Trees, Shrubs and Conifers: info on Nyssa Sylvatica, 0 by ViburnumValley

ViburnumValley wrote:
Terrier: Klehm's Song Sparrow Nursery up your way offers several selections of Nyssa sylvatica which should be hardy for you. With clonal plants, you know exactly what to expect in behavior.

Seedlings are fine; just a bit of the luck of the draw in genetics as to what you'll get when they grow up. Unless you select them when they are in fall color, you just can't bank on it. At least, with a blackgum seedling, you'll have an excellent uncommon tree no matter what color it turns.

A very good friend of mine selected, named, and released Nyssa sylvatica Red Rage TM. A good bit of the red rage it has produced is from nurserymen and purchasers who expected consistent red fall color, but often get rather good orange and yellow mixed. Still a good/great plant, just not what the advertising suggests. It DOES have the cleanest foliage of any blackgum I've experienced (essentially no leaf spot in summers) and is extremely glossy and shiny dark green in leaf all summer. I have it and would recommend it as a superior reliable performer.

This picture is a bit dark (sorry) that shows two unnamed blackgums growing in Creason Park, outside my office in Louisville in November 2005. Note the rounded habit, and the dark red fall color on the left one and the pleasant bright orange/yellows of the right one.