Re: Propagating the Pepper Tree (Schinus Molle)

Olwen Williams wrote:
The son of an acquaintance of mine committed suicide a couple of weeks ago, and was buried at the local cemetery.
Growing over the grave is a "Pepper Tree" which after a little research is not a NZ native as had been suggested to me, but a California, or Brazilian, or Peru pepper tree depending on which web page I read.

They would like to propagate from the actual tree. Does anyone have experience of this?
Joan DeFato wrote
> I don't know about propagation from cuttings but you are talking about
> two quite different trees. The California pepper (Schinus molle) is from
> Peru and has weeping branches. The Brazilian pepper is another species
> (terebinthefolius) and does not have weeping branches.

Hi Olwen
I'm afraid I can't remember where you live, but unless it is in the wet and warm far north, it is much more likely the tree is the Californian S. molle rather than the Brazilian S. terbinthefolius. Molle is quite common at least in the North Island but the other is pretty rare I think.

However that is beside the point as what you want to know is how to propagate it. It can apparently be grown from fresh seed in spring or from summer cuttings but information on this seems pretty sparse and I have been unable to find any details.

If your friend wants to try cuttings I would suggest she goes for the half-ripe kind (Wood of the current season which has hardened to some extent so that it still bends but does not yet snap). Smallish cuttings
(not more than 10cms) usually do better than great long ones.

I guess it is probably too late now for seed, which has probably been already shed, but if there is any left it might still be worth a try.

Moira
--
Tony & Moira Ryan,
Wainuiomata, North Island, NZ. Pictures of our garden at:-
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/cherie1/Garden/TonyandMoira/index.htm

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