Strawberry tree, (Arubutus unedo)

I was out cutting down some of the shrubby trees on the allotment today, I have all sort growing there and I need to keep them in check.
The weather was sunny and although the thermometer was only showing 13C in the shade I was starting to work up a sweat in the sun.

I didn't cut this one back though, I planted it about 15yrs ago, it was alive with bees buzzing, and a few butterflies, even bluebottles, although they do seem to prefer Fatsia and ivy at this time of the year.

Anyway a few pictures that really do not do the tree justice, its about 14ft high now.



These were all around and just seemed to love the flowers and the sunshine.

 

That's a real beauty Pete ... and I see a couple of fruit have managed to ripen!

Something attacked mine earlier in the year so I cut it right back to about a meter but it's rallied around and shooting new stems everywhere. They do well after the forest fires here along with the Eucalyptus.

 

It's a beauty that Pete.. I often wonder whether Arbutus were ever native to Britain, after all fossil records suggest they were native to Ireland and parts of Wales (Maybe Cornwall).

ps If you want to see a colony of Arbutus trees self seeding and colonizing large spaces, then there is an entire woodland filled with them on the Great Orme in Llandudno, Wales. I often pick the fruit and eat it when I go there. The secret is to pick the reddish-orange ones that look like they have a glow to them, they are the nicest, sweetest ones.. not as many people say, the dark red ones.

 

Always hankered after one ... cursed alkaline soil :(

 

I bought one; it died

Yours is stunning!!

 

I'm not exactly acid here, we do have the occasional pieces of chalk in the soil, but probably neutral on the ph scale.

 

There are more fruit, but as I said its not easy to to photograph, as on the sunny side I have apple trees fairly close.

Its flowering the best ever, I can only guess it was the damp summer, being it normally does well in western areas.

I do have another one planted in too smaller space which I really cut back hard last spring, it sulked for most of the summer but has now produced some really strong shoots.

 

We are red clay soil here.

Yours is just so healthy looking Pete.

 

Looks great

I've got one in a large container which is doing really well.

 

I've one growing in alkaline soil. When I planted it, I dug loads of horse manure all in around it.

I've an Arbutus Maritima as well. The two Big Freezes cut it to the ground. I thought it was a gonner but being stubborn, I dug up the roots and planted them in a pot. A year later a shoot appeared. Now it's a metre high! It's planted in rubbish soil as well.