Recommend me some exotic trees for the UK

moneyistooshorttomention

Davesnave wrote: »

My insurers have no idea what's in my garden, so how did the insurers know it was there?

The best way to have a controlled, well-behaved eucalyptus is to be diligent and control it, or failing that, to have a partner who is heavily into flower-arranging.


PS My olives do nothing exciting. They're quite pleasant, but I wouldn't call them exotic. I grew them from seed, so maybe I got the wrong strain.

No idea how they knew what she had - but I presume it was one of those insurance company questions to effect of "Have you got any trees over x feet tall within y distance of your house?" and she said "Yes" and they asked her what it was. Followed by throwing a fit ...and she had to have it cut down.

Which has just brought to mind another house I can think of - and I'm now wondering if they've got insurance cover at all considering what their garden is like. Hmmmm.....

fatbelly

Torbay makes great use of Cordyline australis



It's ok down to about minus 5. Grows to 25 feet.

neilmcl

Davesnave wrote: »

....And if you have a lot of space they're great, but if you don't, expect only 5 years out of one before you need to fell it.

Not necessary if you keep cutting it back vigorously. I've been coppicing mine for years and it still grows well.

Davesnave

neilmcl wrote: »

Not necessary if you keep cutting it back vigorously. I've been coppicing mine for years and it still grows well.

Yes, and Farway covered that.



Stooling eucalyptus and paulownia gives good and different results. However, looking around my village, the evidence is that people eventually 'forget.'

tori.k

neilmcl wrote: »

Not necessary if you keep cutting it back vigorously. I've been coppicing mine for years and it still grows well.

Aesthetically for most its becomes unappealing once the trunk has thickened up.

Fatbelly im pretty sure its mandatory to grow a cordyline in Torbay.
One of my prized possessions is a jewelry box made from the Paignton big tree ( monterey cypress) when they had to cut it down.

Davesnave

tori.k wrote: »

Aesthetically for most its becomes unappealing once the trunk has thickened up.

Indeed.

Somewhere in the depths of the South Devon Avon valley is a nursery, where they've been pollarding eucaypts for donkey's years to supply the cut flower market.

They look rather like the basket willows on the Somerset Levels. i.e, not terribly exotic!

andrewf75

fatbelly wrote: »

Torbay makes great use of Cordyline australis



It's ok down to about minus 5. Grows to 25 feet.

Its hardier that that I would say. I'm in Oxfordshire where we regularly get temperatures of minus 10 and below and my two are still going strong and about 3-4m tall. One stem died when we had -20 a few years back, but it re-grew.

Waterlily24

My hubby loved the paulownia tree when he saw one in bloom. We bought one it was very small but grew very quickly. He put it in the garden and it seemed to die off but it hadn't. At the moment it looks like a bush rather than a tree. Hopefully it'll be OK but I'm not too sure. It grew to two or three feet very quickly. The leaves are very big.

Farway

I heard on GQT, R4, that avocado will grow outside in UK. Will never fruit & very likely to be cut back by frost


May be more suited to town / city & southern parts of the country, but worth an experiment next time you have eaten an avocado?

Francesanne

As previously warned be very careful if you choose bamboo. The previous owners of our house planted bamboo and it's the plague of my husband's life (& next door neighbors).It grows at an amazing rate and whilst attractive it needs constant cutting back.