Featured Expert Jeffery Johnson
Plant Coordinator
Minnesota Landscape Arboretum
Chanhassen, MN
Q: A tree I planted a number of years ago in my yard got way to large for the space. What could I have done differently?
A:Well, this is a common problem that we deal with when
we get questions from the public regarding the right plant in the right
place. Analyzing the site is very important when we're talking about
selecting a plant for a particular location. Sun or shade situations
are one aspect, but also the amount of space you have is a very common
problem, with people often planting too large of a plant in too small of
a space. It's very easy to do. When you go to a nursery and you're
picking out a little plant that's three or four feet tall, in a pot or
something like that - it's hard to imagine that plant at mature size.
We have a plant right here, an Amur maple, or Acer ginala, as it's known,
which is one of those kinds of plants that people typically buy when
they're quite small, and they don't realize how large they get. This
plant is 25 feet across and 15 or 20 feet tall, and this is fairly typical
of what you're going to get with a seedling type Amur maple. There are
some cultivars of Amur maples that do stay a little bit smaller, but
generally speaking, you do have to think of the mature size of the plant
when you're selecting it in the nursery and really imagine that plant at
that size when you're thinking about the particular space you're going to
put that plant into. One of the other common problem plants we have is
arborvitae. When you go to the nursery and buy a little, tiny, two foot
pyramid arborvitae, and then you plant it right next to the door of your
house or too close to the foundation, or under the eaves of a house -
that plant grows quite rapidly into a 15 to 20 foot tree, and then it
starts blocking windows or blocking access to doors, or impeding the
traffic flow around a sidewalk. So, selecting the right plant for the
right place is a very important consideration when you go to the nursery
and buy a plant.
images: potted trees | potted trees | tree
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Last updated: Tuesday, February 01, 2005