Recommendations, patio cover, like Olive?

Beaker99

I've got a South facing, well protected courtyard garden in the south east.

I'd ideally like to plant an Olive tree to give us some Mediterranean-feeling cover and shade, however I'd expect this would take years and years to grow and train.

So, question is, can anyone recommend a faster growing tree, suitable to uk in the south east, that would give us a Mediterranean feel and cover?

Many suggestions greatly appreciated!

DaftyDuck

Olives in lots grow faster than you might think. From cuttings, I have two that are about six feet tall, and bushy with it, after five or six years. Well worth it too. Frankly, if you want one, plant one. P!any something faster as well, to enjoy while you wait.

Bay is a bit faster, smells good, bougainvillea stunning if you have the warmth, rosemary very fast growing and smells of the med...

With patience, orange and lemon will grow into stunning trees, but need more care to fruit well.

Two more... Fig, grows quite swiftly, will fruit, will love a pot, grape; will manage in a pot, and will cover yards of pergola happily in a coup!e of years...

Grow something boring and you can regret it for years. Grow something exciting and you will enjoy the wait!

Beaker99

Thanks! We had fig in our last place and it's really nice, but can you train it to provide cover? Wife loves idea of bougainvillea. Maybe, as you say, some herbs like rosemary could give a nice smell.

Thanks again.

DaftyDuck

You would get as much cover from a fig as an olive. Bougainvilea and grapevine you can train to cover a frame. Bay and rosemary can be forced to grow to a frame.

Davesnave

How about Acacia dealbata? It might do the trick if you're in a warm spot.

I've had two in pots in my large, unheated polytunnel since 2010, mainly because I have nowhere sheltered enough to put them.... yet! I noticed one in a village garden near here up against a south wall, so I'm hopeful.

The original seed for these guys came from Bath Botanic Garden (on the path! ) which is somewhat warmer than Mid Devon at 500'.

Also fun are stooled Foxglove trees (Paulownia). Not really Mediterranean, but exotic looking.....Or you could grow a Eucalyptus nicholii while you wait for an olive, and then bump it off or stool it before it does what they all do!

I'm not speaking about my olives. I have 3 in pots and they're about 15 years old, but I'm still taller than two of them!

Beaker99

Thanks for your help.. I think we'll go for a fig and bourgainvillea. Also a euclyptus further down.

Some of the more flower8ng suggestions I can just see plating havoc with my allergies!

moneyistooshorttomention

What does "stooled" mean?

DaftyDuck

Means Dave nicked 'em some years back, and is also iliterate!

Davesnave

1. 1.
   (of a plant) throw up shoots from the root.
   
   
   • cut back (a plant) to or near ground level in order to induce new growth.
     
     
   
   
   
   

Davesnave

DaftyDuck wrote: »

Means Dave nicked 'em some years back, and is also iliterate!

The first part is true, in the sense that Bath Botanical Gardens has a mature tree not far from the entrance, which generously dumps seed capsules on the lawn every year, ripe for the taking, before the grass is next mown.

There is also one in Cannington College Gardens, which does similarly.

Paulownia germinate like weeds from fresh seed, so it's odd that I've never seen self-sown seedlings beneath any of the specimens I know. Perhaps other people pick up the capsules too? I doubt it though; not many would recognise them.

Anyway, I have my own mature tree now, so we shall see!

Farway

Davesnave wrote: »

Paulownia germinate like weeds from fresh seed, so it's odd that I've never seen self-sown seedlings beneath any of the specimens I know. Perhaps other people pick up the capsules too? I doubt it though; not many would recognise them.

Could they be similar to Oaks? I hazily remember reading somewhere that oaks secrete something that prevents acorns germinating near them, which is where squirrels & pigs come in handy

Just a thought