| Name: | Photinia x fraseri (Red Robin) |
| Planted: | Approx. Winter 2010 (by previous owner) |
| Size: | to 3m |
| Pruning: | TBA |
| Flowering: | TBA |
| Further Info: | plantdatabase.com.au, gardenhedge.com.au |
Our Young Red Robin Hedge
August 2012
We have a red robin hedge (or rather what will in time become a hedge) running along one boundary of our back lot. Of about 40 trees (or are they shrubs?) planted by the previous owner of the lot, 36 have survived to adulthood. I had planned to replace the 4 missing ones with cuttings from their siblings, but my first attempt at this left me with a bunch of sticks in a pot. I’ll try again in Spring.
The Red Robins have proved extremely hardy, having survived an unusually dry summer with no watering from me. In the previous summer (their first), I believe the previous owner occasionally watered them using PVC piping that had specifically been inserted in the ground beside each plant. Any water saving that was achieved through this elaborate method, I suspect was outweighed in terms of the environment, effort and cost, by the complexity of the solution. I now have 40 short pieces of dirty PVC tubing cluttering my shed, and am reminded of a Monty Python sketch about 3 inch lengths of string.
The Red Robins are looking a bit straggly (rather than hedgey), which I was told is because we haven’t sufficiently “tipped” them. Having no idea what “tipping” was, I agreed with my informant, that this was likely to be the case. I have now managed to tip the ends of most branches (at a variety of lengths, not being able to find detailed specifications) and am hopeful that they will thank me by putting on a more bushy appearance next season.
Further Reading
It’s full of recipes and fabulous photos of gardens and landscapes.