Planted five in spring 2006.
Then I kept adding more each year, trying to get any to establish!
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| 6/20/14 |
I put the original saplings on the back hill. They were from Forestfarm, 5 gal. and 1 gal. containers. Only one of the 5 gal. plants survives.
Added more almost each year thereafter, from ArborDay, and from Forestfarm. The most successful have been the saplings from Broken Arrow added in 2009.
Japanese beetles got the 5 gal. one in summer ‘07, but it survived and had nice fall color. In ‘08 it lost its tall lead trunk and developed again from a side shoot to almost the same height. I am keeping all of the suckers from growing; I want all the sassafras to grow into trees, not multi stemmed shrubs.
There are now 4 sassafras still growing on the back hill. Two had great fall color, bright orange in 2010.
I put one in the back strip in 2009 where the buckeyes are planted. In 2010 I moved it to a spot near the west walk, then regretted it. Too close to the house. I then moved it
again to the back of the spruce berm.
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| one of the Broken Arrow saplings in 2009 originally on the back strip with the buckeyes |
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| same little sapling, now moved to the spruce berm in 2010 |
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| The largest of the original sassafras trees 10/23/11 - taken with my iPhone |
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| late March and early April 2012 - first time I had blooms! |
In spring 2012 I added two more small sassafras from Broken Arrow to the back hill.
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| 7/3/2012 |
Two sassafras side by side on the hill continue to be so different, only a few feet apart. The one slightly higher is small, horizontally tiered, and turns orange while the one to its left is bigger, upright, leafier and stays green in early October.
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| 10/7/2012 |
Later in October the small one has dropped its leaves, but the other larger ones turn orange.
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| 10/22/2012 |
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| 10/22/2012 |
In 2013 the larger of the sassafras trees were finally having a presence on the hill. Several of the small ones I thought I had lost did leaf out again and I ended up with a row of four little saplings along the bottom of the hill.
The flowers are not very noticeable in April, but the trees do bloom.
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| 4/25/13 |
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| 5/14/13 |
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| 8/19/13 |
I kept the weeds down around the row of small saplings at the bottom of the hill, and they put on some size, although still only a foot or so high in 2013. The leaves are different on some of them. The one I got at Broken Arrow has darker, curled leaves that are narrower than the others, and it is rounder. The saplings that came back from the roots after I thought they were lost are a more open shrubby form.
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| 2013 the leaves and the forms vary |
Fall color in 2013 was spectacular on the one sassafras that has remained tiered and open. It glowed orange well before the others colored. The bigger, leafier sassafras trees never did color. In late October they just turned brown.
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| 10/5/13 -the one on the left is full and green; the tiered one on the right has turned |
Sassafras is dioecious, meaning there are male and female trees. The bluish black little fruits on red pedicels are produced on female tree. My sassafras grove is maturing now, and the trees flower in early spring, but I do not recall seeing any fruits in late summer. Are all my trees male?
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| 5/4/14 Blooming is so subtle |
Apparently the difference in male and female flowers is not obvious -- these subtle little flowers only differ by the number of stamens, otherwise they look alike. I'll need to conduct a little science next spring to see if I can tell what each tree is.
The little saplings at the bottom of the hill put on size in 2014. Here is a little one lit up by the sun in front of one of the more mature sassafras trees on the hill.
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| 6/20/14 |
Three musketeers: a red maple on the left, a big green sassafras in the middle, and the oddly tiered sassafras on the right that always turns orange well before the others.
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| 9/24/14 |
In 2014 even the littlest sassafras saplings had bright fall color.
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| 10/17/14 |
In early spring 2015 I noticed one of the taller sassafras trees had lost a lot of branches on the bottom third; they just did not leaf out. I cut them all back. The tree leafed out at the top and is growing but now has a skinny unbranched trunk most of the way up.
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| 5/12/15 |
You can see its trunk silhouetted against the shadows of the woods, framed between the two spruces.
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| 6/10/15 |
The smaller sassafras saplings put on nice growth in 2015. Here's one right in front of the tall one with the bare trunk now.
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| 7/3/15 |
All seven of the sassafras on the hill were leafy and growing well. Love the leaves all throughout the season.
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| June, July and October 2015 |
In fall each of the trees was a different color, each showing its individuality. They ranged from one that stayed green to bright wine red to pumpkin to rust and hot orange. A lot of variety.
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| 10/15/15 |
Propagation:
By root cuttings.
