Re: Araucaria
Barry Garcia wrote:
>
> i know what you mean. ARaucarias (ahem Tony =) )arent common here,
> except A. heterophylla. God forbid if The Monkey Puzzle tree caught on.
> If people planted them in small yards here like they do canary palms,
> id hate to have to walk by their yards with overhanging branches. I
> remember picking up a small branch from a mature specimen at the Naval
> Postgraduate school and noticing how spiny (and painful the experience
> was!) those trees are. Not a tree to climb either!
Barry
I understand the trees got called Monkeypuzzle because it would puzzle
even a monkey to find a way up them!
I once knew a lady in my home town who planted one on her lawn. It
really was a handsome plant -a perfect pyramid clothed with branches
right to the ground. Well, she delighted in its cute appearence for a
couple of years or so until those ever-expanding bottom branches
extended out to her front path. The next time I went there the
monkeypuzzle had been eliminated!
Interesting you should mention canary palms. Around this area they seem
to be a passion with people in small properties, often planted on the
north (sunny) side of the house to eliminate all chance of it getting
any winter sun.
I once gardened for a lady whose next-door neighbour had not one but two
of the brutes in a very small front garden. What I had not appreciated
before I met these was the extent to which their roots spread. In this
case it was under a concrete drive and a substantial fence, across a
lawn about fifteen feet wide and into a border against the side of my
clients house. It was some time before I grasped where the thick matted
mass of strong white roots had originated and it certainly made
gardening in that border pretty non-productive.
Fortunately the story had a happy ending as the propety with the palms
changed hands and the new owner promptly got in heavy machinery to
remove them.
I have seen the odd one included in a shrubbery in very large gardens
which looked really handsome, but even there they can be a great gobbler
of winter sun when they get tall and I have been told that the dead
fronds are sometimes shed unexpectedly and could come down on someone's
head.
My feeling is that they are best confined entirely to parks and other
public places, where they are ideal for making a striking avenue. I know
of two or three splendid ones in this country.
Moira
--
Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
Wainuiomata, New Zealand
