Northeast Gardening: Reviewing 2015 Projects and Plants, Challenges and Results, 2 by DonnaMack

DonnaMack wrote:
I have to give a shout out for the Baileyi linden. It is a cordata. It is also known as a 'Shamrock' linden. I didn't know this when I chose one to replace the Green Mountain Sugar maple that y community charged me $590 to plant improperly, and in JULY, so it died. It was a blessing in disguise since the tree would have eventually towered over our quarter acre lot. After that I never let my community plant anything in my yard. I went up to Milaegers in Racine and found a beautiful stand of these trees. I would also take my Dirr book on hardy trees and shrubs with me when ever I was looking for plants.

What I did not know is that this linden was developed to be resistant to japanese beetle damage. Out neighbors lindens almost died from defoliation while ours thrived with damage so minimal you could just barely detect it. Bigger than a littleleaf (I also added one of those), it grows 50 feet tall and 30 feet wide. If you like you can easily limb it up at the bottom but I did not do this because it was a wonderful privacy tree.

In the first picture, in 2006, look toward the back and you will see it perhaps a year after planting. We would buy our trees when they were 50% off in July and have Mileagers "hold" them until September or October hand have them bring them down and plant them. That way they would take care of them, and we would not be planting a tree in the high heat of summer.The cost of traveling about 45 miles to plant them would gross the cost back up, but they were planted beautifully, guaranteed, and my community had a 50% back to you program for up to $400, so we always bought $400 trees and had them planted, so we got $200 back. Bingo! 3 inch caliper tree for $200.

In the second picture, July, 2008.

In the 3rd picture, spring of 2009.

In the fourth picture, summer of 2009. There is a sidewalk behind that tree, and people would gawk at us. The purpose of the arbor and the tree was to give us our privacy back. Honestly, you could be NAKED in my yard and unseen!

2011 in the last picture. You might want to limb it up, but what a tree! We sold the house later that year. I miss that wonderful tree.

If I could grow any tree again it would be this one. And right behind it, a katsura. These two trees and the acer griseum are my all time favorites.

I could not recommend a better tree. It is more, well, graceful and elegant that a basswood, of which my community had tons. I have never seen this tree in another yard, and I think it is because people are wary of japanese beetle damage. So it also has the benefit of being uncommon (how I love the uncommon!)