Arbutus menziessi - Pacific Madrone

Although it is native to the Pacific Northwest, it's not easy to cultivate there, and seems sensitive to several and some possibly unknown factors, including pollution and soil compaction. Several huge ones on the UW campus are in really bad shape, succumbing to a fungus. There is a good collection of articles on the subject and the search for solutions at:

http://soilslab.cfr.washington.edu/madrone/prelim_pp.pdf

bob

Breathtakingly beautiful, Arbutus menziesii is very
difficult to cultivate in California gardens. I've
heard several hypotheses (and probably proven reasons)
for this: they're intolerant of summer irrigation;
they succumb to pathogens in the garden otherwise kept
in check in habitat; we choose the wrong cultivars for
our irrigated gardens. I don't know about its ease in
other regions and climates (e.g., the Pacific
Northwest part of its range or other med climates.)
-Jason Dewees
San Francisco, California

> I see in a book which I have been given, "California
> Gardener's
> Giude"(!) that the native Arbutus, A. menziesii or
> madrone (B.C to San
> Luis Obispo), is 'a wonderful source of food for
> birds and other
> wildlife'  and is primarily a coastal tree so should
> tolerate seasode
> conditions. It  grows to 60-80 feet!
>
> Beverly
> in Perth, Western Australia
>
>


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