I am forced to remove a beautifully formed white oak, perhaps 300 years old, that has provided cooling, shade--including for my many maples--food for all kinds of living things, and aesthetic pleasure for the 10 years we've lived here. A fungus bloom around the base confirmed internal rotting. I hate to lose any tree, but this is particularly tough. The brighter side is I'll be able to grow more flowers and the maples may be even more colorful with less shade. Shep once stated the exact number of hours my Shindeshojo was in morning sun from a photograph posted here, mostly due to shading by the oak. I guess I'll be pruning more as well. David
A reminder of the universal mortality of living things. You can be happy that you enjoyed such a wonderful 300 year old plant for the 10 years you lived along side it. Now its time has come, and other trees will have their day in the sun...
Well said, Kaitain, well said. Like all of us on this forum who cherish life, I grieve for your loss, David. We who are alive merely change form in death.
David, Last year,during one-in-a-century storm, a 150 year old oak (Quercus robur) was blown over in my garden. Post mortem showed indeed rot (likely armillaria ssp.) like in your case. Two seasons later some of the plants under the tree have thrived OK with the additional sun but others have suffered. In particular an 8 years old acer davidii selection has seen its bark badly burnt by the direct, hot, afternoon sun. It is spectacular to see this vertical, almost black, band covering one fourth of the circumference of the bark. This summer I have covered it with shade cloth hoping the plant will recover. Gomero
I had a large oak fall over in a storm last year, it was rotten inside and I wasn't surprised. What is really worrysome to me is that where it fell it took out a good-sized gouge on another, healthy oak, about a 6" x 4" wound that doesn't look good. I am wondering if there is anything I can do to help it mend, or just hope for the best? It is terrible to lose a large tree. When you think of its history, what it has lived through. When we lost another large one, you could examine the rings and see the good years and bad, waterwise. It was interesting to see that there was hardly any growth during the "Dust Bowl" years in the thirties when (in Central Illinois) had record heat, like 110 degrees and more for a long period in 1936. It will impact your maples. Good luck and sorry for your loss. Kay
Interesting, I was just wondering about "selection," how big it will get, how alike trees with this label are each to the other. My "selection" has always been OK in full sun, and although the sun here is not as bad is in Toulouse, it's been pretty strong these last few years. Although "selection" is well established in my garden, for 4 years, it doesn't show much growth and I wonder if it will remain a small tree. Very attractive leaves and petioles though, and comes out quite dark red in spring (less so than Karmen). We lost a very large Linden in the storms of 1999, the garden was quite changed. It 3wasn't rotted at all. The sliver maple planted to take its place is now a pretty big tree! -E
Alex, for protecting the bark I transplanted a large Spiraea 'vanhouttei' in front of the davidii and is growing very fast. Emery, my understanding is that those 'selections' are just variegated davidii seedlings, maybe hybridized with other Macrantha species and, because of that, all different. I have two. The one I mentioned above has grown a lot, probably 3 m in 5 years. Its bark suffered when the oak fell as stated, but the leaves are a riot: in full sun the variegation has turned great with lots of reds and pinks that were not there before and, funny, they do not seem to suffer from the hot sun. The second one, with roughly the same age, is half the height and being in shade the pink in the variegation disappears shortly after leaf out. Gomero
Gomero ,please send, if you have pics!because my davidii variegated ,not have one leave with white or red or pink..never see one ..:(
Thanks everybody. In fact I have an acer White Tigress that will be pretty exposed now and will probably need to move to prevent burning. I'm going to wait and hopefully nothing gets damaged during removal, but that's always a possibility. I'll be thinking about how to move things around. About half my trees are in containers anyway. With Colin forming in the Atlantic, I'm going to go ahead pretty quickly...
David, The peak heat for this year is probably past, so if your tegmentosum is in the ground you could wait to do the moving in the Fall. Alex, I went out today to check the tree and took some pictures. Most of the reds and pinks are gone. You can see some in the third pic in the new growth. The second pic shows the status of the sun damaged bark. Gomero
Fascinating. It shows in a nutshell the problem with labeling something "selection" as if all such were similar. This is pretty clearly a hybrid, perhaps with rubescens. Mine has simple (completely unlobed) very dark leaves on red petioles. The stem is much more yellow, I have no reason to think it's a hybrid. I assumed it was "selected" for slow growth and dark green leaves... Once again the industry leaves me in awe! -E
