Agri Vehicles Insurance from Greenlands

Author Topic: Tree recommendations please  (Read 4653 times)

HappyHippy

  • Guest
Tree recommendations please
« on: May 12, 2016, 08:51:08 am »
Hiya  :wave:
I'd like to plant a small tree in my garden, but don't have much soil depth (just about enough to grow grass) so it'll need to be grown in a big container.
Looking for something pretty (doesn't have to be productive as such) but the kids all want blossom, ideally pink  ::)
So what's your recommendation for a small, pretty, pink blossomed tree that's going to live happily in a tub and survive the Scottish climate?
Thanking you all in advance  :)
Karen

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Tree recommendations please
« Reply #1 on: May 12, 2016, 10:28:40 am »
Hi Karen  :wave:
Our front garden is pretty much the same - bedrock under the turf.  When we planted it up G made holes with a pinch bar, the size of about a half barrel, filled with good soil and planted into that.  We did the first ones 20 years ago and still going strong, with a top dressing of FYM every few years.  Better than using a tub as watering is an inevitable problem.
You can get a pink flowered crab apple, which follows the blossom with dark red fruits.  Then there's cherries of course.  At the moment my lilac is about to come out, but it's pretty boring for the rest of the year, and takes a few years to start flowering anyway, so probably not that.
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

Marches Farmer

  • Joined Dec 2012
  • Herefordshire
Re: Tree recommendations please
« Reply #2 on: May 12, 2016, 10:57:06 am »
Hawthorn might be able to cope with very poor and shallow soil.  There are pink flowered varieties.  Ditto the cherry plum (myrobalan) which flowers early in the year when not much else is happening.

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Tree recommendations please
« Reply #3 on: May 12, 2016, 02:56:35 pm »

Mirabels (cherry plum) grow huge though, far too big and chunky for a container, surely, too big even for the pinch bar hole.  Also the blossom, whilst early, is very unimpressive.  They take a few years to start fruiting, then you get your first 'miracle' when you spot your tree covered with ripe fruit.  I love mirabels but in a different situation to Karen's.
The pink hawthorn could be a good idea - they make a nicely shaped tree when grown away from a hedgerow.
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

HappyHippy

  • Guest
Re: Tree recommendations please
« Reply #4 on: May 12, 2016, 03:59:53 pm »
Thanks both  :)
I'm leaning towards the cherry idea. We have LOADS of hawthorn trees (with white blossom) and I'm not a fan of the thorns - I've pulled god knows how many out my feet over the years  ;) With 4 kids and an exuberant German Shepherd I'm not sure it's a good choice for the garden.
The cherry's seem fairly expensive online (I usually buy seeds though, not plants!) at around £40 for a pathetic looking little sapling, but I'm sure that's me just being tight  ;) I'll check growers/nurseries closer to home.
Thanks

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Tree recommendations please
« Reply #5 on: May 12, 2016, 04:49:10 pm »
I think the crab apple Juliet is describing might be Malus Profusion?  If so, I think this is what I had in a rented bungalow years ago.  It was beautiful in every season, the dark red fruits lasting well into winter, and the blossom lasting well when it came - although this was in a sheltered garden in Wiltshire.

I really loved that tree.   :love: :tree:
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Tree recommendations please
« Reply #6 on: May 12, 2016, 06:54:01 pm »

That's the one  :thumbsup: Good, innit  :tree:
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

Marches Farmer

  • Joined Dec 2012
  • Herefordshire
Re: Tree recommendations please
« Reply #7 on: May 12, 2016, 07:35:08 pm »
Mirabels (cherry plum) grow huge though, far too big and chunky for a container, surely, too big even for the pinch bar hole.  Also the blossom, whilst early, is very unimpressive.  They take a few years to start fruiting, then you get your first 'miracle' when you spot your tree covered with ripe fruit.  I love mirabels but in a different situation to Karen's.
I believe both are members of the prunus family but prunus cerasifera is the cherry plum and prunus domestica syriaca the mirabelle plum.  We have a cherry plum that's twenty years old, on very shallow heavy clay over granite, and it's around four metres high and doesn't seem to have grown for the last five years.  I guess most trees will "dwarf" if they don't have optimum growing conditions.

clydesdaleclopper

  • Joined Aug 2009
  • Aberdeenshire
Re: Tree recommendations please
« Reply #8 on: May 13, 2016, 06:21:28 am »
It doesn't have the most spectacular blossom but how about Arbutus Unedo (the strawberry tree) the fruits are really interesting to look at and are edible if a tad insipid.
Our holding has Anglo Nubian and British Toggenburg goats, Gotland sheep, Franconian Geese, Blue Swedish ducks, a whole load of mongrel hens and two semi-feral children.

farmershort

  • Joined Nov 2010
Re: Tree recommendations please
« Reply #9 on: May 13, 2016, 08:37:56 am »
personally I like the sound of that crab apple previously mentioned! blossom and fruit, perfect!

As also mentioned, most trees will naturally dwarf in a pot due to being restricted.

If blossom is the out-and-out most important thing, I'd spend a bit of time research japanese cherries, and the cherry blossom season (event). The Japanese are totally obsessed with the spring blossom, and there are many many varieties to choose from.

The reason for the obsession (as far as I'm concerned) is the link to Zen Buddhism (and the Toa from which it derives) and the symbolisation of impermanence - outstanding beauty for 1 week of the year, and then gone.

HappyHippy

  • Guest
Re: Tree recommendations please
« Reply #10 on: May 13, 2016, 09:14:53 am »
 ;D thanks - oooooh apples or cherries? I used to be indecisive, now I'm not so sure  ;)

farmershort

  • Joined Nov 2010
Re: Tree recommendations please
« Reply #11 on: May 13, 2016, 09:17:20 am »
;D thanks - oooooh apples or cherries? I used to be indecisive, now I'm not so sure  ;)

ahhh well, worth remembering that not all cherries are edible, IIRC.

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Tree recommendations please
« Reply #12 on: May 13, 2016, 11:10:44 am »
I never tried using the fruits of my Malus Profusion, just left them looking gorgeous and eventually feeding the ecosystem.  They're not very large, just beautiful.  If you wanted a productive crab apple, for jellies and so on, there are probably better options.
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

HappyHippy

  • Guest
Re: Tree recommendations please
« Reply #13 on: May 13, 2016, 09:59:31 pm »
Sticking to my "it has to be useful (productive) or beautiful" rule, I'm just looking for pretty  :) Feeding birds and beasties is probably more beneficial to me than making jelly  :innocent:

Coastie

  • Joined Mar 2015
Re: Tree recommendations please
« Reply #14 on: May 23, 2016, 09:27:59 am »
Amelanchier  :thumbsup:so pretty just finished flowering here. Blackbirds and thrushes love the berries in late autumn when the leaves turn a reddish colour.

 

Forum sponsors

FibreHut Energy Helpline Thomson & Morgan Time for Paws Scottish Smallholder & Grower Festival Ark Farm Livestock Movement Service

© The Accidental Smallholder Ltd 2003-2024. All rights reserved.

Design by Furness Internet

Site developed by Champion IS