Tree Containers?

gsi300024v

So thinking of growing a tree in a friends front basement area. He lives in the city, has a little area that open to the outside in a very shaded spot. I was thinking of getting a biggish container and planting a tree in it as it would poke it's way up onto the street, he works from home and has people visit for work, so might be nice, it's a very concrete jungle area so I thought it might brighten it up a bit. Any ideas about containers and trees?
The container it's self won't be very visible and he'll water it as needed. I had thought about a climber to train up the wall and on up onto the railings up but it's an old house and the wall is fairly brittle.
Any and all ideas welcome.

macraignil

gsi300024v wrote: »

So thinking of growing a tree in a friends front basement area. He lives in the city, has a little area that open to the outside in a very shaded spot. I was thinking of getting a biggish container and planting a tree in it as it would poke it's way up onto the street, he works from home and has people visit for work, so might be nice, it's a very concrete jungle area so I thought it might brighten it up a bit. Any ideas about containers and trees?
The container it's self won't be very visible and he'll water it as needed. I had thought about a climber to train up the wall and on up onto the railings up but it's an old house and the wall is fairly brittle.
Any and all ideas welcome.

The bigger the container you can use the better for the tree. It's important that it is free draining. Some small stones or gravel at the end of the container might help.

Traditional small trees for containers would include bay leaf/lauris nobilis. I have also seen olive trees grown in the same way but I'd be afraid it might get too cold for them here. Photinia Red Robin would be an option for more colour. There are a number of cherry tree varieties that can look good in an urban setting.

Sonnenblumen

A large container 90 cm cube would be capable of supporting most common tree varieties. What needs to be carefully considered is what material, typically terracotta are rarely suitable for growing large plants as they tend to crack, crumble and break eventually. Similarly wood tends to be inexpensive but eventually rots leaving one clear choice ie engineered polymer containers usually with twin walled construction and designed specially for safely and securely planting trees. They tend to cost more but will outlast any of the other popular (compromised) alternatives and ultimately provide best value.

Incidentally Bay and Photinia (Red Robin) can be difficult and onerous to maintain as container grown shrubs. Olive Trees grow very successfully in Ireland, well we've planted hundreds over the years and we've only had 1 casualty during this period. In comparison to losses suffered with other plant types, a convincing statistic to plant an Olive tree (relatively low but broad growing tree) which can be easily pruned anytime to suit available space. native rootballed/bare root trees

gsi300024v

I went for climbers that are evergreens, don't mind shade, have white flowers and small good too. Hope to train them around the railings at street level. Wanted to try do this at the customers house for a while now.
Olive tree sound good though too, and different, they're a pretty tree also.