Good Replacement for Dying Hemlock?

[crcurrie]

Hello, listmembers! I hope someone out there can help me.

We have a hemlock tree in our front yard in severe decline. It was treated by a contractor last year for wooly adelgids and was also deep fertilized. But this year the decline continues, and it is shedding needles especially in the last several weeks this Autumn. My landscaper told me (after I already paid for treatment) that hemlocks are clean-air trees and not likely to thrive next to our busy residential street.

So I guess I'm reconciled to losing the tree. However, what is a good choice to replace it? We want another conifer with open habit, a stately specimen tree that will look good next to an old Japanese maple, something tolerant of both pollution and compacted soil, blight resistant, that you can walk under and that will grow taller than our house within our lifetimes.

Our Maryland Cooperative Extension suggested several possibilities, but I have had a very difficult time getting much information (or a nursery source) for most of them, and of course sometimes information differs on key points. These were the recommendations:

Blue Atlas Cedar
Japanese Cedar (cryptomeria japonica var. sinensis)
Serbian Spruce (picea omorica)
Sawara Cypress

Would any of these trees fit the bill, in your opinion? Or are there any other suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[geofore]

try this

take a look at what www.musserforest.com hasto offer in the way of information on this subject. you can email them with questions.

 

[M.D. Vaden]

Here's a copy paste of a post I had on another forum...

Found this yesterday, and its probably the most effective 2 pages I've ever read regarding soils, fungi, compaction, fertilizer and pesticides...

http://www.goodfruit.com/link/Mar1-01/feature7.html

I'd order an auger - I just got a $47 one of 3" diameter from Tree Tools in Oregon and it runs great with a 1/2" drill.

Anyway, find a source of the mychorrizal fungi and start aerating the roots and see if adding the fungal product with a little soil and compost mix doesn't make a difference.

When you read the article...NOTE WHAT IT STATES ABOUT FERITLIZERS - EVEN ORGANIC - LEAVING SALTS THAT DEHYDRATE AND KILL MICROORGANISMS.

So a lot of root feeding is useless or damaging. If it was useful, it had to have been a very, very light dose.

Another source is Mike Amaranthus Phd in Oregon, former soil scientist, who has his own business...

www.mychorrizae.com

is the website.

I think you need to order like $150 worth due to bulk - not likely your source. But it would be if you want to treat all your trees and shrubs.

Anyway, its an informative site nonetheless.

 

[Sylvatica]

CR, is the needle drop you mention a normal fall drop? (older needles, not tip needles)

If the hemlock has not yet been so weakened as to allow a secondary pathogen to set in, I have seen miraculous recoveries from adelgid infestation.

This is not in anyway directed toward you, but it gets me when these agencies recommend exotics as replacements for endangered American native plants. It is BECAUSE OF INTRODUCED PLANTS that many insects and diseases have wiped out our native species!

If shade is not a limiting factor, you might consider white spruce, and concolor and Fraser firs.

Good luck.

 

[crcurrie]

Thanks for the suggestions!

I just happened to spot today a conifer not two miles from where I live that looks like it meets my aesthetic requirements completely. It has an open habit, can be walked and planted under, and a refined appearance. I've never seen this tree before, and wonder if anyone can identify it and let me know whether it might be a good candidate to survive in my conditions. It is thriving one block from a highway and commercial district, so it would appear air pollution is not a limiting factor. I took home and photographed a sprig -- image attached.

Thanks again!

Chris

 

[Sylvatica]

I'm going to say taxodium. Or possibly Dawn Redwood.

Taxodium is a swamp native to the south and can get big. Watch for invasive roots into pipes.

Did you know it is deciduous?

Give me a little bit and I'll tell you some more about it...gotta run.

 

[M.D. Vaden]

If those cones progress to brown and open a bit...

...looks like you have Coast Redwood - Sequoia sempervirens.

From looking at the twig and cone sample pages in TREES OF NORTH AMERICA AND EUROPE

by Roger Phillips

 

[Dan F]

Can you get a picture of the whole tree?

From what you took a picture of, it looks like what we call a Bald Cypress (I can't remember the botanical name, but I can find out). They are deciduous. A neat tree, natural habit really won't allow walking underneath, and they look better if the bottom limbs are not removed.

Bagworms can be a problem, but since they are deciduous they won't tend to be a really big problem for the tree until you get a serious infestation.

HTH


Dan

 

[Ax-man]

That picture looks like Taxus capitata ( upright jap yew ) or maybe English Yew, I"m sticking my neck out on the English Yew, English Yew doesn't grow in our area, but the foilage is similar. The desciption of the tree fits though, for a mature speciman, that hasn't been sheared to death. If it is a Yew it is a very old one and it takes a very long time for them to mature as they are for the most part very slow growing.

I could be wrong on this as the other species mentioned could fit the picture just as easy.

 

[M.D. Vaden]

Coastal Redwood - those are cones, not fleshy berries.

Now does taxodium have needles with pointed tip and cones?

Coastal redwood had a trunk with what can appear to be a stringy bark like western red cedar - to a degree.

 

[Ax-man]

I'm not trying to start a fight here, but that green ball on the end looks more like an insect case of some type, than a green seed cone.

On the same note I'd like to say that I'm not that familiar with some of the evergreens mentioned in this thread, so correct me if I'm wrong on this.

 

[Sylvatica]

My opinion is that fruit is an unripe cone, not an insect gall nor taxus fruit. It is the correct size, shape and color for taxodium.

From what I can gather, the needles of the metasequoia (Dawn Redwood) are opposite, so I incorrectly gave that as an option.

Leaves shown do appear alternate and bipinnately compound as in taxodium distichum. So, for want of a better prospect I'll go with that, but if I am wrong, a better hort expert than I with the correct answer (and that shouldn't be too hard to find ) will be the first to tell me!

 

[Ax-man]

The color is a bit off for a Bald Cypress, going by the few specimens we have in our area. But I must say that is the oddest looking cone I've ever seen, not to mention it is on the current seasons growth.

Without a picture of the whole tree and never having seen a Coastal Redwood it is hard to say what kind of tree it is. It could be one or the other.

Just for the record I never said that green cone on the end of that branch was a Taxus fruit, their red not green.

 

[crcurrie]

Wow, that was fast! Thanks for all the replies. Since baldcypress seemed to win the plurality of opinion, I googled it and came up with some references with good photos. I would say that this tree is probably a baldcypress. It is tall and fairly narrow. The cones are a dead ringer.

Here is one page that shows a number of the tree's features:

http://www.cnr.vt.edu/dendro/dendrology/syllabus/tdistichum.htm

Baldcypress Taxodiaceae Taxodium distichum

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leaf: Linear and small, 1/4 to 3/4 inch long, green to yellow-green, generally appearing two-ranked. When growing on deciduous branchlets the leaf-deciduous branchlet structure resembles a feathery pinnately (or bi-pinnately) compound leaf.
Flower: Males in drooping long panicles. Females are subglobose, peltate scales, and tend to occur near the end of branches.

Fruit: Cones are composed of peltate scales forming a woody, brown sphere with rough surfaces, 3/4 to 1 inch in diameter. Cones disintegrate into irregular-shaped seeds.

Twig: May be deciduous or not. Non-deciduous twigs are slender, alternate, brown, rough, with round buds near the end of the twig. Deciduous twigs are two-ranked, resembling pinnately compound leaves.

Bark: Fibrous, red-brown but may be gray where exposed to the weather. Old, thick bark may appear somewhat scaly.

Form: A large tree with a pyramid-shaped crown, cylindrical bole, fluted or buttressed base and often with knees.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

What confused me is that it apparently "may be deciduous or not." I definitely want an evergreen tree. It's almost November and this tree still seemed to have a full set of needles. I suppose they might start dropping in the next week or two -- some of our deciduous trees are just starting to change color now (we're in the Washington, D.C., suburbs). I guess I'll go back in a few weeks and see if it still has needles before considering it for my front yard ...

Thanks again --

Chris

 

[Ax-man]

Bald Cypress wins hands down. After reading the cone desciption it fell into place. I never paid attention to the immature stage of the cone. The color of the needles is much better in the second picture for Bald Cypress.

 

[M.D. Vaden]

This is interesting.

Coastal redwood is in the same family as the bald cypress.

Both have cones that look similar, that are formed on the ends.

I noticed that redwood appears to have bands of white under the needles. Does the bald cypress have that too?

How do you tell the two apart?

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Originally posted by crcurrie
We have a hemlock tree in our front yard in severe decline. It was treated by a contractor last year for wooly adelgids and was also deep fertilized. But this year the decline continues,!

More trees killed by "deep fert stress treatment" than helped ime; pests love the high N. nOtes on soilbuilding good; even if you lose the hemlock you'll have a better root environment for its replacement.
md good? on telling metasequoia from taxodium; I'll take a look at bothneedles today and get back to you on it.

 

[Sylvatica]

CR, the taxodium will be evergreen in its southern range such as zones 9 or 10, TX, FL, GA. And deciduous when moved up north, such as zone 4 or 5. Semi-deciduous or deciduous in between, such as your home at zone 7.

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Originally posted by Sylvatica
Semi-deciduous or deciduous in between, such as your home at zone 7.

Mine is shedding right now, and I'm 2oo miles south of CR.

 

[Stephen Wiley]

Identification

Stomatal bloom on the underside surface of the leaf is a distinguishing feature. Of the redwood.

However, leaf stomatal is not the most obvious distinguishing trait. Rather the lack of sickle shape twig growth on the leaf sample pic presented by 'crcurrie' indicates it is a bald cypress.

Unless comparing to a Metasequoia than the difference is in the opposite leaves. This is not the tree that 'crcurrrie' desires as it is deciduous.

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It seems that the most significant advise for 'crcurrie' has not been addressed.

Very few landscapers have the ability to correctly analyze cause of tree decline.

Anytime a tree severly declines resulting in death, a soil, root, and tree analysis should be done for causal reasons. Simply planting another tree without finding the cause is a gamble as to wether the new tree will succumb to a soil or contact pathogen.

I do not recommend or advocate the use of mycorrizae to a tree in severe decline.

Additionaly, other factors e.g. planting space (the current placement of this tree as described, may be a street tree), hardscape and utility conflicts should be addressed.

These are just a few thoughts which should be addressed to make an informed decision for a successful planting.