Re: Fwd: Natural understory beneath Olives

Nan reminds me, I will be in Rome for about 36 hours next week, and I wonder what are the most exciting public gardens in the city. I will probably only have time for one, and it will probably be the Orto Botanico on the Gianicolo, but other suggestions are welcome. 

Best,
Max Withers

N Sterman wrote:
Ben, I saw a planting like you are describing just outside of Rome at the wonderful Giardini della Landriana several years ago. There is a photo of it at http://www.aldobrandini.it/sito/giardi/img_big.php?obj=GAL&id=12&picture_id=1 <http://www.aldobrandini.it/sito/giardi/img_big.php?obj=GAL&id=12&picture_id=1>
List member Alessandra Vinciguerra (alessandra.vinciguerra@aarome.org <a*@aarome.org>) had a significant hand in creating and maybe still maintaining that garden so you might ask her for suggestions.
What I recall from our visit there in 2002 was that between the way the olives were spaced and pruned, there was plenty of light in the understory.
BTW, if anyone gets a chance to visit that garden, I highly recommend it. It remains one of the highlights of my horticultural adventures. 

Nan


On Mar 21, 2008, at 7:40 AM, Ben Wiswall wrote:


I have a grove of young olives in my garden, and by
next year they should be tall enough to walk beneath
(they've grown fast!).  The understory is now mostly
Cistus ladanifer and Lavandula stoechas 'Otto Quast'. But, as the trees are now casting some shade, the 
Cistus are beginning to get loose, and the lavenders
are looking odd, out of place in the partial shade.
What grows beneath wild olives, or beneath an
abandoned olive orchard,  in southern Europe?
As I live in southern California, I'm leaning toward
natives as an understory: Ceanothus 'Frosty Blue' has
been an ok background shrub, though not as floriferous
as in sun, and this past fall I've planted some
Arctostaphylos 'Bert Johnson' and Carpenteria
californica, so we'll see how they do.
Is a more herbaceous groundcover more appropriate? Maybe Fragaria chiloensis and Heuchera maxima 
cultivars?
Thanks for any advice!
-Ben Wiswall




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