sooby said:There's a nursery/botanical garden that advertises 'Tortuosa' in Derbyshire which is not all that far - according to Wikipedia Tilia platyphyllos is native to Europe including the SW UK, but someone would likely have planted the cultivar 'Tortuosa' where you are. I would say it is definitely a Tilia (Linden) but check out this Tilia ID article and see what you think:
I don't know how or where the cultivar 'Tortuosa' originated. Yours doesn't look quite as curly as some of the pictures of it on Google but maybe it isn't always as pronounced in a larger tree - or maybe it is a hybrid with 'Tortuosa' as a parent.
Pistil said:Most "tortuous" cultivars originated as a "sport" which is a genetic mutation that happened in one branch of a tree. In most cases, the seeds do not carry the mutation, and those cultivars (short for CUL tivated VARiety) are grown by grafting. Thus every one you see is really a clone of that sport of "Cheswick" and is 127 years old!
If the suckers seem nice and straight and not like the twisted branches you can assume this was a grafted specimen, and the suckers are from the normal rootstock and not twisted. In this case you should buy one already grafted if you really want one for a specific location. You can try growing it from seed but it probably will not show the twistiness you like, and it will take several years to know. Fun project though!
sooby said:According to the article in this link, it originated as a single tree in a bed of 500 Tilia platyphyllos in the RHS garden at Chiswick (before they moved to Wisley), which kind of sounds like it was from seed and not a branch sport on a "regular" tree:
Pistil said:What fun-maybe it is transmissible!
ViburnumValley said:Take a look at Tilia petiolaris (syn. Tilia tomentosa 'Petiolaris'). This is a pendant to weeping plant - not a tortuous one like you are discussing in this thread.
ViburnumValley said:Take a look at Tilia petiolaris (syn. Tilia tomentosa 'Petiolaris'). This is a pendant to weeping plant - not a tortuous one like you are discussing in this thread.