I bought this sourwood tree at a botanical garden sale last year. It has a strange branching habit but I am unsure if I should prune it or not. My instincts tell me to leave it alone. I planted some pines nearby, so in the future it will get partial shade. I am also unsure about the reddish tint of the leaves. Shouldn't they be dark green by now?
I would follow your instincts, at least for a while, except perhaps to stake one of the leaders into an upright position. Let it sort things out on its own, and if it needs a little more help later you can lend a hand.
Guy S.
I have seen several of these close up and none have had much pruning. They make a nice oval shape without pruning. Some trees have rivers of auxin flowing in them and every branch wants to be first, but from what i can see with these, they grow orderly, with each branch elongating at almost equal rates. So far as the reddish foliage, it will turn green. Red is a natural color on these for new growth.
In my zone, these are slow growers, for you they may bolt, I don't know. After about 15 yrs. mine is only about 10-12 ft/ 3.5m tall. Blooms from the bottom to the top.
There is one in SC on the left side of I-95 about 1/2 way up (mile markers 140-160). When in bloom it really sticks out of the woods. It leans out with its white summer bloom slanting towards the traffic. It must be 40ft tall, almost fastigate from growing in a forest. Hard to tell the height because at the place it grows the highway is elevated from the surrounding lowlands.
Mine is about 3ft tall. It has grown about 10 inches in height this year and I suspect that will be about it. When I bought mine it had some dieback at the tips of the branches. That created a multi branched habit. The wood seems very stiff to be such a small tree.
Are the blooms fragrant? It looks like a nice smallish tree. Don't think it's hardy here. ;-(
I guess mine is too young to bloom. Does anyone know about what age they start flowering?
It's hardy here PGZ5. There is a huge one next door to me, and 5' one in my yard. It is really picky about the soil it lives in though--it needs good drainage and acid pH.
Ours is about 20 years old or so and hasn't bloomed yet, but I've seen others bloom when younger.
Guy S.
The oxydendrum I put in as about a 4' whip maybe 6 years ago has bloomed every year, I suspect I'll be old and gray before that doggone 10' cladratis I put in 3 years ago coughs up a flower.
escambiaguy,
I planted 2 of them 4" apart 40 years ago. they are now 40' tall (columnar)and flower profusely.
They live in N.J. on rte 571, on the right hand side of the road leading from rte.1 to the Princeton junction train station.
They sit alongside 2- 74 y.o. Norway Spruce.
I'd like to say I miss my garden in N.J. where everything that I planted grew beautifully in "decent soil".
Now the only thing that grows beautifully in this sand is weeds.
CID-SID
escambiaguy,
Sorry , I forgot the subject, I never needed to prune.
I may have spoke too soon when I said mine was too young to bloom. I noticed this today...
