Gardeners’ Question Time
Christine Walkden
Garden writer Christine appears on BBC1’s The One Show . She is also a lecturer and tour leader.
James Wong
Botanist, broadcaster and writer, James loves to grow unusual, edible and medicinal plants from around the world.
Bob Flowerdew
Bob is an organic gardener and has designed his garden to produce lots of veg, fruit and cut flowers.
Q Can I plant a small but mature tree to instantly block a view?
Jackie, by email
A BOB SAYS For that ‘instant fix’ of planting a tree tall enough to be immediately effective, contact mail-order nurseries that offer large specimens. However, mature trees are expensive. As you want one that won’t get too much bigger after planting, it means it would be slow growing, so will have spent a long time in the nursery, which puts the price up. Transporting large trees is more difficult too.
One solution would be a tree of the right height grown with a weeping head. My favourite is Cotoneaster ‘Hybridus Pendulus’, which is evergreen. Other choices include a Kilmarnock willow (Salix caprea ‘Kilmarnock’), weeping cherry (Prunus ‘Kiku-shidarezakura’, ‘Pendula Rosea’ or ‘Pendula Rubra’), weeping pear (Pyrus salicifolia ‘Pendula’) and weeping birch (Betula ‘Youngii’). Or try the columnar conifer Juniperus scopulorum ‘Skyrocket’.
A Several trees would suit your situation but could get too high. But there are some that grow tall and upright, and are known as having a fastigiate habit of growth. Look at , a wild apple, which takes a few years to grow to 5m tall with a good upright habit. It has‘Amanogawa’, with pale pink spring blossom and colourful autumn foliage, or ‘Obelisk’, a lovely slender tree, up to 5m tall, covered in clusters of white flowers in mid-spring.
