Gardeners
world with Paraic Horkan NDH.
Horkans Garden Centre Castlebar. 
Laburnum Vossii - Golden rain tree
Mark the millennium this weekend.
This weekend the 26th and 27th of February is the start of the millennium tree planting weekend at Horkans Garden Centre Castlebar. What better way to mark the millennium than to plant an ornamental broadleaved tree in your garden? The range of flowering and foliage trees offers a tree suitable for all locations and indeed for all gardens.
Foliage colour remains one of the most important features when selecting a suitable tree for the garden. Remember that a colourful ornamental foliage tree will create colour from early spring carry it throughout summer until mid winter.
The ideal autumnal weather over the past four weeks has created ideal planting conditions for all plants including fruit, broad-leaved trees, hedging plants and colourful shrubs.
Trees with good winter colour..
Foliage colour remains one of the key important areas when selecting a new tree, flower colour is great but tends to be short lived as with flowering cherries and laburnums.
Bark colour can also be important particularly from trees like silver birch and eucalyptus which provide both foliage and stem colour particularly in autumn and winter.
One of the best silver birch has to be betula jacquemontii with its beautiful large leaves that turn rich yellow in autumn and as the tree matures the bark peels to reveal a wonderful white colour.
Betula jacquemontii looks particularly well when planted in groups to create a wood land effect and one which lends its self to under planting of spring flowering bulbs.
All important foliage colour..
The large broad sycamore like leaves of acer crimson sentry offers a deep purple colour throughout the spring, summer and autumn period. Acer crimson sentry is a wonderful compact tree with a full head of foliage. Great trees to contrast against brighter foliage trees and offer extra foliage colour to brighten up the garden.
A wonderful tree to mix with crimson sentry is acer drummondii with its bright green and white foliage both trees mixed together will offer you a rich combination of extra colour for the garden. The variegated popular has remained one of the most colorful broad-leaved trees throughout the summer the new growth in spring is bright pink, turns to white and finishes a speckled marbled colour for late summer and autumn.
This particular tree is easy to grow , can be trimmed to size and ideal for all soil types.
Flower colour & berry..
Flowering trees have their place in every garden the beautiful spring flowering cherries are stunning in early march. Varieties like prunus kanzan produce large double pink flowers which smother the entire tree, prunus kanzan will make a large specimen tree more suited to the larger rural garden, the foliage turns a super scarlet colour in autumn and provides an extra splash of autumn colour.
For something different try prunus shirotae or flat topped cherry, which produces very large double white flowers along its horizontal branch structure.
The overall shape of this tree is particularly stunning and more suited to a smaller garden.
Both the malus and sorbus family offer a wonderful range of hardy ornamental trees which provide both flower and ornamental berries in spring and autumn respectively.
Sorbus aria lutscens remains one of the most popular hardy broad-leaved trees ideal for our exposed west of Ireland conditions. Silver leaves are produced in March followed by white flowers in mid summer. Excellent choice for coastal or elevated sites.
The malus family contains some beautiful flowering and fruiting plants, in the apple family this range of trees are noted for their free flowering ability and the neat overall shape which makes them ideal for all gardens particularly small town gardens.
Look for malus Everest which is covered in white flowers and followed by ornamental fruit for autumn and winter colour.
Horkys tip: remember to add organic compost when planting and secure your trees with adequate stakes and ties when planting. All trees benefit with a dressing of shrub fertilizer in April.
Your invitation..
Come along this weekend and mark the millennium by selecting a beautiful ornamental broadleaved tree suitable for the west of Ireland join our panel of experts over the weekend and avail of top quality advise on the most suitable variety of tree for your garden.
Remember HORKANS garden centre is open seven days sun two to six. Our gardening help line is 094 26997. horky@iol.ie