Not the plant you're looking for? Search over 300,000 plants

Trees

Tilia platyphyllos 'Rubra'

red-twigged lime

A large vigorous deciduous tree to 30m tall, with a uniformly semi-upright habit, the twigs reddish in winter. Heart-shaped dark green leaves to 12cm in length, turn yellow in autumn. The pendent clusters of 3-5 pale yellow flowers are sweetly fragrant, and produced in midsummer; pollarding highlights the young red shoots for winter colour

Other common names

large-leaved lime 'Rubra'

Synonyms

Tilia platyphyllos 'Corallina'

Save to My plants

Buy this plant

Plant nurseries
5 suppliers

Ultimate height

Higher than 12 metres

Time to ultimate height

20–50 years

Ultimate spread

Wider than 8 metres

Chalk

Clay

Loam

Sand

Moisture

Moist but well–drained

pH

Alkaline, Neutral

	Stem	Flower	Foliage	Fruit
Spring
Summer
Autumn
Winter

Full sun
Partial shade

Aspect

West–facing or South–facing or East–facing

Exposure

Sheltered

Hardiness
Hardiness ratings
All ratings refer to the UK growing conditions unless otherwise stated. Minimum temperature ranges (in degrees C) are shown in brackets
H1a: under glass all year (>15C)
H1b: can be grown outside in the summer (10 - 15)
H1c: can be grown outside in the summer (5 - 10)
H2: tolerant of low temperatures, but not surviving being frozen (1 to 5)
H3: hardy in coastal and relatively mild parts of the UK (-5 to 1)
H4: hardy through most of the UK (-10 to -5)
H5: hardy in most places throughout the UK even in severe winters (-15 to -10)
H6: hardy in all of UK and northern Europe (-20 to -15)
H7: hardy in the severest European continental climates (< -20)

Botanical details

Family: Malvaceae
Native to GB / Ireland: No
Foliage: Deciduous
Habit: Columnar upright
Genus: Tilia are deciduous trees with broadly ovate or heart-shaped leaves and pendulous clusters of fragrant yellow-green flowers, followed by conspicuous winged fruits
Name status: Accepted

How to grow

Cultivation

Suitable for parks and very large gardens. Grow in moist but well-drained soil in full sun or part shade, with shelter from cold winds. May produce thickets of stems (suckers) at the base of the trunk. For more advice see tree cultivation

Propagation

Propagate by chip budding although care must be taken with the choice of rootstock or propagate by suckers in winter

Suggested planting locations and garden types

Architectural
Wildlife gardens
Hedging and screens

Pruning

Pruning group 1; a suitable tree for coppicing, pleaching and pollarding; remove suckers at the base of the trunk in spring

Pests

May be susceptible to aphids, horse chestnut scale, caterpillars, sawflies and gall mites

Diseases

May be susceptible to sooty mould, phytophthora root rot and honey fungus

Get involved

The Royal Horticultural Society is the UK’s leading gardening charity. We aim to enrich everyone’s life through plants, and make the UK a greener and more beautiful place.