Pomegranate in Climate Change

More exotics can be grown in the UK as we get hotter summers and temperate winters. Why not try a Pomegranate or Punica granatum a large shrub or small tree.

Pomegranate tips

  • Good drainage and a warm sunny wall position will help.
  • The leaves are green coppery when young changing to yellow as they age with brilliant orange flowers.
  • A showy variety Flore Pleno is worth growing even if the fruit don’t have time to ripen in poor summers
  • Nana is a very low growing dwarf variety.

Growing Chestnuts

…

Read More Read More

Common Larch – Root and Branch Review

Common Larch – Root and Branch Review

Larch trees are common in forestry plantations and high ground in the UK. Larch are fast growing and loose there leaves in winter. The wood from Common Larch trees is still used for a range of purposes.

Key Features of the Common Larch

  • Latin name – Larix decidua other common names European Larch
  • Height – up to 120 feet
  • Type of tree – Deciduous Conifer
  • Leaves – flat soft needles growing in whorls on side shoots and stems
  • Flowers – male yellow, female pink catkins
  • Fruit – oval brown cones with straight scales and visible bracts
  • Bark – Grey, smooth when young fissuring with age
  • Family – Pinaceae

Origins and Distribution of the Common Larch

  • Indigenous to hilly regions of Europe.
  • Now widely planted in north America.

…

Read More Read More

Hawthorn – Root and Branch Review

Hawthorn – Root and Branch Review

Hawthorn blossum DSCF0995

The Hawthorn flowers in May hence one of its common names. Gnarled old trunks give testimony to the Hawthorn’s ability to survive in exposed windy conditions. The thorns help make the tree a good hedging subject.

Key Features of the Hawthorn

  • Latin name – Crataegus Monogyna other common names May, Quickthorn, Whitethorn or Thornapple
  • Height – 33 feet-
  • Type of tree – deciduous
  • Leaves – deeply lobed glossy green leaves
  • Flowers – Dense clusters of creamy white borne on shoots
  • Fruit – Oval red pome (Berry)half inch wide
  • Bark – Brown with shallow ridges
  • Family – Rosaceae,

…

Read More Read More