Featured Expert
Peter Moe
Director of Operations
Minnesota Landscape Arboretum
Chanhassen, MN

Q: What trees are suited for heavier clay soils?

A: One of the key factors with the clay soils is the drainage of the soil. The clay does hold a lot of moisture, but as long as the area has a slope to it or just tends to be fairly well-drained so you don't have standing water for several hours after a heavy rain, then there are many tree species will grow. Some that we know do well here at the arboretum, where we have just about all clay soils throughout the arboretum property, are the Ohio buckeye. In fact the tree behind me is a selection the arboretum has made of Ohio buckeye called 'Autumn Splendor.' It has very nice, dark, glossy, green foliage all during the summer and a beautiful red fall color. A seedling Ohio buckeye would have a yellow fall color, but it's still a nice tree. They do not get very large, either, so they're a good tree for an average to a small size residential lot. Another tree that grows well in clay soil is American linden or basswood. It's a native tree throughout much of Minnesota with very few pest problems. It's quite a fast growing tree, but not a weed tree by any means. It's a nice, good quality shade tree. A green ash is a tree for both sandy and clay soils. It's probably one of our more tolerant trees that will grow in a lot of different soil types. And another, not very common tree that's definitely worth trying that we've had very good luck with here at the arboretum is the Kentucky coffee tree. It's native to southern Minnesota, but I've seen it growing outside of its native range and doing well in several regions around the state. It's in the bean family, and has very coarse branches that give the tree a lot of character even during the winter months, and it has male and female trees, and the female ones have nice, big brown pods. Some people complain about pods - the buckeye behind me has nuts - the buckeye nuts, but I think that adds interest, and usually the squirrels and things in the neighborhood clean them up. So there's actually quite a few choices, and we encourage people to use a wide variety of trees, so that helps avoid disease problems we've had - like with Dutch elm disease and oak wilt, when people plant a diverse variety of trees in their yard.


images: ohio buckeye "autumn splendor" | ohio buckeye "autumn splendor"

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Last updated: Tuesday, February 01, 2005