Tree time in the garden

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 7, Issue 343, 10 July 1990, Page 13

Tree time in the garden

ine snortest day oi the year is now behind us and as we head for the Summer Solstice we can look forward to longer days, shorter nights and the promise of spring ahead. Time to plan what we are going to plant for next season and what alterations we are going to put into effect.

Nurserymen will now begin their annual harvesting of the dormant deciduous trees (as weather conditions permit) and these will be available barerooted ready for planting within the next few weeks. Flowering cherries, crab apple, dogwood and lilac, gleditsia, horse chestnut and the mighty oak all come into this group along with the silver birch and the fruiting trees. Before you rush out to buy whatever may take your fancy, decide where the trees are to be placed, the maximum height you can allow

them to grow and the amount of room than can be allowed for the spread of the branches. The lovely horse chestnut with its flaming candles is a majestic tree along with the oaks and the beeches, but planted in a small garden would eventually take over to the exclusion of everything else including the sunshine. If you have close neighbours and are considering planting on a fenceline, consider the effect the tree may have on your neighbour's property. Will it shade your neighbours' garden too much or perhaps shade the light from the living room window?

by

Bea

Barnes

There are a number of lovely smaller trees very suitable for the smaller town garden from which to make your choice and even the smallest garden can quite easily accommodate two or three trees of the smaller variety cotrectly placed. Do you want your tree as a leafy frame to soften the hard contour of the house? Again decide how tall you want it to grow, how wide you can allow it to spread its branches and the correct distance from the house you will need to plant it. A graceful silver birch can look so beautiful framing the front or the rear of the house, but again its popularity will be very short lived if the man of the house has to get out

the ladder and unblock the gutters of fallen leaves in the pouring rain all because the tree was wrongly sited in the first place. When making your purchase take the time to read the nurseryman's labels attached to the trees which will tell you the approximate height and growth habit of the tree, whether for instance the branches will spread into a broad head or have a more upright habit. The lovely flowering cherry, 'Accolade' is a wonderful sight in the spring with its pendulous cluster of rich pink blossom. 'Accolade' will grow to a height of about five metres with a spreading head of a similar distance.Prunus subhertella 'Falling Snow' is a dainty smaller cherry with a pale pink double flowers smothering the arching branches. It will grow only 2.5 metres tall with a spread of two metres. Another nice flowering tree eminently suitable for the smaller garden is

cercis chinensis 'Avondale', a tree growing only three metres tall with a spread of two metres and smothered with pea shaped magenta rose blossom in October. Malus 'Kaitoke', the red weeping crabapple, grows to about 2.5 metres with a spread of two metres and has masses of carmine red blossoms to clothe the pendulous branches in the spring. The syringas (lilacs) are a lovely flowering tree for the smaller garden growing to about 2.5 metres with a spread of 1.5 metres. My favourite is 'Madame Lemoine' a beautiful double white richly perfumed, Syringa Souv. 'De La Spaeth' is a beauty with large scented trusses of single purple blossoms. All Syringas enjoy a rich deep soil with lime. For a foliage colour contrast try Corylus maxima purpurea, more of a shrub than a tree but the dark purple foliage in summer is most striking.