We were recently bushhogging an overflow nursery parking area, which is a fallow field, that includes quite a few tree seedlings, primarily Liquidambar styraciflua. During the six-hour mowing exercise, I discovered three different variegated clones of our native sweet gum, each growing about 100 feet apart. Recent research has documented that mowing off woody plants
Our New Gums Make us Smile Read More »
Over a 45 year career of botanizing, one odd type of plant I’ve found repeatedly throughout the Southeast US are gold foliage sweetgums. A few were seedlings, while others were mutations that occur when roadside tree saplings are mowed down, causing bud mutations. Some discoveries, we’ve been able to propagate, while we just weren’t there
The Man with the Golden Gum Read More »
Most folks in the Southeast US consider sweetgums to be a less than desirable tree, while gardeners in most foreign countries consider Liquidambar styraciflua to be a garden gem. Over the years, we have collected cuttings of quite a few gold sports from roadside botanizing expeditions, but none have proved to have good enough garden
