Pac NW Shrubs and Trees - Fast Growing
CallMeRoseMary
10 years ago
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Wayne Reibold
10 years agoRelated Discussions
Fast growing shrub or tree in foggy, coastal San Francisco
Comments (18)sng: I like the way you research. Do a copy and paste for -- Callistemon phoeniceus -- and you will find considerable info on the web via Google. I have a feeling you've misspelled it somehow. It's a shrub to about ten to fifteen feet, easily trained into a "standard" or multi-trunked "tree". "Escallonia x exoniensis ÂBalfouriÂ, E. laevis, E. rubra ESCALLONIA We excluded Escallonia for making the following assumptions:" Your assumptions are inaccurate. The common Escallonias are almost always trimmed into tight hedgelike masses; hence making it hard to see the potential as a small tree. Along the coast, especially, the listed ones (not so common) make great multi-trunk small trees. -Melaleuca armillaris BRACELET MYRTLE -Melaleuca ericifolia HEATH MELALEUCA "I have probably seen these plants somewhere but do not remember if they are dense enough for our purpose. I will try finding them in our neighborhood and do more research." Although these species have fine-textured foliage, they do grow into densely-foliaged small trees. I'm attaching a photo of one (they look alike). -Metrosideros collinus ÂSpringfire NEW ZEALAND CHRISTMAS TREE "I always liked this tree but never knew the name. The street I take every day to work is dressed with this tree on both sides and they are quite tall, probably 20-30 feet (may be M. excelsus?)." The "trees" you see are M. excelsus and they get bigger than 30 feet. M. collinus is smaller. And conseuqently slower growing. -Pittosporum crassifolium KARO "I see this planted practically everywhere I go. (Maybe because I live near ocean and work near SF bay?) SF Botanical Garden uses it to screen chain link fences and it does the job so well. I really love the slivery blue green foliage of this plant that goes beautifully with the deep maroon color of its flower. Urban Forest Ecosystems Institute marked all PittosporumÂs health hazard as allergy, except for P. tenuifolium that was marked as unknown. I had no way of telling likelihood of causing allergy but did not want to take any risk so dropped all Pittosporum from my list except for P. tenuifolium. But now I have a further reference on this so I will definitely reconsider P. crassifolium. Thank you again." There are over 160 species of Pittosporum. I doubt that all of them are allergenic. The two most common ones (P. undulatum and P. tobira) are highly fragrant and, because of that, highly allergenic to many people. P. crassifolium is not significantly fragrant (as with P. ten.). Joe Here is a link that might be useful: Melaleuca ericifolia...See MoreFast growing trees/shrubs needed (tall and compact)
Comments (5)The only shrub I know of is a Photina Fraseri. Grows to 15 feet pretty fast. It also likes to be wide but could be kept pruned closer, if you kept up with it could be shaped and leafed out nicely enough I believe. Quickness of growth also depends on where you live, I grew it last in the mtns, with a 3 month growing season it took a lot longer. Here in the valley I've seen new plants get to 5' in a season....See MoreToyon in the Pac NW?
Comments (16)Hi..I'm late to this thread too. Am considering Native Sorbus and Toyon. We had a Toyon in San Diego..never watered it. Grew to over 15 ft. I have rocky red clay and low ph and as I am also discovering... very fast draining soil. (which all Manzanita and Toyon would require) I planted a couple Forsythia and purple Cotinus which haven't grown in over 6 years. Last year I planted a Manzanita in the same area...it's taking off like a weed. So I'm going to continue to plant xeriscape on this hillside. Since Toyon grow with Manzanita..there ya go..fast draining soil a necessity! Arborist said not enough water is why the Cotunis and Forsythia aren't getting going..I am sparse with water. Toyon seems as hard to find as a Native Mt Ash!! (been looking for a couple of years now)Damn it!! European Mt Ash are considered invasive!!...See MoreSouthern Live Oak (Quercus Virginiana) in PacNW
Comments (8)Ian, those are wonderful pictures of your 2 evergreen oaks! Wish I had planted those too. Agree that oaks are very desireable and worth the slightly longer growing time. Alas, even though I did a huge amount of research before planting, some things were learned a little late. Will replace trees that croak with evergreen oaks if the spot is right. Thanks for the info Bahia. Didn't think of the snow factor. I'll have to prune my Quercus virginiana strategically so it will fit in its spot between the house and garage and then limb out over the roof, so perhaps the shorter lengths will help the load, don't know the physics of weight bearing. It's not misty enough where I am for the mosses and lichens to really drip, and the 1000s of birds in the yard would make short work of that spanish moss so thanks for that education. Will have to gaze at pictures for the spanish moss effect. Found a cool picture at wikipedia of a southern live oak, oooooeeeee, such a great tree!...See MoreLily777
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