Trees in parks and gardens 2010

[cohan]

Not a tree, but a very nice shrub in our garden:
Bupleurum fruticosum

another very nice one--i think over time i'd like to have lots of interesting shrubs--nice contrast to my usual taste of 2cm tall plants 

[cohan]

In some of the older gardens and parks around Pietermaritzburg there is a common species of cyprus (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana?) which serves as the unwitting host to one of our indigenous epiphytic orchid species, Mystacidium capense. During the summer months thousands of these little orchids covering the branches can turn whole trees white with their blossoms.

I'm speechless at this delightful prospect.... how pretty these orchids are!

i second that!

[Giles]

Buddleja lindleyana.
At Rousham today.
To give you a sense of scale, it's in one of the pots infront of the shed.
Should be hardy in a sheltered spot.
(as for the B.colvilei I posted a while back)
And a Hydrangea aspera Villosa Group (a favourite shrub).

[Onion]

Giles,

Buddleja lindleyana has survived the last four winters in these area.

[Brian Ellis]

Giles I too have had Buddleja lindleyana outside in a fairly exposed position for the last three years.

[Maggi Young]

Interesting to hear of the Buddleja lindleyana being tougher than I might have guessed.

The Hydrangea is lovely!

[Brian Ellis]

Giles I too have had Buddleja lindleyana outside in a fairly exposed position for the last three years.

...which is why I planted the Edgeworthia next to it - sods law, it didn't survive!

[johngennard]

Correction!!I have just walked round the garden between showers and much to my amazement I have flower-buds all over my Abizzia.I am truly elated and surprised and happy to be proved wrong in my assumption and cannot wait to see the flowers as I have only previously seen Paddy's picture.

John, show us pictures when the flowers open!

The albizzia has been in flower for about two weeks but I have to say my wife and I are most dissappointed.I have been waiting for it to look like Paddy's photo but I decided to take a picture anyway as it doesn't look as though it is going to improve.The flowers look rather like a dandelion seed head(clock) with only the faintest tinge of pink on their tips and they only appear one at a time from the multi-budded corymb.However,the foliage forms a very light canopy and one can grow anything beneath it so it is still a worthwhile occupant of its space and I shall continue to hope that it may develope if the weather continues warm and sunny.

The eucryphia 'Rostrevor' is altogether different and is covering itself with its flowers.

[johngennard]

Not being an habitual reader of the forum during the Summer I only discovered this link recently and have just ben catching up with the previous 10 pages as trees are a particular passion of mine and with a few exceptions I grow most of those mentioned but my lasting impression of the 14 pages of posts is Paddy's aversion/hate of all things coniferous.That is in spite of Abies pungens,Abies koreana,Cedrus atlantica and a couple more I think appearing in his posts.I share some of his obervations but surely he must agree that they add structure and a certain majesty to any large garden which his appears to be and particularly in the Winter when all the deciduous tree have shed their leaves.

[Paddy Tobin]

John,

Your Eucryphia 'Rostrevor' is looking fabulous. While I have a plant, about 10 years old, it is a dumpy-shaped object and has only flowered very shyly over the years. E. x Nymansay performs much better for me. Two pink-flowered cultivars and a variegated cultivar both performed poorly this season.

Re conifers - they really are disgusting yokes, an affront to the environment, an irritant to the retina but have to be included in the garden if one wishes to remain married. I like the garden to reflect the seasons and the plants to change with them. Of course, I am teasing to an extent but I really don't like them very much at all. I like box hedge and yew(though it doesn't like our wet ground and struggles) and like an Irish yew which grows here. It has the manners to clothes its limbs generously and keep its shape well.

Re Albizia: I think you have done well to have it in flower. Mary and I visited Mount Congreve earlier in the month and there was a specimen in flower in the walled garden. Here it was planted in the shelter of a high wall, I would think about 6 metres high, was facing southwards and also had the shelter of neighbouring large trees and shrubs, so had the benefit of excellent protection and best aspect yet it produced rather insipid and small-sized flowers not at all as sumptuous as those I photographed in Italy earlier in the summer. A photograph from Mount Congreve is below with the photograph from Italy for contrast.

Paddy

[TheOnionMan]

John,

Re conifers - they really are disgusting yokes, an affront to the environment, an irritant to the retina but have to be included in the garden if one wishes to remain married.

Paddy

Don't be shy Paddy, tell us what you really think about conifers

Regarding Albizia juribrissin, this lovely tree is one that has become a roadside escape in the mid-altantic USA States (New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Washington DC, etc), and whenever I make the 9 hour drive down to my inlaws in Maryland, I like to study the variability in flower color; among the average bright pink forms, there are some outstanding hot pink and near red ones, not sure anyone is selecting out these superior colors. Flower size and floriferousness is equally as variable, with some outstanding forms seen.  You're correct, some forms are quite insipid, others are outstanding.  The "hardy form" that was introduced in New England from Arnold Arboretum outside of Boston Massachusetts, is a good showy pink, but not as eye-catching as some of those seen along the New Jersey Turnpike.

[johnw]

Mark - I have the hardy form of Albizzia julibrisson here, the one named 'Ernest Wilson'.  I tried growing seeds of it long ago and recall putting the seeds in acid first.  None were hardy.  Wayne Mezitt of Weston Nurseries told me I had to get one from root cuttings as seedlings of it were not hardy.  He gave me a root-propagated one but I haven't planted it yet.  He has a big plant of it near his house and it has seen some cold winters.   There's a good chance we don't have enough heat to ripen Ernest properly.

We saw a smashing red-flowered one in Portland, Oregon, on the street where Sean of Cistus Nursery lives. I think he's propagated it and possibly named it by now.

Desparately dry here.  Colchicum 'Antares' just in flower here, seems early.

johnw

   

[johngennard]

Paddy,your two pictures together sum up the vast difference between the clones.Unfortuneately one cannot choose them in flower.Mine incidentally grows in a completely open position with no protection whatsoever.

[TheOnionMan]

In flower for the last 2 weeks, and still in fragrant bloom, is Heptacodium miconioides... an easy hardy tree here yet seldom seen.  The tree shown is about 4 years old from a cutting (cuttings root easily), surviving in a hot, sunny spot and not watered once during our current drought season.  It is now starting to develop the characteristic peeling/flaking bark.  The small flowers are richly scented and it has the bumbles enthused. 

Today I noticed that the showy bracts are just starting to develop, a bright pink-red color on my tree, not as showy as some I've seen where the bracts are blood red, but I welcome any tree that flowers this late, followed by bracts showier than the flowers.

Up close, the bilateral flowers remind me of Erinus

[fermi de Sousa]

This acacia came up in the Rock garden and I didn't have the heart to remove it - now it is a feature each spring. It's endemic to the area but I'm not sure of a species name.
cheers
fermi