{"id":3817,"date":"2022-10-24T05:19:58","date_gmt":"2022-10-24T13:19:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/?p=3817"},"modified":"2022-10-24T05:19:58","modified_gmt":"2022-10-24T13:19:58","slug":"slender-in-the-grass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/slender-in-the-grass\/","title":{"rendered":"Slender in the Grass"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\"sweet<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>I was in the garden center last week, hot on the trail of colorful mums and half-price perennials when I laid eyes on something that made me forget both objects.\u00a0 It was a young, slender tree with some of the showiest fall foliage I have encountered\u2014red, orange and purple, glowing in the late afternoon sun.\u00a0 The lobed, star-shaped leaves reminded me of a sweetgum or Liquidambar styraciflua, but the tree, though immature had a columnar shape rather than the usual pyramidal crown characteristic of traditional sweetgum varieties.<\/p>\n

The label confirmed my suspicions.\u00a0 The tree was \u2018Slender Silhouette\u2019, a relatively new sweetgum variety that is occasionally billed as \u2018Fastigiata\u2019.\u00a0 It has all the charms of the species, but is much better adapted for smaller spaces, streetside locations and home gardens.<\/p>\n

A species sweetgum is a big tree that can grow up to 75 feet tall, with a spread of about two thirds of its height.\u00a0 Its roots run wide and deep, making it most suitable for large areas like parks. The pale green flower clusters are not showy, but the glossy green leaves with their characteristic pointed tips, are beautiful throughout the growing season. Their fall farewell performance is magnificent and it is always a little sad when those brilliant leaves finally cascade to the ground.<\/p>\n

Occasionally I have seen a sweetgum with star-shaped leaves that are rounded at the tips.\u00a0 This is Liquidambar styraciflua \u2018Rotundifolia\u2019, a variety of the native sweetgum.\u00a0 It is also a lovely tree with excellent fall color.<\/p>\n

Autumn leaves are not the only things that sweetgums send cascading to the ground.\u00a0 Late in fall, the branches eject round, spiked capsules that look like small hedgehogs and require clean-up.\u00a0 If you like going barefoot among the trees, it is a good idea to avoid sweetgums, lest you run afoul of the sweetgum \u201cballs\u201d.\u00a0 Despite the handsomeness of the trees, some people refuse to plant them because of the issue with the fruits.<\/p>\n

Sweetgums are native North American trees that are related to witch hazels.\u00a0 In the wild they prefer relatively moist locations.\u00a0 A fragrant gum or resin can be extracted from the bark of some sweetgums, which explains both the common and Latin generic names.\u00a0 \u201cLiquidambar\u201d is derived from two Latin words meaning \u201cliquid\u201d and \u201camber\u201d or \u201cresin\u201d.<\/p>\n

If you have admired traditional large sweet gum trees\u2014or even if you have not\u2014\u2018Slender Silhouette\u2019 will be a revelation.\u00a0 It will grow tall, potentially reaching 50 feet in about 25 years, but will only spread six feet.\u00a0 The glorious fall color that I saw on the garden center specimen is characteristic of the variety.\u00a0 The tree has something for everyone, including gum ball haters, because it produces very few of the small spiky fruits.\u00a0 You will still have to clear away the fallen leaves, but will not risk turning your ankle when stepping on a fruit cluster hidden under a leaf accumulation.<\/p>\n

\u2018Slender Silhouette\u2019 is probably the result of a sport or spontaneous genetic mutation.\u00a0 It was discovered by Don Shadow, a renowned plantsman and introducer of new and exotic specimens, who owns a wholesale nursery in Tennessee.\u00a0 It often takes a lot of work propagate a sport vegetatively\u2014from cuttings\u2014and produce a stable variety that can be introduced into the horticultural marketplace.\u00a0 \u2018Slender Silhouette\u2019 passed that test and is widely available at good garden centers, usually in balled and burlapped form.<\/p>\n

Depending on where you live, it can be either a little too late or the perfect time to plant a \u2018Slender Silhouette\u2019 sweetgum.\u00a0 If it is too late, but you want one anyway, mark your calendar or garden diary for early spring.\u00a0 If the time is right for planting in your climate zone, you can obtain this exceptionally beautiful, exceptionally svelte tree from ForestFarm, 14643 Watergap Rd. Williams, OR 97544; (541) 846-7269; www.forestfarm.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Print catalog available.<\/p>\n

\"sweet<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I was in the garden center last week, hot on the trail of colorful mums and half-price perennials when I laid eyes on something that made me forget both objects.\u00a0 It was a young, slender tree with some of the showiest fall foliage I have encountered\u2014red, orange and purple, glowing in the late afternoon … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,2,3],"tags":[2782,957,1511,2781,2780],"class_list":["post-3817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","tag-compact","tag-fall-color","tag-fall-foliage","tag-liquidambar-styraciflua","tag-sweetgum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3817"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3819,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3817\/revisions\/3819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}