Variegated Liquidamber

When we started the first phase of our landscaping, I special-ordered two trees. One was a pink melaleuca, which eventually died. But the other was a variegated Liquidamber (sweetgum). Much as I love the fall colors of a standard Liquidamber, they are too tall for my small garden beds, in addition to being serious sidewalk lifters.

My gardener had never seen one of these, and like me he loves variegated plants. Although it's listed as a moderate-grower in the Sunset Western Garden book, this tree has grown amazingly well in the 7 yrs since planting. You can judge its height by the 6' garden fence in the original photo, below. (I wish we could post more than one photo in a single message-hint, hint, DG!)

Do you have any plants that are very rare? Another one I treasure is my Lavatera olba 'Aureum'. I bought it from either Berkeley Hort or East Bay Nursery, but have never seen it show up again.

Variegated Liquidamber 7 yrs later

Close-up of the leaves. They come out green, then turn variegated. In cool cloudy weather, however, as we've had this year, much of the tree will stay green.

Our fall weather is so erratic I don't always get good color from the variegated Liquidamber. A few years ago we had a very cold autumn, though, so the tree got these wonderful pink tints on the leaves. Otherwise, they just turn bright yellow before going brown and falling off. Leaves break down quickly, which is very nice.

Love those leaves! Thank you for sharing your photos. We CA's don't get much fall color do we? Like you said, mostly yellow and browns.
Nice to see something different.
WIB,
SW

jk, I wish I'd known liquidambers came in a variegated form when I planted my 2 trees 20+ years ago when we first moved into this new tract house.
Mine are between 2 concrete slabs, and have never caused a lifting problem because I deep-watered them. If you haven't done that with yours, it may not be too late. I used this technique successfully with a weeping willow and a eucalyptus as well.

Very pretty! jkom

This is farfugium 'Argentea' which is pretty rare.

Doss, that's a beauty! Love those leaves!

doss, care to time me to see how quickly I can get that on my "want" list?

Here's a source
http://www.sequimrareplants.com/plant%20list.html#f1
I haven't bought from them but they have 10 postivie comments in the Watchdog. They also have the 'cristata' which is fabulous. They are evergreen which is also nice.

Oh boy---that link will deserve a nice, long look....thanks, doss!!