| Weeping
Trees
September
2007
In
a grand landscape scene it is tree shapes that
stands out. The large, rounded headed specimens
in the English countryside, tall, pointed conifers
on Scottish hillsides and elegant birch growing
on an Irish peat bog draw your eyes to the far
distance.
In most gardens there isn’t the space
to indulge in lots of big trees but by planting
weeping trees we can create the same impact.
They look different and at anytime in the year
are sufficiently interesting to add to the garden
view.
 Even
then some wonderful weeping trees will become
too large for the average sized garden. The
weeping ash, Fraxinus excelsior ‘Pendula’
is majestic in old age but you have to think
ahead and provide 100 square metres for its
needs.
 There
are several weeping birch trees. Betula pendula
has pendant branchlets but two of its offspring
are truly weeping. B. p. ‘Tristis’
is tall and slender with good white bark. B.
p. ‘Youngii’ is dome shaped with
its branches heading out before arching down.
The weeping, purple leafed beech is remarkably
small only growing to 10 ft in height with a
similar spread. It forms a rounded head with
deep, dark purple, deciduous leaves.
For something small and interesting in winter
plant a weeping cotoneaster, C. ‘Hybridus
Pendulus’ grown as a standard. It won’t
be out of place in the smallest of gardens and
may even be grown in a large container. The
dark green leaves are evergreen with clusters
of small, white flowers in summer followed by
bright red berries. Take precautions to prevent
birds destroying the crop before you can enjoy
their winter show.
Then there is the dwarf weeping cherry, Prunus
‘Cheal’s Weeping’.It's pink,
fully double flowers are a show in late spring
as they trail down to the ground.
 The
large weeping willow (Salix x sepulcralis ‘Chrysocoma’)
with its yellow barked stems is a memorable
sight along the rivers in England. It isn’t
as happy in our climate suffering from canker
disease resulting in only a few good specimens
in Northern Ireland. There is a dwarf weeping
willow Salix caprea ‘Kilmarnock’
that is top grafted and the branches trail down
from where it has been grafted. It doesn’t
excite me but if carefully pruned it produces
a good shape.
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