A recent question from an old friend of mine I thought I would share:
I have a question for you...........OK....Our back yard has always been very wet and we were told that if we planted a willow tree it would soak up a lot of the water. Well long story short, we had a guy come and do some yard stuff for us and he planted us a tree. However I don't think it is a willow but I have no idea what it is. It looks like a pine. What ever it is it looks like a Charlie Brown X-mas tree. I have not been able to get in touch with the guy who planted it and don't really know what to do with it. Tell me what ya think?
To which I responded:
Thanks for sending these pics along - they're a great help. I'm pretty sure I know what you have planted there. It is a kind of larch, the botanical Latin name is
Larix. I don't know exactly what kind of species you have there, but that is fine as there are not that many different types out there, only about 15 species or so in the trade.
A larch is one example of a deciduous conifer. This means that the tree doesn't produce flower and seed like a maple or oak, but does actually produce some kind of cone instead. However it makes sense that you might not have noticed them as I think they are usually not that big (an inch, give or take depending on species) and sit upright on the branches instead of hanging off like we often see on spruces, pines, etc. But since it is one of the few deciduous conifers out there it is actually supposed to drop it's needles after that yellow fall color. In the world there are only four types of deciduous conifers: larch (
Larix), dawn-redwoods (
Metasequoia), baldcypress (
Taxodium), and believe it or not ginkgos (
Ginko biloba). But anyway...
Even though quite different than a weeping willow or any other kind of willow (botanically known as
Salix), the larch will definitely work in your space as it does best in a sunny spot with regularly moist roots, aka "wet feet", same as a willow would have. Looking at the pics you sent the tree seems to me to be in great shape. It's sort of a matter of accepting its form for what it is. I understand the Charlie Brown reference for sure as the natural habit of the tree is going to be pretty big with horizontal branches that spread out but it is never going to be super full looking because the clusters of needles will always stay pretty close to the branches. You can search Google images for "larch tree" and see a lot of examples. It is going to stay pretty conical (uh, you know, shaped like a cone) and will fill out well early in the summer, but obviously it will shed again before the winter comes. It will grow a couple feet a year, and then a little less as it gets older, but realistically it will ultimately get to be pretty big, over 50' at least. Luckily it looks like the landscaper did give it decent room to grow. Otherwise you don't have to do much to it at all. The older a tree gets the less you need or want to fertilize it. And when it gets much bigger you can do some pruning to prevent it from taking over the entire backyard, but I usually tell people to let it get established for a few years in the new spot before pulling out the saws.
While I am at it I might as well through out another idea. If you want to incorporate some more color back there you have some options as far as moisture loving shrubs. One of my faves is a plant called winterberry,
Ilex verticillata. It is a kind of holly with pretty normal oval leaves, with relatively smooth edges not spiky, which actually also drops its foliage in the fall but the great thing about the shrub is that the branches become covered with tons of bright red berries that hold through the winter. They can be great to look at in the distance and/or on the edge of a property when most everything else is going dormant for the winter. But anyway, we can talk about other suitable plants for your sunny, wet spot out back more in the future. Hope this all helps.
Oh, lastly there is one other thing I just noticed. Someone cut off the top of the tree, the main central leader going up. That unfortunately was not a smart move.
Some inexperienced people will do that, what arborists call a "topping cut", thinking that the tree won't grow any taller, but then only grow wider. Well, that's pretty stupid as the tree is naturally designed to grow quite tall and upright and it is going to do whatever it can to continue to do that, regardless of how humans try and alter the natural process of things. Therefore, over time you will find that a branch or two from below that cut will begin to grow straight up in an attempt to become the new leader. It means that the tree might take on a funny shape from that point upward as it matures and has a crooked top, but you should definitely never make more topping cuts like that. The tree simply has to be allowed to grow tall because that is its natural growth habit. That aspect of the tree is not great, but there isn't much you can do about it by this point. Over the years I've seen that happen to landscaped trees as well as trees near wetlands that get topped during bad storms and they still end up looking ok in the long run so I wouldn't stress it too much. As they say, "c'est la vie!"
Be well,
Alex
