Re: Dodonea viscosa 'Purpurea' or 'Saratoga'

D. viscosa apparently has male and female plants. I have seen low seed set in my back yard and the neighborhood as I have yet to find a plant with male flowers. The bees must be working overtime to get the few viable seeds that I do see. However after clearing the property to build a house we got seedlings coming up all over the yard so maybe we got a male somewhere in this mix.... 

MTF
----- Original Message ----- From: "Deborah Lindsay" <corvidae2001@yahoo.com> 
To: "medit-plants" <medit-plants@ucdavis.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2008 8:07 PM
Subject: Re: Dodonea viscosa 'Purpurea' or 'Saratoga'



I'm a fan of seedling variation myself. There is a 50
yr old very dark purple Dodonea in my garden in
Oakland. I get 3 or 4 seedlings a year from it which i
have been planting out along our rear fenceline to
screen us from the house just above us on our hill.
The forms of these seedlings vary-some are more
pyramidal in habit with a strong central leader and
some are stouter with multiple leaders. Leaf color in
the warmer weather also varies but all of them turn
purple nicely for the winter. The papery seed clusters
also vary in color from very pale pink to quite dark
pink. I'm mixing the dodoneas in with some lovely old
"overgrown" boxwoods (Buxus) that I have pruned to be
small open trees and moved from a different part of
the yard.

I wonder if the heavy seeding is related to the warmer
summers in SoCal?

Deborah Lindsay
Oakland
--- "Sean A. O'Hara" <sean@gimcw.org> wrote:


Interesting to see such diverse discussion over what
some would consider a
very common, even overused plant.

My observations are similar to Barry's - in the
decades that I've seen Dodonea
viscosa growing in the SF Bay Area, I have not noted
that it was prone to
self-seeding, moderately or vigorously.  This does
not mean that it is not a
problem in some area - it is always curious why this
would be the case.  I was
reminded of Rhamnus alaternus self-seeding fairly
rampantly in some of our
areas (something I have witnessed first hand) yet in
my own Berkeley
neighborhood, in which there are very old specimens
that fruit copiously, this
does not seem to be the case!

I like Dodonea for it's unique character - sort of
an 'up-swept' habit.
Personally, having grown tired of hedges planted in
a single clone (usually
the dark plum foliage form being discussed), I have
found older plantings of
seedling grown specimens much more to my liking.
Those I am thinking of have
various foliar tones from drab green to more plummy,
and the fruits also range
from soft green through mauve or dusky pink, into
darker plum.  Their heights
can also vary, which might be undesirable, but then
I have never been a big
fan of carefully clipped hedging, preferring a one
of a more informal
character and even of mixed species.

Seán A. O'Hara
sean(at)gimcw.org
www.hortulusaptus.com
(ask about mediterranean climate gardening forum)

On Feb 19, 2008 11:17 AM, B. Garcia
<paroxytone@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Feb 18, 2008 10:45 PM, N Sterman
<TalkingPoints@plantsoup.com> wrote:
>> Hi Linda
>>
>> IN addition to the comments others have made on
size, you might want to know
>> that this is a vicious reseeder.  I have a client
whose next door neighbors
>> planted several Dodonea (don't know what variety
though) along their common
>> fence and we are forever picking seedlings out of
the vegetable garden,
>> shrub borders, etc.  I'd never plant it after
this experience.
>
> Around Monterey, they hardly spread. I've got a
few seedlings in my
> (dry) garden, and I've only seen them come up in
public spaces here
> and there, even where there are a lot of Dodonaea
viscosa around. So,
> I'd hardly call them vicious reseeders in my
experience (although it
> now sounds like the plants will be way too tall
for the purpose
> intended.)
>
> I'm now intent on buying several of these to
screen off our rather
> annoying neighbors, and a 15 to 20 foot tall shrub
like D. viscosa
> 'Purpurea' will make a fine screen.
>
>







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