I put this lovely little Stewartia in the new garden along the side of the west walk. I got it from Broken Arrow, a good looking 3 gal. container. It settled in well and is growing like crazy even this first year.
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| First season, 2010 |
It will be 15 feet high and only 8 wide in 10 years (grows to 25 feet and 15 wide). Has rich cinnamon colored bark, may be multi stemmed, although I'll try to keep it pruned to a single trunk.
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| 10/29/2010, already it forms a scarlet pop in the middle distance along the walk. |
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| 10/29/2010, glorious fall color |
It has a really delicate branch structure, with tiny buds, very elegant shape. Leaves are small and oval, bark is a nice brown but should get more cinnamony and complement the paperbark maple next to it. Fall color is just beautiful.
I can't wait to see the flowers!
In spring of 2011 the top half of this pretty, elegant tree did not leaf out. I cut it back, and used a side branch, taped to the stub of the dead leader, to try to re-establish a vertical top:
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| May 13, 2011 |
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| 5/13/11 - side branch taped to the dead pruned leader |
You can see the stunted shape now, but in a few years I hope it will once again form a tall elegant shape.
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| 5/22/11 |
In 2012 it leafed out and formed a little ball of foliage, but the tree itself just disappeared into other greenery around it. Still slender, little height, but a full canopy. I do not remember seeing any blooms, although it had flowered in 2010 with just a couple pretty blossoms. Nothing in 2012, and fall color was just a dark brownish red.
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| 5/11/12 |
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| 5/17/12 |
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| 9/20/12 |
You can just see the stewartia's dark foliage on the little blob in the center of this photo, directly above the chairs, to the left of the umbrella. It did not have the brilliant scarlet fall color of other years.
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| 10/22/12 |
My efforts to recreate a leader after this tree was topped in 2011 started to pay off in 2013. The tree gained a nice shape and is growing taller. It flowered in late June, but with only a few blooms. They are much smaller than the pseudocamellia blooms, and far fewer.
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| 5/10/13 |
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| 6/21/13 |
At first fall color was just brown, and I thought in October that was it. But in early November it turned fiery red. Look at all that new top growth.
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| 11/3/13 |
This poor tree keeps losing its top. In 2014 there were dead branches at the top again, and I had to cut them back. The tall slender leader was once again sacrificed.
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| 5/21/14 that lovely slender top died back 5/30/14 after lopping off the top again |
But it grew well, an established tree now that can take some pruning setbacks.
It had a couple flowers in June, very small and not at all showy. Then it remained a neutral green in summer. But when autumn came this year, what a show. You can see the top has resprouted, and if those top branches make it through winter I will select one to become the leader. This stewartia is a pyramidal tree that needs a single dominant branch at the very top.
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| 10/28/14 |
The fall color was so incredible in 2014. I mean, how red can this red tree get?
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| 10/30/14 |
2015:
I am beside myself. This lovely little tree, such a stunner in fall, did not make it through the cold winter of 2014-15. It never leafed out at all and branches were dry and dead all over. I had to take it out.
Propagation:
Hard to propagate. Can take softwood or semi-ripe cuttings, and they root, but difficult survival after two years.
