Janet Tweedy;802531 Wrote:
> I have an arbutus in my garden, chalk, flint and clay
> but def. NOT acid. Done so well it's outgrown it's place at the back of
>
> a border between my flowers and my veg.!
> Very rarely gets watered
>
Arbutus unedo plainly ought to be very drought resistant given its
natural habitat in mediterranean lands. Only this April I was walking
through arbutus forests in Sardinia, where they have a very dry hot
summer, though they grow only about 3m tall in such conditions. I saw
taller ones in damper NW ****tugal. Though I find mine is inclined to
wilt in persistent dry conditions - perhaps you have to grow them hard
to get them to be drought resistent.
Certainly the soils I have seen them growing on in the Med have mainly
been thin acidic soils. But I'm pretty sure I've also seen them on
limestone, in NE Sardinia, and I think the area in SW Ireland near
Killarney where they are particularly abundant and tall, is limestone.
Amazing that a plant should be so at home both in the cool, wet climate
of SW Ireland and mediterranean areas with their hot dry summer.
I didn't recommend Arbutus, because they are inclined to become large
trees in our climate. But I have a dwarf form in my garden. It said on
the label it would only grow to 2m, but I have to prune it back hard
every now and then, or it would soon be twice that size. It doesn't
mind. Very tough tree/bush.
If I had the space to grow a full-size Arbutus, I'd choose Arbutus x
andrachnoides. It has this amazingly showy shaggy red bark. Also more
floriferous than my Arbutus, though my dwarf form is notedly less
floriferous. It doesn't tend to fruit here though, as far as I can see.
But it is a very big, vigorous tree. Some people near me have one, and
they have to call in the tree surgeons about every 5 years to keep it
from becoming enormous.
Someone mentioned Eucalptus. Many of those grow like a rocket and you
can regret it as they are almost as ineradicable as ash. But there are
smaller, more manageable Eucs, so if you do like them (like me) choose
one of those. Relatively easily found smaller hardy Eucs include
gregsoniana, pauciflora, nipophila, debeuzevillei. Among rarer small
ones, I have E mannifera subsp mannifera and E nova-anglica, which are
both in the very-rarely-seen-in-British-gardens category, and
easier-to-find E pulverulenta which is more like a television aerial
than a tree, though I'm coppicing it so it shouldn't do that, but will
only be a small bush so treated. (My nova-anglica is not much different
so far.)
--
echinosum
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