Here's the history:
Planted two in 2006.
In spring 2012 I put in three small saplings of a variety called 'Little Volunteer' from Wayside Nursery. It is smaller in all aspects --- leaves are a reduced size, and the tuliptree itself grows to 30 feet, not the giant that the species gets to be.
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| Wayside Gardens |
The original two planted in fall 2006 were put on the back hill.
Got them from Lowe's and they were so rootbound when I bought them, but both really thrived once they got their roots opened up and were in the soil!
In winter 2008 deer scraped the bark off one and it died. But the roots were alive, and by late summer ‘08 it put out lots of twiggy sprouts. However, by 2009 it was a goner.
A volunteer seedling showed up in the Northern Exposure garden in 2009! I potted it up over winter and put the tiny sprout out on the back hill spring 2010. Could it be from the young tree on the hill? I don't remember even seeing flowers yet. It's probably from nearby woods. It's still there in 2012, a tiny little thing.
The other undamaged tree was growing like gangbusters.
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| early spring 2010 |
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| summer drought in 2010 caused early leaf color |
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| 10/25/11 |
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| 10/25/11, so tall in the center distance (four days later snow weighted it down and uprooted the whole tree) |
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| By 11/4/11 the tall, green tuliptree in the photo above looked like this, its roots were completely out of the soil, and we had to cut it off at the base. |
In 2012 sprouts shot up from what little was left of the uprooted and cut stump, and I took off all but one tall shoot. I have since put in a maple sapling in the area where the stump is, and if the tuliptree regrows it will be too crowded. So I may continue to cut off the sprouts until this poor tree stops regrowing.
The 'Little Volunteer' saplings are not yet visible above the tall weeds. In 2012 I could only find two of the three I planted among the weeds in summer, so one did not get watered!
The wild seedling I planted on the back hill is still there. It's a fast grower, but still just a tiny thing about ten inches high in the weeds as of 2012.
In 2013 the wild seedling was moved out into a little more sun in the meadow. It's starting to really shoot up now, about three feet high. I love those leaves!
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| 8/25/13 |
The 'Little Volunteer' sapling is still growing, but slowly. Everything about it, particularly the leaves, is much smaller and more refined that the big-leaved wild tuliptrees.
I continued to cut several resprouting shoots in 2013 from the tultiptree on the back hill that was cut down. There is no room where it is for a large tree to regrow there.
The 'Little Volunteer' sapling was still small in 2014, but still there. It isn't growing very much, but it is healthy. Fall color was bright yellow.
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| 9/24/14 |
In 2014 I took out the wild seedling that was growing like gangbusters in the meadow. I had moved it into more sun in 2013, but by 2014 it was clear it was going to overtake the nearby trees and simply get too big for that spot in the meadow. So I took it out.
'Little Volunteer' did not survive into 2015. It never came in after the harsh winter of 2014-15. So at this point there are no more tuliptrees in the meadow or on the back hill.
Propagation:
Only by seed.
