Monday, April 29, 2013

Plant ABCs: P is for Photinia fraseri

I'm continuing my ABCs of plants in my garden series with Photinia fraseri.  You can view the others in the series on my sidebar or on the Plant ABCs tab at the top.  Plant ABCs is a series to document the plants in my garden.  I'm going through the alphabet in order and when it is completed I will add and update entries.

Photinia fraseri or Red-tip Photinia is one of the most common plants in my neighborhood.  Almost everyone used it for screening along their fences when the houses were built.  This non-native plant originated in New Zealand and has more recently been replaced in newer developments with native shrubs.  The photinia in my yard have been here for 18 years and along the fence line for even longer so they aren't going anywhere soon.


Regardless of how you feel about the ubiquitous Red-tip photinia, it's hard to beat for privacy.  The houses on either side of us were built first and both owners planted Red-tip photinia along their fence lines soon after moving in.  These planted by the neighbor to the south turned out to be on our lot and we have promised to keep them.  We also enjoy the bright color of the new foliage.


These were planted by our neighbors on the north and help shade the garden along the fence in the summer. They are blooming now and I think they are quite pretty.
 
 
 Closeups of the blooms
 

 
Reaching up to 20 feet on the north side of the house, they help hide a tall hotel building


Hotel?  You thought we lived in the far suburbs?  Well yes and no.  We do live away from the city but we also live just a few blocks from one of the busiest commercial areas in north San Antonio.  Take a look at the upper right in the photo below to see just a small part of a very large hotel building on the major road behind us.


We planted seven red-tips in the front fence corner (above) shortly after we purchased this house in the mid-1990s.  At the time the corner and the rest of the front yard had few plants other than the oaks.  Knowing very little about landscaping with native plants at the time, I decided to match the plants on their side of the fence.

It is listed as an invasive in Texas, but the flowers are sterile so it doesn't spread by seed, and there have been very few spring up from roots.  Overall due to my love for native plants I probably wouldn't plant it now, but it is very good at doing what we want it to do, which is hiding the neighboring properties.

This view from my kitchen window shows how they hide the neighbor's deck.  Their red coloration of new growth in the spring is very attractive, and Cardinals love to nest in them, so we have plenty of them as guests.


One downside is they are from the Rose family which makes them highly susceptible to fungal diseases like leaf spot and likely to need to be replaced eventually.  Another downside is they do get bare at the base.  We'll fix that by planting a perennial border and filling in with slow-growing native evergreens like Texas Mountain Laurel (Sophora secundiflora).  Trimming them from the top to open them up to sunlight helps promote growth of lower limbs as well.   One place you don't want to use these is where you need a small shrub because you would spend a lot of time keeping it trimmed.


Hardy in zones 7 through 8, they have withstood the droughts and cold without batting an eye.  They are very low maintenance, which is a big plus.

So overall the Photinia fraseri is a very useful plant for privacy, very pretty in the spring, and attracts birds, all of which which makes it a good choice for Texas gardens despite its non-native lineage. 

22 comments:

  1. I love Photinia but it doesn't do well for me here in Tucson. Such a pretty plant in your area though...

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    1. It works well in a very narrow range apparently. While it has been drought tolerant here, most resources say otherwise so the desert would be a problem.

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  2. I guess I've heard of Photinia, but I know nothing about it. Thanks for sharing all this great info. If I ever live in zones 7 or 8, I'll consider this plant. It's beautiful!

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    1. We are lucky here in zone 8 with so many plants that will grow well.

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  3. I just had my photinias pulled out. It was an excellent privacy barrier but in my wet climate, it was prone to disease. I am glad to see that they thrive in a warmer climate.

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    1. We are not only warm, but usually quite dry so fungal diseases are rare.

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  4. I doubt I can walk a block without seeing a few here. But has it's merits, including how you used it. Chinese Photinia is stunning esp as a small tree, but I only see it in older areas of town...Photinia serrulata...looks like a rhododendron leaf.

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    1. I do see some nice ones trimmed up around here, maybe I'll take some photos. We need them full for our fence line.

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  5. You're breaking me heart! Our neighbor to the south used to be completely hidden behind a wall of photinia. You couldn't even see their house which was quite the trick considering they are about 3ft away from the edge of our driveway. Then they cut them down, and still apologize for how big they let them get. I can't help it but I always respond saying how much we miss them. Rude of me I know.

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    1. Not rude at all, we always ask when dealing with plants that affect our neighbors and one neighbor likes to keep them trimmed while the other wants them left alone.

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  6. I had them for years until they just got too hard to control close to the house.It took my tractor and some heavy chain to get them out of the ground, even after a deep soaking. I think they were the first shrubs I planted. With all your natives, this one almost took me by surprise.I`ve used Eleagnus for screen purposes since, but it no less non-native or any easier to control.

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    1. They are not meant to be kept as a trim hedge or small spaces which is something I see a lot. The series is about the plants in my yard--good, bad, or neutral. I will never be a native plant purist because there are so many excellent plants out there.

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  7. I've a soft spot for these too even though for a time they were planted in just about every new landscape here. The red foliage is gorgeous and my favorites are the ones that have been given space to become trees - stunning.

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    1. Because our neighborhood is not a typical suburban tract, all these red tips gives a certain cohesiveness that might not be there.

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  8. They're all over the neighborhood here, and have grown up to be trees.
    I don't think I would plant one today. But, they do make good screens and grow quickly.

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    1. Can't beat them for fast screening and privacy.

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  9. They do what they do well if you have them already for sure! We have several that aren't going anywhere anytime soon (well....unless they die).

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    1. It's always a possibility with the disease problem but good so far.

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  10. Thank you for the photo and background information. Photinia was very common in our area for a time, but more recently it has fallen from favor. I think I am going to take another look at this planting.

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  11. They're workhorses, and beautiful to boot. Plus, they grow quickly to do their screening duties. No wonder they are everywhere. Much maligned in some snooty circles, but we would not be without them.

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  12. I used to have a lovely photinia at the bottom of my garden, I bought it in a 2L pot and trimmed and shaped it into a 1.8 m tall lollipop tree - until a family of foxes decided to dig a tunnel under my fence. That's where most of the roots to the photinia were. For a long time it looked like the photinia was going to recover but finally it just died. I miss it, it was a lovely project, it took 8 years!

    Here in Britain photinia is also used a lot for screening and hedging, lovely plants with great colours.

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  13. Shirley, you've almost convinced me to give red-tips a little love (or at least like). I've never been a fan, not even of the reddish spring foliage. But you have a point that they can be useful screening plants. They also tend to be overused in Austin for that very reason.

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