Sorbus

In January I bought a bare rooted Sorbus.


Today it looks like this.


I have noticed that all the other similar trees in the surrounding area are covered with berries. Should mine have berries? If not then should I have berries in later years.

I'm not sure how tall or wide the mature tree will be. Should I trim the top to encourage sideways growth ?

G.

Will the tree be strong enough to take the cane out?

 

If it didn’t have flowers in spring it won’t have berries.
Besides it’s all about the growth right now.
Depends on what you want.....a tall slender tree or a bushy one!

 

That's what I thought. Perhaps I'll give it another year to see how it fills out.

G.

 

There are lots of different varieties of Sorbus - do you know which yours is? There's at least one designed to be tall and slender, which I have here: Sorbus aucuparia 'Autumn Spire' Tree

Mine's a young 'un too, bought as a container specimen and planted back in the spring. Like yours it has no berries yet. Just the one leading stem, which makes me think yours is more likely to be a bushier variety.

 

@Clare G

[QUOTE="Jack Sparrow, post: 1188335, member: 20467] Online I have found a nursery selling bare root Sorbus Aucuparia from £7 up to £15 with free p&p[/QUOTE]

This was my original post from back in January. I cant remember the name of the supplier so I'm afraid that's all I have to go on.

The plant is perfectly healthy so I guess, as with all things, I just have to wait to see what happened next year.

G.

 

I remember Gary

 

Yes indeed it looks a nice healthy tree @Jack Sparrow, hope you get some flowers next spring! They are popular as street trees round here: very pretty, birds like the berries, and they don't grow too large. All reasons why I got one, too.

 

@Jack Sparrow
The Sorbus below I've grown from seed The taller one is 12 to 15 years old showing no sign of filling out. It took about 6-7 years to produce flowers and berries. It is on relatively shallow soil and can get very dry.



This Sorbus was also grown from seed and is now 8 to 10 years old and again took over 5 years to flower and fruit. It's in slightly better soil and doesnt get as dry as the other. It has filled more and is about 8ft high.

The berries on both will be gone relatively soon, blackbirds love them and it is quite amusing to see a blackbird doing a humming bird impression to snatch a berry in midair from the spindly bunches.

 

The tree will only strengthen when the cane is removed. You can tie is with a stake at about 2ft instead to allow the tree to sway and encourage it to thicken out.

 

Hi @Steve Canham . The tree is as thick as the cane. I'm more than happy to take the cane away. I have a Salix flamingo that is roughly the same size and looks after itself quite nicely.

The wind here is a problem. That's one of the reasons I've tucked the sorbus in behind the bin store. Hopefully that should be enough to give it some shelter.

G.