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Category: About Trees

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

Sausage Tree – Root and Branch Review

Sausage Tree – Root and Branch Review

Sausage tree

An unusual tree with even more unusual fruit.

Key Features of the Sausage Tree

  • Latin name Kigelia Africana other common name kigeli keia
  • Height 30-50 feet high 12m
  • Type of tree – deciduous but evergreen with adequate rainfall
  • Leaves Pinnate with 3-6 pairs of lenceolate green leaflets
  • Flowers Large, dark red, strongly scented, bell flowers hanging in panicles
  • Fruit Pendulous grey-green sausage shaped unpalatable fruit that give the plant its common name
  • Bark Rough grey-brown
  • Family Bignoniaceae.

Sausage tree

Origins and Distribution of the Sausage Tree

  • Occurs throughout tropical Africa.
  • Sausage tree in Arabic means “the father of kit bags” .

Uses and Commercial Attributes of the Sausage Tree

  • The tree is grown as an ornamental for flowers and seed pods.
  • Medicinal uses include treatment for abscesses, rheumatism and venereal disease
  • Beer can be brewed from the fruit
  • The many seeds are good parrot food.
  • The tough wood is used to make dug out canoes

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Grow Abeliophyllum White Forsythia for Spring Scent

Grow Abeliophyllum White Forsythia for Spring Scent

Abeliophyllum distichum also called White Forsythia is more refined than traditional yellow Forsythia to which it is distantly related, both being part of the Olive family.

Growing White Forsythia

  • Abeliophyllum distichum AGM  is native to Korea and produces clusters of fragrant, creamy white flowers which emerge in late winter or early spring before the leaves.
  • Trained against a sunny wall,  Abeliophyllum distichum will grow 3-6 feet tall. It can be rather untidy and lax if grown in a border
  • Prune after flowering to within 2-5  buds to make a permanent framework and encourage new wood for flowering next year.
  • Grow in full sun or light shade in average soil 3-4ft apart. Feed with a balanced fertiliser once a year in early spring
  • Can be underplanted with Scilla sibirica, Muscari or species Crocus for a lovely early spring display.

Abeliophyllum distichum roseum group is the seldom seen pink form. According to Junker’s nursery ‘It is sometimes called “Pink Forsythia” but this reflects more its time of flowering than either its colour or parentage! A very pretty plant that stays quite small, rarely more than 3 feet tall’.

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Majestic and RemarkableTrees

Majestic and RemarkableTrees

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New Trees: Recent Introductions to Cultivation by John Grimshaw, Ross Bayton and illustrated by Hazel Wilks. Amazon

A good reference work or wonderful coffee table book can be costly but the joy of a book on your favourite subject may be a great investment. I adore Trees and wish I could own and plant up my own Arboretum. Unfortunately I have to be content with good books, regular trips to sites of interest and a small number of trees in my own garden.

If I was looking for something different then this book would be amongst my first reference work from Kew and Royal Botanic Publishers. I have made plans to have a trip to Kew gardens to check out one or two ideas that I have been accumulating through winter.

Another series of books I like to browse are the ‘Remarkable’ series by Thomas Pakenham
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Meetings With Remarkable Trees starts “The two largest Common Oaks (Quercus robur) in Britain and probably Europe, too – are the Fredville Oak in Kent and the Bowthorpe Oak in Lincolnshire”. In Meetings with Remarkable Trees Pakenham assembles a beautifully photographed gallery of 60-odd trees of Scotland, England and Ireland, and magnificent trees they are. One is a 600-year-old king oak that looms large over Charleville, Ireland; another is the yew tree that Wordsworth called the “pride of Lorton’s vale”; still another is a sequoia brought from the United States and planted in a Herefordshire grove in 1851. Amazon

In ‘Remarkable Trees of the World’ there are sections entitled, Giants, Dwarfs, Methuselahs, Dreams and an exceptional section about Trees in Peril. Amazon

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Lavatera Tree Mallows

Lavatera Tree Mallows

This tree Lavatera arborea ‘Olbia Rosea’ is a deciduous shrub growing 10 ‘ tall. It has a profusion of deep pink veined flowers, two inches across, that appear throughout the summer with lobed, mid green leaves.
There are a range of Lavetera species or Mallows from the tree and shrub varieties to annuals called Lavetera trimestris. The annual Ruby Regis is a ceris colour whilst Mont Blanc is pure white and pink Silver Cup has an AGM. All are easy to grow from seed and produce lots of hibiscus like flowers.

Lavatera davaei is a Portuguese shrub, up to four feet high, with clusters of violet-rose flowers.
Lavatera mauritanica, from North Africa, is an annual of two feet, with violet flowers, shaded darker at the base.
Lavetra maritima bicolour is a small evergreen shrub with grey-green foliage that produces a profusion of large, pink, lilac and white flowers with magenta veins from late summer.

* Tip 1 Grow perennial Lavetera from cuttings and annuals from seed.

* Tip 2 Prune hard in the spring to encourage flowers on the new wood.

Lavetera Barnsley is a popular and readily available plant. The lower growing Lavatera Barnsley Baby is useful for borders and patio containers, where the branching plants give racemes of hollyhock-like, soft pink blooms.
Annuals and mallows from Thompson & Morgan

Bark that Looks Like Barcodes

Bark that Looks Like Barcodes

All you want to know about the outer covering of a tree trunk is contained in our recommended books. Our own pictures and comments describe different types of bark and provide some comments for gardeners.
Why keep a tree and bark yourself?

Bark cherry

Tree rings are something children learn about when aging trees.
The outer bark is dead cells the tree wishes to shed, the inner bark and cambium lead to sapwood and heartwood. It is the growing and resting of the cambium layer that helps date trees.

Acer griseum chinese paperbark

Types of Bark

Smooth which speaks for itself like Beech
Furrowed like Black Walnut or Fibrous bark is furrowed but the furrows themselves are also furrowed.
Scaly bark like pine or plated which is like scaly but the scales are much larger or even Shaggy with large scales loose at both ends.
Warty bark may be inherited or due to insects or disease.
Other descriptions will indicate the texture or appearance like snake-skin, spiky or Corky

Betula albosinensis

The cambium layer is only a few cells thick and grows both xylem and phloem. The bark’s phloem transports nutrients from the leaves to the roots. Xylem carries water and minerals from the roots to the leaves.

Thorp Perrow bark
Bark develops and changes with age. A young Sycamore trees usually has smooth, silvery-grey bark that is occasionally brown. As the tree ages the bark develops cracks followed by large peeling scales.

Acer griseum chinese paperbark

The outermost part of the bark can often help in identification of the tree species.
Bark consists of dead cells and often has a characteristic colour and texture that is all designed to protect the underlying tissues from damage.

Barking up the wrong tree

Gardeners Tips for Bark

Protect young trees from damage to the bark caused by rabbits or garden equipment.
Consider bark as one of the key decorative features of a tree you are planing to grow.
Bark can add a whole dimension to your gardening enjoyment.

Recommended Books About Bark

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Bark: An Intimate Look at the World’s Trees by Cédric Pollet

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Tree Bark: A Colour Guide by Hugues Vaucher

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Trees and Their Bark: A Selection with Stories and Pictures by John Mortimer and Bunny Mortimer

Just Published September 2012 Beautiful Trees: Close-Ups of Amazing Tree Bark from Around the World by Cédric Pollet

Good Uses of Bark Chippings

  • In natural wood land areas for a consistant appearance.
  • Where there is planting through the bark and it is used as a mulch as much as a decoration.
  • Amongst heathers and prickly subjects where you do not want to put your hands.
  • Some people use bark as a cushion where children may fall but animals and insects can make the bark less than perfect.

Bark chips

 

Growing and Pruning Peach Trees

Growing and Pruning Peach Trees

espallierPlanting peaches

  • If planting against a wall remember at least a foot from the wall will be extremely dry
  • The soil may also be very poor and contain builders rubble.
  • Dig a deep pit and fill with good rotted compost
  • After planting water well to settle the soil and add a mulch of manure
  • Peaches like a lightopen well drained soil that still retains some moisture

Training Peach trees

  • Horizontal wires secured with vine eyes are a traditional support mechanism.
  • Train side shoots to form a fan shape by tying to the wire
  • A neater method may be to select 2 side opposing shoots to grow parallel to the wall. Remove the leading branch and tie each shoot to a cane at 45degree angle.

Pruning Peach Trees

Choice Blue Conifers

Choice Blue Conifers

Abies procera glauca

This noble fir is a large prostrate form with thick rounded bright blue needles that gives a good colour contrast within any garden. This is just one of the good looking Conifers that can be suitable for a British garden.

  • This prostrate form is slow growing. Remove any strong vertical branches
  • Young plants need a good soaking when the soil becomes too dry and prefer a moisture retentive soil
  • Roots spread wider than the tree but shouldn’t need fertiliser
  • Will stand very cold winter temperatures
  • The habit, form and colour of this Pine make it a good plant to incorporate into a garden design

Book Cover

Other Blue Conifers

Colorado Blue Spruce or Picea pungens glauca is a beautiful blue conifer with a broad, pyramidal shape.

Cedrus atlantica ‘Glauca Pendula’  as the name suggests trails like a weeping willow and can be as vigorous.

Chamaecyparis Lawsoniana Alumii is a slow growing columnar tree

Abies pinsapo blue Spanish fir is also slow growing with some of the most striking frosty blue  foliage of any conifer.

Holly is Not Just for Christmas

Holly is Not Just for Christmas

Get an early start on Christmas decorations before the birds eat your berries.
Get out and plan where you will pick your holly for Christmas decorations now. As the berries ripen the birds descend and scoff the lot just when you are not looking.
You can condition the stems, leaves and berries and placing stalks in a glycerin solution. They will take up the liquid and become supple and longer lasting. Crush the stems and use warm glycerin then leave for a couple of weeks.

Holly

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Laburnum Golden Rain in Chains

Laburnum Golden Rain in Chains

laburnum

Fantastic festoons of  floral racemes give this Laburnum its common name of  ‘Golden Rain’. The drooping clusters of small yellow flowers are produced in spring and early summer.

Describing Laburnum

  • Laburnum trees produce yellow pea like flowers and pea shaped seed pods.
  • These small ornamental trees are easy to cultivate and produce flowers in May & June.
  • The deciduous leaves are trifoliate usually dull green and slightly hairy.
  • Laburnum watereri Vossii is this free flowering form with extra long racemes of flower. Alfords Weeping is a small vigorous tree with a wide spreading head.
  • Common Laburnum Laburnum anagyroides can grow to 30 feet tall, Aureum is a golden leaved variety and Autumnale often flowers again in the autumn.
  • Laburnum alpinum ‘Scottish Laburnum’ is a small tree with fragrant flowers.
  • Common laburnum vulgare  flowers earlier and has shorter racemes with the same pea shaped flowers but hairy pods.
  • Laburnum also  has Erect and Pendulum varieties

Flowers in May

Growing Tips

  • Below is a Llaburnum walk way that is many years old. Such decorative walks are replanted from cuttings but most Laburnums are propagated by seed.
  • Plant your laburnum tree in full sun. The more sun the better
  • Laburnum are not fussy about the type of soil
  • Try removing the drying seed pods on small trees to encourage a good show of flowers the following year.
  • The trees are not very long lived and I have recently taken out a tree that was 30 feet high because I hadn’t kept it in check.

laburnum-walk

Health Warning on Laburnums

  • All parts of Laburnum are poisonous particularly the seeds -Stop children from eating them.
  • Symptoms of poisoning by Laburnum root or seed are intense sleepiness, vomiting, convulsive movements and dilated pupils.
  • The seeds look tempting shiny black but are bitter alkaline to taste.

Flowers in May

Monkey Puzzle Tree

Monkey Puzzle Tree

monkey-puzzle

This is the end of a branch can you tell what tree it is from? Well not much of a puzzle to monkey around with. With sharp edged and pointed leaves of the Monkey Puzzle Tree would impale and slice the most careful monkey that was trying to climb its branches.

Facts about Monkey Puzzle Trees

  • It grows slowly when young and picks up speed when older. It can reach 120 feet tall and become quite wide so isn’t a long term proposition for a small garden.
  • It can’t be pruned successfully as its sculptural shape is the key reason for growing the tree. …

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