Monday, June 20, 2011

Snow(bells)

Take two trees overloaded with small, white, fragrant blossoms, add a day of seemingly nonstop drizzle, and you get snow in June. Pretty? Yes. But oh so wrong for a tree (Japanese Snowbell, Styrax japonicas) that is on the City of Portland Street Tree List. The sagging branches make it completely impossible to walk on the sidewalk. And if you could the massive drop of blooms gets extremely slippery when it rains…think compact snow. Oh and have you ever tried to clean up wet soggy petals on cement? And this is just the beginning. Later this summer the trees will start dropping their small, hard, green fruit. Just imagine dumping a bag of olive shaped marbles on your sidewalk. With a park at the end of our street we live in a walking neighborhood, these trees are dangerous…beautiful, but dangerous. I suppose that makes them right at home in my garden, but I don’t recommend planting them in yours, at least not near the sidewalk*. (*but if you want seedlings just let me know next spring after all those fruits sprout…I’ll be pulling them up by the dozens)

13 comments:

  1. This is why I love garden blogs. Would you and I ever read about the pitfalls of this tree in a garden catalog? No. Great post.

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  2. My neighbor who planted two Styrax japonica as street trees also laments that the low branches make it hard to see the drooping flowers from below. She wouldn't plant them again either, and she's been a Friends of Trees liaison in the neighborhood for 20 years!

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  3. Beautiful, though. Just in the wrong spot.

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  4. Grace, yep given ya the straight dirt on the trees! I really do like them 340 days of the year...

    MulchMaid, I remember feeling that way about the flowers (seeing them from below) when the trees were smaller but that isn't a problem any more. The fragrance is still a huge plus for me. Today in the drive way and with a window open I could smell their wonderful scent but it's clearly not worth it when it makes the sidewalk impossible to use.

    Hoover, yes! I saw one today on our walk that was planted up in someones yard, it was beautiful! I am completely in love with the look of the tree, it's just not suitable as a street tree.

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  5. What is it with officially city-sanctioned trees that have serious litter issues? Maybe there's extra plant-love for trees that bloom (and shed) prolifically? San Diego's official non-native tree, the jacaranda, is doing the bloom drop all around town...purple rain, purple rain... Pretty, and pretty messy...

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  6. I remember the first time I touched snow. Never touched it before, and it was an interesting feeling.

    The way the tree looks with that white snow on it, reminds me of the way you would decorate a Christmas tree.

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  7. Well, the hard little nutlets are an issue but the drooping branches won't be an issue in a few more years, when you limb up those lower branches. After all, they trees are still babies... However, in my view, Styrax aren't such great parking strip trees because they aren't drought tolerant! That's one of my top criteria for a good parking strip tree.

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  8. An honest review of a plant, seems not suitable for being planted along a pavement at all. Pretty plant, as has been mentioned just in the wrong spot.

    Do you get fined by the city council if you do even only a 'little' bit of pruning on street trees?

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  9. YIkes...hard to believe that's on the recommended list! It is beautiful, but, yeah, not very practical! Our neighbor up the street that has a huge fig tree planted along the street...every summer it starts dropping its fruit and the entire sidewalk is a gooey, sticky, stinky mess...it's so foul.

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  10. James, you are now responsible for putting that song in my head, on repeat.

    ZZ, Wow...what a foreign thought for me (touching snow for the first time), since it's always been a part of my winters.

    kate, great point about the drought tolerance issue, I learned that one the hard way our first hot summer here. Poor trees looked like death. They've been much less thirsty the last couple years (either because their getting more established, or our summers have been cooler...or both). I hope the time when we can limb them up comes soon, although to look at them now it certainly seems a ways off.

    Mark and Gaz, good question. I know the city has been known to come after people who cut down trees in the parking strip but I think they are ok with a little pruning maintenance. I did whack off the worse offender the other day, but hesitate to do too much until the blooms drop and the branches return to their normal height.

    scott, we've not a neighbor with a fig in the parking strip too! I do remember seeing some of the fruit on the ground last year but no smell, that could be foul!

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  11. this beauty... worth every penny and every bit of danger. Thank You!

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  12. AnonymousJune 10, 2023

    We call ours the giving tree because it keeps giving! Flowers drop, nuts drop, leaves drop! It never stops and it’s over our sidewalk as well. The nuts have to be raked up off the grass because they will kill the grass there are so many of them. It does look good when it’s in flower and the bees LOVE it!

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