Trees

Sweetgum

Picture a new house and busy, young owners with a small boy to care for. Their lawn went un-watered and un-cared for for months and now they needed help from Red Seal Vas. It happens all the time. Having a nice green lawn is harder than it looks. You have to water it regularly, fertilize it with product specific to the season, and cut at the proper height. On dry days you can mulch it by letting the clippings drop on the lawn as free fertilizer; and if you have time, you can pop any big weeds with a hand tool.

But this blog post is about two columnar sweetgum trees (Liquidambar styraciflua) planted in the front lawn. They both looked dry, they didn’t have established tree wells and one had a dry top, a sure sign of water stress. I also did a quick wiggle test by gently moving the main stem. Since I could see the root balls moving, I knew the trees weren’t established.

Unwanted

The lady didn’t want the trees. She was sure of that. So I suggested she take a picture of the tree tags, still attached to the trees. (Columnar sweetgum, Liquidambar styraciflua ‘Slender silhouette’, $149.99). She can then use the information to sell the trees online. And she did, just before I did a second cut on her weedy lawn.

As luck would have it, I finished work close by so I popped over to help dig up the trees, like some Japanese just-in-time service. Now, since the trees weren’t completely established in their planting holes the extraction was easy. Once the trees were out we transferred them to plastic pots and wrapped them up in plastic so we could put them in the small SUV that showed up.

I always wonder what sort of person buys columnar sweetgum online. The young buyer looked like a techie. He put the root balls in the back and stuck the tree tips out through the passenger window. I hope he didn’t have far to go.

Conclusion

Don’t want your landscape trees? Give them away or sell them online. My client did and she’s happy, even though those two trees were the only trees on her property, if you don’t count single cedars.

When you dig up the trees, keep as much of the root ball as you can, unless you’re confidently planting bare-root. Also, don’t forget to fill in the holes so your mailman doesn’t break a leg.

Never waste perfectly good trees!

Calm down!

When apprentices heat up WhatsApp with messages about tree bark, I laugh. It means they still need to spend more time in the field. That’s why the Red Seal program involves school sessions and time in the field. It’s difficult to pass the trade exam without experience. And London plane (Platanus x acerifolia) trees are part of that experience. She’s on the right track by asking questions.

What about the bark?

The bark on London plane trees is extremely attractive. I have these trees across the street from my place and when I walk by, I peel off some of the bark for the fun of it. I have no immediate use for it. It’s just a bad habit.

Now, should our apprentice worry about the bark on the ground? Or, would it make more sense for her to worry about the sidewalk crack weeds and weeds in the tree wells? The lawn could also use a blade edge; that’s what any good landscape manager would notice. It’s important to cover everything in the landscape.

Of course, there are times when the trees may be diseased but London plane trees shed bark all the time. One reason is renewal: old bark peels off to make room for new, beautiful bark. Another reason is defensive: protect against invading parasites and fungal diseases.

Seed balls

I know London plane trees well because they- they only!-make me cry when I get close to them. I don’t suffer from any allergies but pollen from the seed balls and bark makes my eyes water. In a big way.

The seed balls are as attractive as the bark. They have a hard core to which are attached seeds, making a round seed ball.

Conclusion

If you see your neighbourhood London plane trees shedding bark, chances are they are just renewing their bark or defending themselves against diseases.

Living fossil

The monkey puzzle tree (Araucaria araucana) is a living fossil. Because it’s a tree adapted to a different earth, seeing it in our landscapes is a memorable experience. Now, I’ve seen the trees before and I knew they had a bizarre look to them; but I never really looked them up, until now. The trees we see in our landscapes are native to Chile.

Young specimens are spindly and their foliage is made up of spiky triangular leaves that openly advertise to every passerby and animal to stay away. Even the stems are covered in spiky leaves which makes me wonder how people plant the trees. I’m sure you need heavy duty gloves and goggles.

The young monkey puzzle tree above is well planted because there is ample space for it to develop. It will grow to 30-40 m and it will also get the full sun it likes in this spot. Remember to always consider the mature size of the trees you are planting to avoid future problems.

The monkey puzzle tree is slow-growing. It takes years for cones to develop so until then, it’s difficult to say if this tree is male or female. The cones will tell us.

Maturity

Mature monkey puzzle trees lose their lower branches and flatten out on top, which gives them an umbrella shape. Self-pruning is common as lower branches are shed. I didn’t know what the tree looked like at maturity until one of my Facebook friends posted a series of photos online.

I was also surprised to learn that the trees produce edible nuts. I would love to try one. Allegedly they taste like a cross between cashews and pine nuts but I have no idea what pine nuts taste like. If indigenous people in South America harvest them, they must be good to eat.

Monkey puzzle trees, like ginkgos, are living fossils and I enjoy seeing both species in our parks and gardens. The monkey puzzle tree has a bizarre look with its spiky triangular leaves. Interestingly, it transforms into an umbrella shape as it sheds its lower branches with maturity.

If you have space and time, you can plant one in your garden and give your visitors a memorable experience.

No time to stop

Landscaping work in the private sector is driven by profit, and it’s very difficult to generate profits if your workers stop to notice details in the landscape. It’s go, go, go all the time.

This past summer I was helping at an older site, predictably populated by mature trees. And right at the entrance to an inside planted courtyard stand three mature small-leaved linden trees (Tilia cordata).

Now, as I made passes through the entrance, I noticed something different in the air, but I pressed on with my regular lawn care duties. Lawn care is always done first.

Asian mommy

Just as I passed under the lindens, a lovely Asian mommy walked up with a baby stroller, and she had a huge grin on her face. I also noticed, in passing, that she could have been a model for Lululemon tights. That’s all can say in a family blog.

So, why the grin? The fragrance, of course! The lindens easily overpowered the smell of my gas-powered machines. Then the lady stopped her baby-stroller and asked me if I had noticed the smell. Of course, I had. Vaccinated against COVID, my sense of smell was totally fine. I just couldn’t describe the smell.

Tilia flowers

The small Tilia cordata yellow-green flowers come out in early summer. You can easily identify the tree species because under the flowers is a bract. The flower scent is rich and heavy, says Wikipedia. And it really is. It can put a smile on your face.

The fruit is a dry, nut-like drupe.

Lindens are native to Europe, and they’re deciduous trees growing to 20-40m. The specific epithet “cordata” means heart-shaped and refers to the leaves.

Lindens are disease-resistant trees and they’re used as ornamental trees. Thus, their placement inside a high-profile corridor. I wonder how many more residents had noticed the fragrance.

Watch out for linden trees in your neighborhood early this summer. See if you notice their amazing fragrance. If you’re lucky, your neighbors will alert you.

Multi-season interest

There you have it in the headline, I love Japanese stewartia (Stewartia pseudocamellia) trees because they offer multi-season interest. But I didn’t really put it all together until one of my Facebook friends posted pictures of the tree in all of its fall glory. Because I float around as a working manager at my day-job, I don’t always get to see the same landscape in every season. And my friend was absolutely right: Stewartia pseudocammellia is a beautiful, smaller tree with multi-season interest. Take a look first and see if you agree.

Details

Stewartia pseudocamellia is native to Japan and Korea where it lives in mountain forests. Sadly, when I lived in Japan, I didn’t know the tree by name.

The cup-shaped Camellia-like flowers are fine to look at and show up in summer. The seeds are hidden in hard capsules, and I would always pick and open a few. I never did try to germinate the seeds. Usually, I forget them in my pockets for my wife to discover at the bottom of the washing machine.

You can expect it to grow anywhere from 12-40 feet high. I know it from strata complexes where it fits in lawns shared by two units. Since it’s a slow-growing tree species, this location is totally fine. I don’t even recall pruning it, other than taking off some out-of-control shoots to keep it shaped properly but not harshly.

Stewartia pseudocamellia is also drought-tolerant which is a big deal as our West Coast summers heat up. This year we experienced a fall drought as the rains didn’t return in early fall. It was bizarre seeing people watering their pots but not their trees. I think that’s backward because your trees are way more valuable.

My Facebook friend was clearly blown-away by the fall colors and rightly so. I like the look myself. The bright, peeling bark is a bonus feature. I always have to resist the urge to peel the bark off, which is strange because I have immediate use for it.

Want one?

If you want a multi-season interest beautiful tree that won’t get too big, the slow-growing and drought tolerant Stewartia pseudocamellia might be a good choice.