Red tipped photinia

Red tipped photinias (photinia x fraseri) are usually seen in the form of a hedge or a foundation bush. They may also be grown into an evergreen tree form. The lower limbs should be pruned as they grow. The photinia will grow into a tree with a very nice shape. As they continue to grow they will reach maximum height and the spread out into an umbrella form. I have three of them in tree form and are about ten years old. When these were planted I was in zone six we are now in zone seven. The trees are very hardy and have endured many freezes and some heavy snow.

Nice pic Rocco. I've also seen them about double that size crown-raised. I also used some loli-pop containerized ones from a local nursery for a landscape project a few years ago. Some of the cultivars are a bit nicer to work with - Red Robin comes up with better red on new growth.

Your tree certainly looks great near the patio. An evergreen broadleaved small tree for Z 7a.

Verrry nice rocco! Can you explain about the zones?

Yeah, nice pic Rocco. My brother in Mesquite, TX has an old over-grown hedge of it and it doesn't look good. He bought a 115 year old historic home so who knows how old this hedge really is. It has swallowed the whole length of their chain link fence and is up into the power lines.

Your photo is inspirational though, it shows how it can be pruned and controlled into an evergreen tree, which is nice.
I like to see hedge and shrub forms pruned into a tree. It brings to mind a patient, yet daring and knowledgeable plan to a landscape. Wisteria and Forsythia come to mind as 2 others.
I think I'll save your photo for future viewing if thats alright.

I couldn't try that here, I'm too far North. I'd have to shell out more money for a hardier cultivar. Most of the stores here sell all those "not hardy in this area plants" during the Summer of course. But they'll sell you anything in the Summer and hope you don't bring them back for a refund after they have died. I've seen Crape Myrtle, straight Southern Magnolia, Red-tipped Photinia, Banana trees (even the less hardy varieties such as ('Gran nain') and more. I agree, some of them MIGHT live in the ground, facing the South, with yearly die-back, but on the average, not. Not to mention that if they DO live here, they will likely be shrubs. Its mostly big-box stores like Lowes, Home Depot and Wal-mart that sell those plants in the Summer. I asked Lowes where they come from, they are shipped from Florida, which is even worse. I wouldn't be surprised if they all came from Florida, from all the stores.

Will

This is a photo of it, but a photo of it just back when I was trying to identify it. I don't have one of it all in the fence.

Thanks for the replies. Regarding the zone change most maps show Tulsa,OK as zone six but things have changed. Plants are coming up earlier,birds arriving sooner,etc. The Arbor Day Foundation has reclassified the various zones with a new map. We are now in zone seven. A new map may be downloaded from Arbor Day.
Another plus for the photinias is that once they have attained maturity they produce thousands of red berries that birds enjoy eating.
No problem with the photo,copy away!
John

Keep in mind that we seem to be entering a period of climate instability due to global climate change, but not necessarily a general warming in all regions. Take those recent Zone 7 winters with a big thank-you, but don't bank on the new NADF map being dependable over the potential lifetimes of those Zone-7 trees you lust after.

Guy S.

I doubt that my zone will ever revert back to zone 6. My zone seven trees hav been there for over ten years. Also, I tend to have more faith in The Arbor Day Foundation than the USDA.

Maybe that's true, but at least the USDA maps were based upon a century of records, not a decade of mild blips on the radar screen.

Global warming is a complex scenario that does not necessarily mean we all will merely be a few degrees more cozy in the winter. Drought cycles, hurricanes, spring/fall extremes, Nino-Nina patterns, and general destabilization of our global climate cannot be predicted by a decade of weather reports compiled while our climate was taking a nap. We, as a planet, could be leaving our comfortable 1000-year sleep and may be entering a very scary cycle of instability and extinction. When polar ice melting and ocean current disruption reach critical thresholds, we might see our climate start having grand-mal seizures in just one or two years. It's happened that way before, if you check pollen cores and ice cores.

Still, I do the same thing you do. I try zone 6-7 stuff here in zone 5 (NADF 6). We all like to test our limits, just like children, and as long as we recognize that we might get slapped down sometime in the coming Century I say go ahead and experiment!

Guy S.

The weather has indeed become most unpredictable. Even the patterns of ocean currents have changed, becoming similar to ones that caused severe droughts from California to the Corn belt in the 1930s and 1950s, according to the Farmers Almanac. Also according to them, these different patterns coincide with extremely busy Atlantic hurricane seasons. Maybe Chicken Little was onto something? Guy, I get ice cores, but what are pollen cores? Fascinating subject...
I for one will happily cultivate my little patch of ground with a song in my heart once springtime has finally arrived, whenever that is! :-)

Sorry, I should have provided more detail, but I didn't want to get too deeply into this. Pollen cores are taken from the bottoms of lakes that formed at the end of the last ice age. The anemophilous (wind-disseminated) pollen that blows into the lake and settles to the bottom does so in annual layers that can be read like the annual rings of a tree or the annual ice layers in a glacier. Different pollen types can be identified to determine if the predominant surrounding landscape at any given time was a spruce forest, a pine forest, an oak forest, a grassland, etc. By taking pollen cores from lake bottoms and comparing them with the air trapped in ice cores, palynologists can correlate vegetation types, atmospheric "greenhouse-gas" concentrations, etc. Think of it as an extension of dendrochronology (tree-ring study)

Guy S.

How kewl Guy! The sky really IS falling.
Maybe one more definition is in order for those playing along at home: Palynology - the study of spores and pollen, including fossilized spores and pollen.
So which one are you?
I am a student, just starting a semester in Soil science. Wish me luck!

Which one am I ????
I'm the fossilized one . . .
Good luck!
Guy S.

I meant palynologist or dendrochronologist, but I see error of my ways, of course you are the fossil! Hahahaha
Me too. Just ask my teenage classmates.

I see this post has been altered by the censors, so I'm pulling it off entirely.
Rocco, it's your thread and they've censored your reply as well.

Guy S.

This message was edited Jan 15, 2006 8:33 PM

This is my photinia. It has been planted about 5 yrs. It was about 1 or 2 ft tall when we planted it. It has grown like crazy. As you can see we made a 'tree' out if it. I grow impatiens and hosta under it.


I love it!

I love the way the trunks look.....

Berrygirl
That is a nice photo of your photinia. I am surprised that I don't see many of them in my area that are grown as a tree. Most of the photinias that I see are grown as hedges and kept trimmed. I have a large Japanese maple and it's a toss up as to whether it or the photinia is my favorite.
John

Berrygirl
That's a nice photo of your photinia. I also like the fact that they produce multiple trunks. There are very few in my area that are grown as a tree. Most that I see are kept trimmed as a hedge. They grow into a nice shape and don't become overgrown. It seems that one would see more of the tree form.

Photinia...yep, you mostly see them a hedges here in NC, too. Love that tree look though! (Guess I'll be taking some cuttings from my neighbors hedge for rooting, eh?)

Are there many other types of photinia, other that the typical "red tip"?

Shoe

Bleeped...duplicate post.


This message was edited Jan 16, 2006 6:01 PM

Rocco and Berry Girl. Love your tree shaped Photinias. I tried one several years ago, my best guess is that they need somewhat acidic soil, and since mine is so alkaline and besides the sone thing is against me too. But I would love to have a multiple trunked tree like either of yours.

DonnaS

Berrygirl
The reason that there are two replies form me is that I sent the first one and got a response that it could not be sent. Of course when I hit send the whole thing disappears and one has no Idea where it went. I thought it could possibly be a server problem. I then sent the second one. That is really what happened,I'm not "losing it!"
John

hah! Yes, John...it's definitely a server problem (it's happening all over the site). Don't worry, you're not goin' nuts!

Donna - I'm with you, I'm extremely envious of the choices available just one zone warmer than ours. Maybe if we live long enough we'll be in a warmer zone someday after all! (Not just "personal summer" LOL Which I'm going thru right now, hahaha)

John,
I've got doubles all over so not a prob!

Shoe,
there are other photinia but unfortunately they aren't widely available or known. So you gonna raid your neighbor at night or what? Let us know when you get 'em.

Prairie,
I'm envious of those of you who can grow "alpine" trees [as I call em] that I can't grow b/c of the heat. And I am also envious of the folks in FL and CA that can grow so many tropical things that would die here in winter. Envy is all relative- LOL!

berry girl - do you mean evergreens don't grow well for you? I was not aware of that. Guess everything IS relative, LOL, you're right about that!