What is your favorite tree ?

[Nyboy]

Because I planted my fruit trees for their spring flowers and not fruit I dont spray them. The deer dont mind spotty apples and pears.

 

[Smiles Jr.]

Trees are my all-time favorite plant. DW used to get aggravated with me on vacations and trips when I would stop to admire a beautiful tree. My favorite tree is the Liveoak that grows in the south. To me they are magnificent.

 

[Smart Red]

It is really hard to decide on one favorite tree when there are so many fantastic varieties available. I have a grove of pin oak. Right now they are the only trees with leaves - bright red ones. I love these trees because they 'sing' to me all fall and winter as the wind whistles through the branches and lose their leaves in early spring.

I have a beautiful Japanese maple - red with lacy leaves - that holds a prime spot in front of the house. Patience is a virtue and I am virtuous. I bought this as a tiny twig of a plant and have tended the tree for 8 years now. But wait! I forgot the Mystery Tree beside the veggie garden. For more than a dozen years it grew - it's name long forgotten as it struggled to hold on to life. Last year it finally seemed to take off and this year it flowered for the first time revealing it's identity. I love the delicate white blossoms of my Fringe Tree.

I live in the woods and have a woods to the west beyond a field - trees and color wherever one turns. This spring I planted 26 sugar maples - I had tended in my tree nursery for four years already - at the edge of the west woods with visions of beautiful color every fall. Our bout with severe drought has ended that vision for now. I will have to get another batch of saplings to replant. I love the leaf shape and color in the fall, besides, someday my grandson will tap the trees. DH wants to alternate the sugar maples with red maples this time for a longer color season.

I can't imagine anyone who has seen a tulip poplar in bloom not wanting one for their yard. They are so beautiful! The majestic American Sycamore is also a favorite of mine. I love the summer shape and winter bark interest. Then there are the white birch and river birch that grace our turn-around. Fantastic in all seasons! And the contorted hazel, the curly willow, the popcorn tree, the Canadian tree lilac, the witch hazel with its buttery yellow winter blooms - all are special in my eyes. And who could choose from the spring flowering trees? We have flowering crabs of several colors and a weeping cherry. Indeed, even the volunteer crap the sneaked into my tulip bed has become prized for its spring color.

Could my favorite tree stand in the orchard amid apple, pie cherry, pear, peach, plum, apricot, nectarine, sweet cherry, and a single persimmon tree? Or could it be one of my nut trees? I've morned the loss of my butternut trees as one would a beloved friend and I continue to seek butternuts that may be immune to the virus that took my dear trees. Then there are the other nut trees - shagbark hickory, heartnut, walnut, hazelnut, almond - that I've planted for my family and my wildlife friends.

I know I am leaving out some of my favorites as I seek the one I love best. Perhaps my favorite tree would be the Stellar Magnolia called 'White Butterflies". I searched for nearly 40 years for a Magnolia I could love. While it is still small it is already adept at blooming. This spring it will be moved from my 'nursery' to its forever home in Gypsy's Moon Garden.

I am so sorry, I really don't think I can name one tree as favorite. That would be akin to naming one grandchild favored over another - an impossible task - so I'll name my newest and rarest tree - a maple called "Eskimo Sunset". She has tri-colored leaves with a tinge of pink on the undersides. Beautiful!

Love, Smart Red

 

[journey11]

Only problem I find with tulip poplars is that they are such messy trees. They are a soft wood and weak. I have a big one in my backyard and it drives my hubby crazy picking up all the branches before he can mow. They drop their leaves sooner than most other trees and mine had some sort of weird aphid infestation this summer that dripped everything below it with a thin, sticky sap. I'd never seen it do that before, but heard the ag. extension agent who has a spot during the noonday news mention it. Right now, all the wind and rain have taken down most of our fall color. All that remains is the rusty browns and reds of the oaks and in the tip top of the tulip poplars their sparse bright yellow leaves stand out against all the dark background colors. I'll have to take a picture of it. It's neat how they light up against the dreary background now that cold, damp November has arrived.

I do love it here, really. I was just thinking the other day how very nice our fall color is here.

 

[thistlebloom]

I know one tree that's on my not so favorite list. In the fall it's on my "trees I wish would go away" list. :/

It's a Horse Chestnut tree that is a huge and healthy 100 years old. It's in a neighborhood with small yards and sits right next to the property line. In the fall it drops literally a few thousand pounds of chestnuts. I know this because I've been cleaning up after it for 5 years and I have the weight receipts from the dump to prove it. Actually I've only been cleaning up in the yard it lives in. I'll bet the neighbors have the same opinion of it as I do.

I brought the leaves home for a couple of years and tilled them into my veggie beds until I found out that they are full of allelopathic compounds.

And you don't want to get hit on the head with one of those "bombs" either!

 

[Smart Red]

I know one tree that's on my not so favorite list. In the fall it's on my "trees I wish would go away" list. :/ It's a Horse Chestnut tree that is a huge and healthy 100 years old.

I know what you mean. We have a Chinese Chestnut (one tree I didn't mention as a favorite) that covers the ground under the tree with dangerous "Improvised Explosive Devices" (IED's). They are a serious threat to barefoot grandchildren, running pets, and visitors down wind of the mower blades. They must be removed before each mowing or they will spread spiny pieces throughout the yard - I prefer tongs while Dh has a sturdy pair of rose gloves.

In the spring the ground is covered with 'Monkey Tails", 4 year old grandson's apt description of the flower tassels that precede the prickly nuts of fall. And then there is the aroma. . er. . . smell. . . um. . . stink . . . of the tree in flower. Rotting roadside kill or something worse, it's hard to tell.

The tree itself could be a thing of beauty with its saucer shape and thick mass of corrugated leaves were it not for the weakness the abundant leaves cause. Since the leaves are too thick for the wind to blow through, this tree never learned to bend in the wind. Each severe wind storm will prune a huge branch or two from the main trunk. Right now, I expect a professional arborist would suggest the mangled beast be removed and a more yard appropriate tree be planted in its stead. But I love my trees! Like an honored elder, I could no more set my trees adrift than I could an aging relative. So it stays while I dare the treacherous time mowing under the canopy, I risk the pain of collecting its dangerous fruit from the yard, and I try to keep my work time up wind of it during flowering.

One plus I've found is that the spiny balls keep cats away from my potted plants - and those of many of my friends.

Love, Smart Red

 

[journey11]

I know one tree that's on my not so favorite list. In the fall it's on my "trees I wish would go away" list. :/

It's a Horse Chestnut tree that is a huge and healthy 100 years old. It's in a neighborhood with small yards and sits right next to the property line. In the fall it drops literally a few thousand pounds of chestnuts. I know this because I've been cleaning up after it for 5 years and I have the weight receipts from the dump to prove it. Actually I've only been cleaning up in the yard it lives in. I'll bet the neighbors have the same opinion of it as I do.

I brought the leaves home for a couple of years and tilled them into my veggie beds until I found out that they are full of allelopathic compounds.

And you don't want to get hit on the head with one of those "bombs" either!

Instead of paying the dump, maybe you could roast them and use them for an eclectic mulch.

 

[thistlebloom]

I wish there was a use for the "nuts" which aren't nuts at all, just an inedible seed capsule. Nope, you don't want to go and roast these on an open fire!
The seeds are beautiful though when they first drop and the green spiny husk falls off. They are a rich shiny brown with a nice wood grain look. I brought bins and bins home in the beginning of this tree/gardener relationship. I was smitten with their attractiveness and was convinced by a family member whom I shall only identify as my sister Karen, ( ) that there was a market for them on ebay.
They are used medicinally, in herbal concoctions, but I guess I'm not much of a marketer...at any rate they all ended up in the back forty. If any grow from that mess, I'll let them.

 

[catjac1975]

I really love the Tulip Tree. They are fast growing, grow straight as an arrow. And have a beautiful tulip like flower. I have tried planting them many times but they do not like Mattapoisett.

 

[897tgigvib]

NyBoy, there are even Apple trees, mostly crabapples, that are weeping. We used to sell them in Montana. Only a few were available for us to get, and they always sold out fast.

They are actually double grafted "standard". A dwarfing rootstock grafted to suitable straight growing pretty barked midsection. About 5 to 6 feet up a weeping bushy growing crabapple is grafted on.

This sort of thing is another one of the reasons it is good to grow apples from seed. Sometimes the seedling grows as a bush and not as a tree. Where that used to be good for a country hedge, some of those bushy apple seedlings can be made into beautiful "standards".

Standards is the actual name of this kind of made tree with a double graft. Tree Roses are actually called standards.

Thistle, do you all ever go to Hamilton Montana to purchase trees wholesale? There is a specially excellent place there we used to go to once a year. Forgot the name of it.