Re: Dodonea viscosa 'Purpurea' or 'Saratoga'

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Hi Linda, I am not sure where you are living--unless you stay very warm in the winter it will go deciduous, but it is beautiful, fast growing and has the most lovely burgundy with a sort of blue overlay in certain lights:

Euphorbia cotinifolia.

Of course the sap is poisonous.

I'm putting it in a garden right now that I couldn't find Agonis flexuosa "Jervis Bay After Dark" for---which is another possibility--but very frost tender.

If you want a bamboo for contrast Alphonse Karr's stripes read as chartreuse which I like next burgundy, but some may find it strident.  Less water hungry but also Chartruese in effect, a variegated Duranta. I forget the cultivar, it is here in the trade in Southern California, with a yellow varigation on the leaves.

Best,

Laura

On Feb 19, 2008, at 6:59 AM, <m*@ocsnet.net> <m*@ocsnet.net> wrote:

Thanks Joe, Nan and Barry,

 

Looks like eventually the height will be too tall.  Although the backdrop of a big expanse of a building with no windows would surely set them off.  I have had four in the ground for 4 years and they are still only 5 feet tall and as wide.  But our summers are so hot, most stuff stops growing and only existing here in summer and we have really poor soil.

 

Nan, my Dodonea have never reseeded, but I am using ground cover cloth in all my beds.

 

Perhaps there is something else with a burgundy foliage.  I have also recommended a Cotinus and would like something else to complement or contrast with it.  Maybe a clumping bamboo instead that grows to about 10 or 12 feet?  They want something evergreen.

 

Thanks again.

 

Linda Starr