Podocarpus elongatus
6th February 2009
I planted this last year hoping for an interesting evergreen shrub to fill in some space in the garden.
The species of Podocarpus from New Zealand perform well in the UK but this is a South African species.
In general tems they are larger trees but less hardy.
7th January 2010
I have wanted to establish one of the South African Yellow-woods in the garden. A few miles down the road
(in a milder direction) I have seen plants of P.henkelii flourishing, and I tried it here,
ultimately without success. I had hoped that this would be a bit tougher. It has a blue sheen to the
leaves which would make it an interesting shrub as it got larger.
Unfortunately we have had a string of "the worst winter since.." winters and my young plant didn't stand a chance.
I may well have another go, but this time I will be looking for the most protected spot I can find
and crossing my fingers for enough mild winters to let it establish and grow before it is severely tested.
Unlike many conifers it has the ability to regenerate from epicormic buds on the trunk of the tree, so it
should be able to recover from a severe winter. The problem is that you have to have a trunk for the
epicormic buds to develop from. Even at my most optimistic I am not going to describe this tiny stick as a trunk!