cant help you but somewhere i have the addy of a guy who set up a plant import thing in Spain, he has a couple of suppliers in the UK and Holland, and can get anything.

If I can dig it out I will.

[QUOTE=rugbymatt;4749717]cant help you but somewhere i have the addy of a guy who set up a plant import thing in Spain, he has a couple of suppliers in the UK and Holland, and can get anything.

If I can dig it out I will.[/QUOTE]

Thanks very much for all your help, although I fear for you as I'm not even out there yet and I've asked you a million things already!!

I was going to mention the same thing- especially for Wisteria...which while beautiful during two weeks in the early spring- has invaded forests here in the Southern US with it's vines pulling down trees and what not...though it's no where near as bad as Kudzu- which has truely become a plague here.

What on earth is Kudzo? You lucky thing living in the States that would be my country of choice, but no jobs for Pilots there!

Kudzu




.

Thanks for that JDR, Funnily enough there was a prog on Radio 4 today about how Rhodadendrons ((opps spelling??) are taking over areas of land in Wales, near Snowdon, and the seeds can travel 2 miles in the air! its choking the areas natural vegetation, and they are desperately trying to remove it.
The variety is from Spain originally!!I will think again about choosing my plants !!!

No problem, Kudzu sounds a really scary plant in USA.

hi everyone im new to this site ,been reading all the comments on gardening ,very informative.
Ive a question if thats ok. I live in the costa blanca and am moving to another town not far away,how can i move my palm tree? they are due to be bulldozed if i dont.

Hi hummingbird

welcome to BE, our gardening expert is off having a curry but I expect he will be back soon. Personally I think I would pay out to have them moved professionally, all I know about palms is they have a shallow root ball but like all roots I expect they damage easily. Matt will be here shortly so keep checking in.

Hi hummingbird and welcome.

Why don't you go to a few garden centres near you and ask for a quote I'm sure they'll be more than happy to give you info and advice.

Martha

thanx crispy girl and mnm will try the garden centers and also wait for your gardening expert to return from his curry for further comments,
I must admit am a little concerned as they are a bit on the large side I have 6 to move.I dont want to leave them to the developers to destroy.Or maybe they will treat them as an extra gift!!Personally I think they have taken quite enough from my friends and I(but thats another story).

I wouldn't even try it yourself, while they are relatively easy to move some preparation has to go into it. Ideally they have to be rootballed the season before they are moved, this means running a shovel around the roots in a circle about as wide at the leaves extend, then it needs to be left to recover, then moved the following dormant season.

As they are planning to bulldozer the area I doubt you will have that luxury so I would find someone who can help, the garden center idea is a good one, but local farmers usually have some experience with palms.
The palm has to be supported about 3/4 of the way up, and at the root ball as it is lifted, it wont be as heavy as a tree, but if the stem is stressed or worse snaps, then the palm wont make it. Then they can be loaded onto a truck and moved. Make sure you tie all the spears together, don't move it with them lose.

When re planting, make sure that the hole you plant it in is square, NOT round, a round hole makes the roots run in a circle, and they get root bound and can die back, make sure it is twice as deep as the root ball, and put some nice well rotted compost or farm matter in there to give the palm a bit of a head start, then it is down to your farmers/garden center guys to plant it up, get it straight and obviously take the rope holding the fronds together. Staking it will be awkward, they usually have 4 pegs set around the palm with straps running up to the palm again about 3/4 of the way up, an old hessian sack or something similar makes a good strap just make sure ONLY that goes around the palm, no rope, they are very sensitive to pressure points.

The best time to do this is during its dormant period, usually in the middle of summer but in hot countries it tends to be the middle of the hottest part of summer.

You just wanna kiss im don't ya

I am doing a fairly comprehensive list of plants that can be grown in Spain, including non natives, it will have categories for differing conditions and situations, so give me a couple of days and I will get it finished and post it.