Tetradium daniellii. The bee tree is a tree from china that can grow up to 20 meters tall. It has a very strong smell, when it flowers, that some people like and others find unpleasant. It was recommended by the german beekeepers as being the most melliferous plant of the temperate climates. It produces thousands of flowers and apparently a honeybee, after having visited 4 flowers, needs to return to the hive because the flowers contain so much pollen/nectar. This tree is dioecious and i planted 3 of them. I hope to have male and female trees among my 3 plants to be able to get seeds. It grows quite fast, is quite frost-hardy and the smell of the leaves reminds me of elderflower.


 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
 Layering chilean hazelnut (gevuina avellana). I already did this successfully last year. This method works very well and i think that one can multiply and grow almost any plant on its own roots this way. Young gevuina avellana tree. To begin i choose a low growing side branch on my plant and trim away the leaves in the middle. A small side branch growing close to the ground like this is ideal. I cut off the leaves in the mid section. Using a sharp knife i carefully open the stem with a long cut. I try not to cut further up than half of the thickness of the stem. Apply rooting hormone to the wound (it probably works without hormone too, but i like to use it). It's very important to wedge one or two small bits of matchstick into the cut to force the wound to stay open. I cut a plastic pot leaving two holes at the correct height to accommodate the branch passing through. Put the pot in place, taking care that the cut is roughly in the middle and that the bits of matchstick stay in pl...
Read more
Image
 Malus sieversii. This is my little three coloured malus sieversii apple when it was young. Now i am trying to multiply it by approach grafting. The ornamental value of this tree is off the charts. Incredible leaf colours. This was at the end of last year. Now i am approach grafting it onto another apple rootstock. I did the grafting on the 6th of march and plan to cut them off on the 6th of june. In spring the leaves are green with a little red on the edges but each year they then display spectacular colours. The problem is the plant is not very vigourous and we don't know what the fruit will be like. Here you can see that the rootstock makes larger leaves than the three coloured apple. I found this individual in 428 seed-grown malus sieversii. Malus sieversii is incredibly diverse genetically as you can see in the next picture. These are malus sieversii seedlings displaying huge diversity.
Read more
Image
 Medlar. Mespilus germanica. I was lucky to get two very rare types of medlar. One kind was sent to me by a swiss collector who said it is the best tasting variety he knows. The second one is a seedless one that makes larger fruit than the ordinary seedless one, so also very special. There still is a huge potential in improving medlars through breeding simply by crossing them or even by trying to cross them with other fruit species. Medlars give fruit in my climate every year. No other fruit tree is as reliable for me as the medlar. superior tasting swiss type. large fruited, seedless type from bulgaria.
Read more