Laburnum and Wisteria Arch Tunnel

that was about 7 hours ago

 

Went to Bodnant when I lived in Wales about 20 odd years ago, don't think I saw the arch in flower, but I do remember a narrower version in the public park at Llandudno.

 

Well thanks, that settles it. Now to decide if to go saturday or sunday ?
And yes, it is a great day out. There are lots of plants to check out and of course a pop into the shop for a plant or two.
gazania

 

Just thought I'd add a pic of my "vossii" taken today.

 

wow !!!

 

I'm going to bore you with the story behind the tree now

About 25 yrs ago the council planted a few Laburnum "vossii" in the local park. At the time I had a few self sown seedlings, including two in my front garden growing very close together.

I was quite into grafting at the time and must admit to clipping a small shoot from the ones in the park, I then grafted that onto the two stems in my front garden.
I thought it would be good to put a twist in the stems, so I wound one around the other and tied them.
This is the tree 25 or so years on, still with the twist, and the bulges where I did the grafting.

 

It's a magnificent specimen Pete!

 

I dont get it though Pete, you had 2 Vossi growing in your garden and you grafted a vossii from the park onto them??? or have i misunderstood??? if not, why did you do the graft was it just for practice???

 

Then your decision has already been made...years ago! You have the space so go for it, they look simply stunning.

Steve...

 

The tunnels are fabulous. I can imagine the work involved in keeping them like that.

I'm growing a wisteria up an old pine tree that we lost a few years ago. The tree was originally taller than the house. We cut it down but left some branches for the wisteria to grow through. It's only the second year it's been growing there,so early days. The flowers have almost all finished now.

If you're wondering about the balustrade, MOH is making it from a single mold, so only does one when he's using the concrete mixer. One day it will be finished.:WINK1:

 

I was ...

Don't knock it ... Haddonstone's Ballustrade is £200 - £300 per metre !!

 

Exactly why we're using a mold.:WINK1:
We need about 21 meters.

 

The seedlings were just species Laburnum,..... "vossii" is a hybrid and must be grafted to come true.

 

sorry Pete still a bit confused...why does grafting change the hybrid??

 

Grafting is just a form of propagation, like Cuttings.

Plants may not come true from seed (and some hybrids are sterile).

Those can be propagated by cuttings (and sometimes by a bit of root, or leaf ...)

But some varieties are a nightmare to get to propagate via those methods, and sometimes even if they can be grown from seed they then take forever to flower (the Juvenile plant has to become Adult).

In those circumstances grafting is used - take a plant that you can grow from seed, or propagate easily, and graft the awkward one onto it. Also, if you graft a piece from a mature (Adult form) plant then the resulting plant is already "adult" so will flower promptly.

Another purpose of grafting is to combine the properties of the rooting stock with those of the top "scion" part. This is done with Apples where you can graft the variety of your choice onto a rooting stock chosen to make a dwarf plant, a good cordon, or a socking big tree! Recently grafted Tomatoes, Peppers, etc have been introduced which have root stocks that provide various benefits - immunity from the diseases you get from reusing the same greenhouse soils year-in year-out - which saves having to change the soil in the greenhouse (I believe they are also happy with waterlogged roots, which can help in areas of the world that are prone to flooding)

But in the case of Laburnum I think its just that Vossii is sterile, so the seeds are no good, and I think it is very hard to "strike" from cuttings.