Deciduous shrubs: from Abelia to Zelkova

Decid­u­ous trees from Lap­pen, such as the Tilia (lime), Acer (maple), Fagus syl­vat­i­ca (cop­per beech), Quer­cus (oak) and Nys­sa (tupe­lo gum), offer the onlook­er a sen­sa­tion­al dis­play of autumn colours. In turn, oth­er plants bloom attrac­tive­ly in spring, amongst  oth­ers the Prunus ‘acco­lade’, yedoen­sis or ‘Tai­haku’ (Japan­ese cher­ry), togeth­er with a large num­ber of oth­er orna­men­tal trees.

In sum­mer they pro­vide  shade in the streets, car parks, gar­dens and parks. Such vari­eties with high­ly devel­oped crowns and high growth, includ­ing the Liri­o­den­dron (tulip tree), are par­tic­u­lar­ly suit­ed as free-stand­ing soli­tary trees for parks and avenues.

The acer pla­tanoides ‘Columnare Dila’ (colum­nar Nor­way maple), on the oth­er hand, is fre­quent­ly plant­ed in nar­row streets and small parks. The frost-hardy and wind-resis­tant, but some­what heat-sen­si­tive Acer free­manii ‘Arm­strong’ (red maple), one of the 150 sub-species of the acer (maple), is also suit­able for plant­i­ng in con­fined spaces and nar­row streets. Its bark is sil­ver-grey and it blooms before bud burst in March with beau­ti­ful orange-red panicles.

But it’s not only the growth and colours that are impor­tant when select­ing the right tree. The cli­mat­ic and soil con­di­tions at the future plant­i­ng site also play a key role. For instance, the straight­for­ward Alnus (alder) places no par­tic­u­lar demands on the soil. It thrives on nutri­ent-poor, dry soils while simul­ta­ne­ous­ly cop­ing with a high lev­el of soil saturation.

The Betu­la (birch) also prefers a sun­ny loca­tion, but is still capa­ble of tol­er­at­ing almost all soil con­di­tions. The Quer­cus (oak), in con­trast, loves rich, deep soil, with at least some clay in the low­er lev­els of the soil.

If the soil and cli­mat­ic con­di­tions are good, real giants can devel­op from the trees grown by Lap­pen: along­side Quer­cus (oak), Fagus (beech) and Ulmus (elm), the Acer (maple) can also grow up to 30 m tall. If the tree stands in an unre­strict­ed space a mag­nif­i­cent crown will grow. The deep-reach­ing roots and soil-improv­ing leaves of the Acer (maple) mean that it is opti­mal­ly suit­ed to derelict land.

Future trees can also be found among the tree nursery’s decid­u­ous shrubs. These are char­ac­terised by their growth vigour, life expectan­cy, and low lev­el of care, har­di­ness and resis­tance to break­age. Such trees include the Acer campestre (field maple) in var­i­ous vari­eties, Celtis aus­tralis (Euro­pean net­tle tree), Acer buerg­e­ri­anum (tri­dent maple), Frax­i­nus americana(white ash), Acer monspessulanum(French maple), Quer­cus cer­ris (Turkey oak), Ostrya carpini­fo­lia (hop horn­beam), Zelko­va ser­ra­ta (Japan­ese zelko­va), Gled­it­sia tri­a­can­thos (hon­ey locust ‘Sun­burst’) in var­i­ous vari­eties, Koel­reuteria pan­ic­u­la­ta (pride of India) and the Frax­i­nus ornus (man­na ash).

Anoth­er plant in the tree nursery’s com­pre­hen­sive range is the Tilia hen­ryana (Henry’s lime). This pro­duces par­tic­u­lar­ly rich nec­tar and pollen and there­fore fre­quent­ly attracts hon­ey bees. The bee pas­tures  pro­vide reli­able sta­bil­i­sa­tion of slopes and inland dunes.