Oxydendrum Species, Lily of the Valley Tree, Sourwood, Sorrel Tree

I don't agree this tree needs consistently moist soil. It's a tough and beautiful little tree.....even without the gorgeous fall color. ...Read More Three years ago the neighbor's cow got loose and ran right over my 6-foot sapling, breaking it off by half. I was heart-broken, as it had just started to bloom. I tossed it in the debris pile to take to our dumping grounds. No tenderness here. Just ripped it up by the roots. There it lay for a week or more in the hot summer sun. Then I noticed new growth starting on the broken trunk! My heart skipped a beat and I quickly stuck it into a border where it would get regular water with the other shrubs and flowers. Our sandy/loam soil dries out quickly, though my nutritious mulch helps keep it fed and more moist. This tree isn't a "fast grower" but 2 years later it's coming right along. The new leaves are tinged with shades of pinks that make this tree one of the prettiest in my large garden. It gets a couple of hours of bright morning sun then bright or filtered shade after that. When I brought it home from the store I watered it faithfully but there was a lot of landscaping going on at the time and as the summer wore on I was less faithful. It had no mulch at that time and I KNOW the soil dried out. This tree is soooo easy and forgiving I just bought another one yesterday. It's pretty as a princess from the earliest spring leaves until the last brilliant leaf falls. BTW the leaves start turning early (as in late August for me) and stay on the tree for a l-o-n-g time.

One of my favorite small ornamental trees. Fragrant summer flowers, long-lasting red fall color, picturesque winter architecture---the se...Read Moreed tassels are attractive through winter...In droughty years, I've seen the leaves color as early as August and then hold their color till Halloween.

In Great Britain, this slow-growing tree is often grown in mixed borders as a shrub.

Commercial growers have told me the price is high because these trees often die for no clear reason when the trunks reach 2" diameter---but once they've passed that age they're long-lived.

The national champion tree is 96' tall, in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

i bought a house in yardley, PA 3 years back, and have been trying to find out what is the name of a 50 foot tree in the front yard. Af...Read Moreter visiting Longwood gardens, i finally saw what i had....a sourwood tree. My sourwood was much taller than the one at Longwood, and the experts keep telling me that sourwoods are not that tall. Anyway, I love it. The bees are all over it in the summer time, and it is beautiful with tassles covering it all summer long.

I LOVE this tree, which I discovered as a crimson "what-the-heck-is-that???" one Sunday last autumn, tucked away alongside a busy road. ...Read MoreI kept looking into winter, noticing the gorgeous branching structure. Spring came, and with the Andromeda-like flowers, I was once again wondering, what the heck is that? I finally couldn't help myself and pulled into the nearest restaurant parking lot, trespassed onto the person's yard, and was blown away by the scent and the dozens and dozens of bees. I have since planted my own sapling, which is growing slowly and seems to want to grow as a wide-spreading shrub. I hope it survives winter, as I'm further north and higher up than the tree. I'm in zone 6A, whereas the tree was probably at the cusp of zones 6 and 7.