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 at the right time to salvage others. In the garden, however, most have failed as garden plants. Either they just decline due to insufficient vigor, have disease issues, or simply burn in the sun. Liquidambar ‘Naree’ was a gold leaf clone, for which we had high hopes, but the foliage just fried in the sun, and it finally faded away.
The first clone that has been exceptional for us in the garden is Liquidambar styraciflua ‘Green Biz Gold Beacon’, discovered on his nursery property by Fayetteville nurseryman, Charles Allen. As you can see in the photo below, our plant at JLBG is simply stunning. I cannot imagine having a native plant garden without this outstanding selection, which we’re hoping makes it into much wider cultivation.
What was the month and date of this picture?
The photo was taken here on July 1, 2025
Naree was also a big disappointment for me in central Virginia. So far I’m loving Gold Beacon though.
Beautiful! Does it still get the great fall color typical of the straight species?
I haven’t paid enough attention in fall to answer…sorry.
Is there a witches broom version of this? Name the cv “Nick Nack”?
No witches broom that we’ve ever encountered.
Not that we’re familiar with
Will it achieve the height and width of a typical sweetgum?
It should be very close to full size.
Perhaps this could also be great pollarded
I can’t imagine why one would want to disfigure such a beautiful plant by pollarding, but to each his own.
Thanks, I often lose the yellow of plants during the summer, and some plants seem to become more yellow in cold weather. Illicium parviflorum ‘Florida Sunshine’ is my favorite fill-in plant for yellow .
Some gold foliage plants are brighter in summer, while others are brighter in winter. It all depends on how the green and yellow pigments interact with light and temperature.