I have a tricolor beech in my yard. It gets pretty much full sun. This is the second year for it. It has almost no variegation in the leaves whatsoever. It has small streaks of red on some of the leaves, but that is all. I want color back in the leaves. The color was great when I bought it. What have I done wrong or what can I do to restore the tricolor in my tricolor beech?
Elmore, you may note that this thread was "moved" to the HortBoard forum out of the Maples forum (see the upper left). A redirect is left in place from the original forum where the message was posted as a courtesy to the person who started the thread, so that they can find it again if they look in the same spot. That redirect will be removed in a few days or so and everything will be "right" again.
Hi Where are you and what are your soil conditions. What is the general health of the tree. With some types of varigate birch they like to be slightly stressed to give the best show. Regards Doug
Hi Doug: Just like most variegate trees we tend to lose the variegation by being too nice to them. If we do not let an Acer negundo 'Flamingo', for example, experience some stress, we will not see strong variegation. We tend to water them too much, plant them in too much shade and over fertilize them just to be asked later, where did the variegation go? Jim
No roseo in my marginata My circumstance is almost identical to this post "I have a tricolor beech in my yard. It gets pretty much full sun. This is the second year for it. It has almost no variegation in the leaves whatsoever. It has small streaks of red on some of the leaves, but that is all. I want color back in the leaves. The color was great when I bought it. What have I done wrong or what can I do to restore the tricolor in my tricolor beech?" My tree is planted in front of my house in central Ohio against a backdrop of hemlocks with some holly nearby. It gets Southern exposure, so mostly sun in a neighborhood of mature trees. It's about 20-25 feet tall and looks very healthy EXCEPT that the tree provides mostly a brown leaf effect with very little variegation, maybe just a hint of red on the tips. It was planted exactly one year ago and has had optimal conditions. I'm guaging it's color from the other tri-colors within a half mile radius..they have a strong pink color..this one definitely looks more brown. The arborist who planted said let's wait a year and see what color the leaves come in as..I've been wondering what I'm doing wrong...I have a professional who looks after my trees. It's definitely not the tree I thought it was going to be so even though it was called a tri-color beech or roseo marginata it doesn't look like others I've seen and taken pictures of..the leaf shape does but not the color. Very frustrating ..I waited for 10 years to get this tree! Any ideas????
Out here when we plant an Acer negundo "Flamingo' in the ground generally one of three things happens. Either the plant burns up due to the heat and the hot winds, the plant will lose the variegation the next year or two due to us giving it too rich a soil in nutrients, perhaps we fertilized the plant too much or the plant does just fine with a noticeable loss to the variegation the next Spring. Generally, variegated trees such as your Tricolor Beech are expected to lose their variegation for up to 3-5 years before the tree has fully adjusted to your climate, soil, watering or rainfall, your sun exposure and how much residual Nitrogen you have in the soil. I would be more worried if the tree developed a lot of variegation the first few years in the ground. For me here that generally means I am going to lose it soon. Most homeowners do not realize that many plants in a nursery have been stressed at some point in time. Growing a tree in a container alone can stress a tree to develop lots of color, yet when we plant that tree in the ground the color disappears for a few years. That is just a natural phenomenon as instead of having the root systems restricted for growth, now the roots can become vigorous, spread out and help establish the long term viability of the tree. In so doing, the roots will absorb nutrients that are in the soil much faster and more readily than if the roots were entirely dependant upon nutrients to come by hand in a container grown nursery. Give the plant a few years in the ground before you get overly nervous about losing the variegation. If you had a strong variegated tree to start with, your tree will be variegated again but it may take a while. We call it a settling in period. Here below is Bob's excellent URL on Fagus sylvatica. http://www.coenosium.com/text800/fagus_sylvatica.htm Jim A quick addendum: Tricolor Beech does indeed exist in the US. I've seen it. I do agree that Roseomarginatas are incorrectly called Tricolor. Here is a URL showing the Fagus sylvatica 'Roseomarginata' that I am most familiar with. I hope I got the URL to work! http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/...rees-new/cultivars/fagus_slyvatica-roseo.html
'Purpurea Tricolor' ('Roseomarginata') does that. White-pink-purple of young tree from nursery replaced by purple with pink edge after a few years. Think copper beech with pink highlights and you have the basic effect.
One other note about Tricolor Beeches.. They do and will revert. Not the temporary reversion that we see in some japanese maples, but a permanent reversion to a brown/copper color. I'm not suggesting yet that your entire tree has reverted, I'm sure it is soil/environmental conditions, but once the variegation has returned, you should make it an annual practice to look for and remove reverted branches. We collect scion/cutting material for Tricolor beeches from other nurseries where the reverted branches were not removed. Not knowing which branches are which during the winter, we end up with a mixed crop of variegateds and coppers (which are worthless). Fagus sylvatica 'Purpurea Pendula' will also revert to the typical form and send up vigorous upright copper shoots which also need to be removed or they will overtake the tree. Brian
The common pattern is to come home with a white-pink-purple "tricolor" beech and end up with a bronze/copper tree with pink highlights. The uninitiated will probably by asking about the disappearance of the tricolored effect indefinitely. Many garden conifers also rather soon lose part of their cultivar characteristics. Why these recur with fresh propagations I don't know. It certainly serves nurserymen that the plants look like they're supposed to at least long enough to sell.