Re: Brachychiton acerifolius hardiness
- Subject: Re: Brachychiton acerifolius hardiness
- From: d* f*
- Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2002 23:47:28 -0700 (PDT)
Tony Rodd's notes correspond with what I have seen of
them here in the San Francisco Bay Area. They are
occasionally planted out around here, and have also
survived the December 1990 freeze where it got down to
24F/-5C for 10 days in a row. These were not small
young trees, however. My impression is that the bloom
is much less reliable in areas without sufficient heat
build-up, and sporadic at best. The best flowering
trees here are those located out of the coastal wind
and given a sheltered courtyard with reflected heat.
There is a large tree that flowers regularly in
Hayward near the county offices on one of the main
exits off the 880 freeway, and there is another fairly
large tree at The Dry Garden Nursery in Oakland, which
has not bloomed in the 11 years it has been planted
out. The larger tree in Hayward is probably over 40
feet tall, the one in Oakland is only 25~30 feet tall.
If you are thinking of planting this in your own
garden, Nan, know that they are often of rather gawky,
irregular habit, and hit or miss bloom, at least here
in northern California. I haven't been down to
Southern California often enough at this time of year
to appreciate whether they are a good tree there,
though if they are attractive in bloom, I guess they
are worthy.
The Jacarandas are just now coming into bloom around
here, but not in the abundance of locations as in
southern California.
--- Tony Rodd <tonyrodd@isp.net.au> wrote:
> They are native in coastal New South Wales and
> extend in the wild up the eastern fall of the Great
> Dividing Range to altitudes where I would expect
> minimum winter temperatures as low as about minus 4
> C (say 25 F), though always in dense rainforest.
> When flowering in early summer you can look across
> the rainforest-filled gorges from miles away and see
> the scarlet crowns dotted here and there.
> In the immediate Sydney region they are all planted
> and seem to grow well in some of the further inland
> suburbs where, again, minimum is occasionally as low
> as 25 F -- but you don't see them above about 700
> metres in the nearby Blue Mountains, where minimum
> temperatures get no lower but the growing season is
> much shorter.
>
> Tony Rodd
> Sydney
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Nan Sterman
> To: medit-plants@ucdavis.edu
> Sent: Friday, June 28, 2002 2:38 PM
> Subject: Brachychiton acerifolius
>
>
> The Brachychiton acerifolius are making a terrific
> show right now in
> San Diego -- bright red flower clusters, some on
> bare trees, others
> on trees that are starting to leaf out. Truly
> spectacular. I would
> love to plant one but after last year's cold
> winter, I am concerned
> about their cold hardiness. Some resources ahve
> them hardy to 32
> degrees and some to 20 degrees. Can anyone vouch
> for their cold
> tolerance?
>
> Nan
> --
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>
> Nan Sterman Plant Soup (TM)
>
> 205 Cole Ranch Road
> Olivenhain, CA 92024 760.634.2902 (voice)
> NSterman@PlantSoup.Com 760.634.2957 (fax)
>
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>
>
>
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