Re: Best fastigiate trees and shrubs
- To:
- Subject: Re: Best fastigiate trees and shrubs
- From: S* G*
- Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1999 16:23:38 -0800
Do any list members have recommendations for fastigiate trees suitable for
zones 4/5?
-----Original Message-----
From: Harry Dewey <harryd@Kreative.net>
To: woodyplants@mallorn.com <woodyplants@mallorn.com>
Date: Monday, March 22, 1999 5:25 AM
Subject: Best fastigiate trees and shrubs
>I have a number of fastigiate trees that I planted more than 25 years ago.
My
>favorites are:
>
>Acer saccharum 'Monumentale'. This tree is now about 30 feet tall, and is,
at
>its widest point, about 3-4 feet in width (including leaves). My neighbors
call
>it "your telephone pole maple." It is sometimes sold under other cultivar
>names. A very nice one, almost as tall as mine, can be seen in Washington,
D.C.,
>on the south side of A Street SE, in, I believe, the 500 block. I bought
mine
>from the late Henry Hohmann, the founder of the famous Kingsville
(Maryland)
>Nursery (which expired when he did) about twenty years ago. He is said to
have
>introduced more plants to the United States than any other person. Perhaps
his
>most famous introduction is the Kingsville boxwood. My telephone pole
maple was
>about five feet tall when Mr. Hohmann sold it to me, and had a few side
branches
>that were about six inches long. As it got taller, the side branches got
longer,
>and some of them are now almost a foot long. but I was delighted to
discover
>that when they got to be more than six inches or so long, they would turn
and
>grow vertically, for another few more inches, and then stop growing, At
twelve
>feet, the tree disappointed me tremendously, because it sent out two side
>branches that, although they turned upward, absolutely vertically, when
about six
>or so inches long, they continued to grow, unlike all the other (short)
side
>branches. Today, each of the two long side branches is about 18 feet tall,
so
>that the whole tree, although only four feet wide, has three trunks,
starting at
>the twelve-foot level, and gives the impression of a giant menorah. I have
long
>since forgiven it for the two extra trunks, mainly because they are
perfectly
>parallel to the main truck. I have finally decided that I like it more
than if
>it had kept itself to a single trunk.
>
>My two other favorites are a fastigiate golden rain tree (Koelreuteria
paniculata
>fastigiata), and a fastigiate Japanese dogwood (Cornus kousa fastigiata).
The
>former is about twenty feet tall, and the latter about 17 feet. Because
the
>Japanese dogwood flowers face upward, mine, like all Japanese dogwoods, is
best
>viewed from an upstairs window when in bloom.
>
>Fastigiate trees are a great boon to collectors. Because they take up
relative
>little garden space, you can have a greater variety of trees per acre than
would
>otherwise be the case.
>
>Harry Dewey, zone 7a, Beltsville, Maryland USA
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