One of the best resources we have at Dave?s Garden is a group of members who garden in a professional capacity. Some are landscapers, others have a unique product, and some are qualified nursery folk, growing specialty plants and trees. From time to time, we?ll publish an article penned by one of them and they welcome your questions and comments. We hope you?ll enjoy reading about what they find interesting or intriguing.

Tree of the Month

As a grower of specialty trees, I am often asked which is my favorite. I usually hem and haw and say it changes from season to season, but last week, as I was driving down my driveway, a flash caught my eye and I realized I do have a favorite, or at least a much loved tree: Acer griseum, commonly called Paper Bark Maple. The sun was hitting the trunk of the tree and it made the peeling bark and the trunk look like gold. I felt truly fortunate, rich actually, to have such a treasure.

Acer griseum is an easy tree to grow; it has no diseases or insect problems to speak of. The root system is not aggressive so one doesn't have to worry about septic systems, walls or sidewalks. It can be the
featured tree in almost any size yard as the tree grows slowly and the mature height is about 18-20 feet under normal conditions. (It kills me when people google a tree and say "no, no!, that tree can get 50 feet tall", yeah, maybe in 300 years in a perfect location) Last month I was delighted by a street planting happily growing and glowing under power lines in Portland, OR. As a mature tree, generally, it will have a rounded head but as a teenager, it tends to have lanky and uneven growth, but with that bark, it can be forgiven and even prized in its awkward years. It is tolerant of a wide range of soils and can take full sun or partial shade. The trifoliate leaves are dark green until fall and then turn various shades of red and orange.

Originally found in Central China and introduced in 1901 by Ernest Wilson, it has amazing range throughout the world. The Hillier Manual (Great Britain) describes it as "one of the most beautiful of all small trees". It grows well in most of the US. I have seen beauties in Atlanta (but understand that any deeper south may be too deep); the oldest and perhaps finest specimen in the country is in the Arnold Arboretum in Boston. One wonders, if the tree is so perfect, why it isn't as common as red maple or sugar maple. It is because it is difficult to propagate; the seed is usually not viable and the seed that is viable takes two years to germinate. Many nurserymen just give up.
So for those of you who ask today: Acer griseum is my favorite tree.

A special thanks to members 'growin' and 'Kell' for their images of Acer griseum.