Another Columnar Hornbeam Tree? Yes, Please. May 2026

Imagine my surprise when I came across an upright tree amongst a bunch of other shade trees in the parking lot nursery recently that was leaf'ing out ahead of the others.  And, it was leaf'ing out with thin, vertical-heading branches all the way down to the ground.  See below for a photo showing the tree(s) in question mixed in amongst other taller, traditional shade tree trunks:

What is that?  

I walked closer and noticed the foliage.  

Wait a second....I know those leaves.  

That's a Hornbeam.  A columnar hornbeam.  

There's no tag, but I know what I'm looking at and it is an upright, narrow, columnar Hornbeam.  

I have those.  And I love them. 

Off I went to grab a cart to load one of these trees on-to.  It is sitting in a 15-gallon pot and appears to be pot-grown because the roots are peeking out of the bottom holes.  Not ball-and-burlap stuck in a pot. 

It rang up at a price that is too-good-to-be-true.  At least compared to what I paid close to 10 years ago for the Frans Fontaine European Hornbeams to be planted in our backyard as a screen.

This tree is B-I-G.  Bigger than most other trees that I've bought.  I wasn't sure it would fit in the van, but sure enough...the top of the leader touched the windshield and the bottom of the pot barely cleared the back gate.  

Should I have bought more than one?  Probably.  But, one was all that would fit.

Below are a couple of photos showing the size of this tree.  Check out the height.  Including the pot, it is over twelve-feet-tall.  The tree is more than ten-feet tall. 

Now that I had it home...I can start to think about WHERE it can be planted.  I have a few thoughts...including the front yard.  

A narrow, upright tree?  Right in the lawn.  But, closer to the driveway where the shadow it creates won't shade out any potential other things.  If I planted it closer to the southside of the front lawn, it would cast a shadow on everything north of it.

Here's one spot:

Tucked in behind the Korean Maple and in front of the Saratoga Ginkgo.  Sort-of creates a parallel frame from the Triumph Elm that you can see on the left side of the photo below:

And, pulling further-back (from certain angles) it also screens out some of the garage - which is nice.  

I also need to replace the Emperor 1 back by the firepit.  It was attacked by the cicadas a few Summers ago and didn't come back this Spring.  Maybe that's a spot for this tree. 

Or...maybe I should go back and buy another one?  And do both?  (gasp!)