Why I Oughta...

I planted a native Black Tupelo (Blackgum) tree in our parkway earlier this growing season as a replacement for the London Planetree that didn't make it down there.  They both were small caliper trees, but I paid *a little bit more* attention to the Black Tupelo in terms of watering this season.  Despite some die-back, the tree seems to have made it through the growing season with foliage on the limbs.   And that foliage is what is starting to 'show off' with its Fall colors.  Turning a bright red.  Here, below, is a look at the fall show from the leaves turning red: Back in the 'Getting to Know' post on the Black Tupelo , I included this description:   "One of the most spectacular and reliable fall coloring trees, turning brilliant shades of red and orange..."   Seems that characteristic of the tree (reliably turning fall colors) is turning out to be true - even in this small, young (< 1" caliper) tree.   Late this Winter,...

In the middle of April, I planted a *very small caliper* Black Tupelo (or Black Gum) native tree in our parkway as a replacement for another tree that didn't come back this Spring .  At that time, the Tupelo still had NOT leaf'd out and had some curly branches attached all over the trunk.   Almost immediately, the apical meristem (leader) die'd back and I thought the tree was lost.   But, thanks to some (occasional and deep) watering, the tree seems to have navigated the hot part of Summer and is (mostly) leafy-green in late September.  This is five months after being put in the ground: I haven't pruned anything on this tree other than taking off the dead leader.  The lower-trunk branches are still curly and there's some red-ish Fall color that is starting to appear on a few of the leaves.   The Black Tupelo is noted for its "pyramidal form", but so far....our tree isn't showing any thing close to that shape.   I'll watch this (and ...

Last week, I pulled out a small London Planetree that we had planted in our parkway .  The tree suffered from drought last year and didn't come back this Spring.  No buds set, no green under the bark.   Replacing it was a no-brainer when I came across that Black Tupelo tree that I posted about yesterday .   Just because this Black Tupelo was a $20 tree - sold by a Big Box store, I'm one to follow the advice of Ralph Snodsmith and gave this 50-cent plant tree a $5 hole .  Because I dug up the dead London Planetree, the digging here was easy. I dug a wide and deep hole and then backfilled it in to make sure the rootball was placed not-too low.  These big box store trees always have their root-flare buried.  So, it is easy to plant them too low.  Right now, the root-flare is under some soil.  But....in terms of position the ball, I kept this one up 'high enough' to where - if/when the trunk develops, the rootflare will be 'above' the ...

That tree at the top of this post is a Tupelo tree.  A Black Tupelo tree.  Also called a Blackgum tree.  Nyssa sylvatica .  Really nice shade tree, isn't it?  Fall color with the orange foliage.  And pyramidal shape.  I've noodled this tree over the years.   Back in 2022,  I talked about adding a Blackgum  or Black Tupelo tree.   I also talked about other native trees like a Sweetgum, too.   So, imagine my delight when I found myself nosing thru the early trees in the parking lot nursery of the big box stores this past week and noticed a few unusual (in terms of what they normally carry) trees that were marked 50% off as part of their Spring Black Friday Sale.  They had about six Blackgums (Black Tupelo) trees  What is it?  Turns out, it is a tree that is native to some parts of Illinois .  Love that.   With the Exclamation London Planetree dead in the parkway, this seemed like a goo...