Arbor Day Message Board

[snowguy716]

I ordered an assortment of trees and I received them in early June. I got them in the ground the same day, and I've had limited success.

I think they got caught in an unusually long shipping period over Memorial weekend...

Only one of the two Hemlocks survived, and it looks very sad. I highly doubt it will make it through the summer, even with mulch and lots of water.

None of the 4 Norway Spruces I purchased survived. All were crunchy by the time I got them, but 2 of them still had some healthy green growth that has since browned up.

No word yet from the Mountain-Ash (American), honeylocust, white oak, or the Hackberries. It does appear that all of these have buds that are emerging and beginning to swell.. so I'm being patient.

I received two forsythias and stuck them in the ground. One of them got busted up by something/someone, and is resprouting from the ground. The other is leafing out, but looks sad (needs more water).

I'm almost positive that the free "red" maple I got is actually a sugar maple. I thought it was red maple because the buds were red, but when I saw the leaves, I am sure it is sugar maple... the leaves are entire and the petioles are green, not red.

The 3 hybrid poplar I ordered are alive and growing. One is just leafing out and the other two have already added a couple of inches of growth.

[Upperhand]

The red maple you received is actually an "acer rubrum", I believe this is also referred to as a "sunset maple" or "autumn blaze maple". I'm no Maple expert, but I think they are closely related to sugar maples, and similar in many fashions. It won't be red until late in the Summer or early Fall. The stems/branches are often a reddish color - it should match up with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_maple

Red maples are sometimes confused for the "Crimson King" maple, which is really an invasive Norway Maple that is purple/red all year. I have a couple of Crimson King Norway Maples that I planted in my backyard away from native trees so that they can't spread into areas where they don't belong. My "free" red maple (acer rubrum) from Arbor Day was toast when I received it, definitely permanently dormant...

I ordered up 5 hybrid poplars from Arbor Day, they started budding the day after I received them, while still in the packaging. Because I'm waiting on the final grade on my land, I had to pot them all temporarily in 1 gallon pots, my only option for buying some extra time. All 5 Poplars are taking off like weeds and have HUGE round leaves, and a couple of them have grown almost 6" in less than a month, which is spectacular. They are all sprouting new branches and growing vigorously. The are obviously loving the pots where I used a mixture of native and miracle grow soil, same soil mixture they will be planted in for their permanent locations, which should be completed by this weekend. I keep them watered daily especially since they are in pots.

The Forsythias I received free from Arbor Day are also all potted right now and growing very quickly. I have 4 in total and will be planting them around the edge of my yard hoping that one day they will provide a natural border and a windbreak during the summer. I also purchased 4 white flowering dogwoods from Arbor Day, 3/4 are coming out of dormancy and sprouting new growth, the 4th hasn't budded yet but it still seems to be alive so I'll wait it out and let it try to grow before requesting a replacement.

Not all trees survive the shipping process, so if you do receive DOA trees I believe Arbor Day is willing to replace them at the cost of shipping. I opted for the 10 free blue spruces for my membership, none of them seem to be doing well at all. They didn't look great when they arrived, I'll most likely have to request replacement for all of them.

[Quirky Quercus]

Autumn blaze maples are acer fremanii (Freeman's Maple), a silver x red hybrid. I suspect sunset maple is too but I'm not certain about that one.

[Hurtle]

[snowguy716]

I'm 100% positive now that the free "red maple" I got is sugar maple. I know this because I have red maples growing on my property and while there is a lot of variation in red maple leaves, these most certainly are not.

The leaves look exactly like this:



While the red maple leaves on my reds look like this:



The biggest indicator to me is that the petioles are green.

Oh well, I'm not complaining.. I just don't think sugar maple will do well in my psamment sandy soil.

[Quirky Quercus]

Snowguy that def. looks like a sugar maple. Clear sap could confirm.

Hurtle, yes the norway seedlings would have green leaves on those grafted clones.

[snowguy716]

I thought I'd update you guys:

Large bur oak: It has started to sprout from the root collar, though the upper branches are still green underneath. I've kept the tree watered well, so it is trying to hang on.

Autumn blaze maple: There must have been some sort of disease because the tree died about a foot off the ground and up, but some new growth was coming off just above the root collar (so it has Autumn blaze characteristics).. with the fertilizer I gave it (10-10-10) and plenty of water and a good root system, it is already over 4 feet tall and growing visibly by the day. It'll probably catch up to where the whole tree would have been in a couple years, so that is good news.

Crab apple: Is healthy and growing. It has put on about a foot of growth on most branches with less on some and more on others.

Manchurian crabs: All alive and doing well, putting on lots of new growth.

Lilacs: Almost all of them are doing well. They are obviously establishing this year, but I expect in the next few years they will really be bushing out and looking nice.

hybrid poplars: they've all survived and are growing. They are not growing all that fast, as the biggest has grown about a foot.. but again, it's our sandy soil and the fact that it was just planted last fall.

Siouxland Cottonwood: That is a healthy, vigorous tree.. it has really started to pile on the growth in the past 2 weeks. The leaves have gotten very big and it's adding new leaves every day. There is a massive cottonwood across the street from my friends house.. about 3 feet dbh and at least 100 feet tall... it is a mammoth tree. Sure, they have leaves and twigs in their yard.. but what a beautiful, graceful tree it is!

White pines: My baby white pines are doing well.. they really only put on about 2" of growth... but they are slow to establish. The one given to us in 1999 has put on about 3 feet of growth this year going from 4 feet to 7 feet tall. The others which were already bigger put on about 2 feet of growth this year.

Red Pines: All of them put on about 2 feet of growth this year. Only 2 of my 5 surived and one is just now starting to put out some new growth.

Green Ash: All five survived. Two are especially vigorous and one has put on about 18" of growth and is still going. This is nothing though.. some of the green ash at our cabin have put on 4 feet of growth this year.

Paper birch: They are all alive, but 3 of them are still dormant.. I suspect they will die. One is doing well and putting outnew growth. The other put out a few leaves and then sprouted form the base, which is now about a foot tall.

red oaks: none of them survived. ugh.

small bur oaks: of the 10 I planted, 4 have leafed out.

Black cherry: Only 2 of the 5 survived.. but those 2 are doing well.

Silver maples: of the 5 I planted, all of them survived and are putting on new growth.

white spruce: Only 3 or 4 of the 25 I planted died.. they have all put on various amounts of growth. Because they are juvenile seedlings and I fertilized them and keep them watered, they are in "free growth" so they will continue to grow until the end of August.

In our yard, I have fertilized a lot of it and the grass is greener than it has ever been.. it really appreciated it. We purposely didn't mow a few parts of the yard, and I am amazed at what has been growing.

We have tons of Virginia Ground Cherries all over, low bush blueberry springing up all over, choke cherries in some spots, and wild rose all over the place. There are even American hazelnuts sprouting up all over. If left to its own devices, it would be taken over by jack pine, chokecherry, hazelnuts, and other small shrubs. Red pine would then become established along with some balsam fir, white spruce, paper birch, and quaking aspen. Red oak and bur oak would also be a minor component and later on White Pine and White Spruce would become more numerous as red pine and jack pine declined. At the climax, it would be a red pine and white pine forest with some white spruce, balsam fir, paper birch, and quaking aspen mixed in. Bur oak and red oak would be scattered throughout, but bur oak would likely be suppressed by the faster growing pines.

it's fun to see that process begin!