We bought a Laburnum about 8 years ago and chose the L. watereri "Vossii" recommended in Dr. DG Hessayon's "Tree and Shrub Expert" as the best one to have. It was only about 8 feet tall when we planted it and it was generally very weedy. For years it did little and was a general disappointment, being the last tree in the garden to gain leaves, the first to drop them (in late August each year) and few of the racimes it is noted for. As it is planted in a very prominent position in the garden I am sure you can understand that this was a real disappointment. Two years ago I said bluntly that the tree would have to come out as it wasn't pulling its weight. The following Spring of 2005, after a very wet winter, it suddenly grew several feet and we had a really good display of racimes and the leaves dropped much later in the autumn too. This year the tree is a wonder with a huge number of racimes glowing with a wonderful yellow light. Obviously this is a tree that takes several years to establish itself so you need patience to grow it. But my goodness, it is worth it.
4 comments:
What a gorgeous tree, Val. (I had to look it up to learn more about it.) It knew that its life was in danger, and the tree-equivalent of adrenalin kicked in. Cop Car
Yes well... I wondered that too ~grin~. When we got a good showing of racimes last year I did wonder whether this was because the tree was about to pop its clogs and was pleasantly surprised when it came back so magnificantly this year. Obviously it's just one of those trees that takes some years to get going.
Cool tree, Val. I've never seen one, but this is beautiful. I'm glad you waited it out.
Buffy
It's really lovely, isn't it. We saw on in a front garden in one of the streets adjacent to ours and following the precept that if you want to find good plants to grow in your own garden then look in your neighbours gardens, we assumed that a laburnum would grow well in ours. And it did - once it had kept us waiting for some time ~grin~.
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