A Prairie Garden Journal    by Dick Meyer

Nightmare

on

Elm Street ?

Elms—American and Siberian—were the dominant shade tree in the cities of Wyobraska until a combination of age, weather, insect, and disease problems almost entirely wiped out the elm populations in Wyobraska between the years of 1970 and 2000.  For cities in Wyobraska—yes, it was a nightmare.  But it had nothing to do with a psychotic killer named Freddie. 

 I recall one community tree survey done in the late 1970’s that estimated the tree population of either Scottsbluff or Gering to be made up of approximately 60% American or Siberian Elm.  Barely 20 years later, the vast majority of those elms were dead.   Cut up by a chain saw in most cases, but not a chain saw yielded by a psychotic killer.  Instead it was the mostly non-psychotic employees of local tree removal companies that were running the chain saws.  And from the late 1970’s through the late 1990’s, they were frightfully busy.

Elms will generally be medium sized shade trees, with fairly dark green leaves in summer, and yellow fall color.   American elms were excellent shade trees due to a natural umbrella shaped growth habit at maturity.   Not all of the new elm hybrids will have that same ideal shade tree form, but all are able to be pruned into traditional shade tree form.   Elms will be among the fastest growing of shade trees with rates of growth in the 3-4’ per year range when young.

Previous Articles

Yes It's Time March 12

Pruning Trees March 26

Plant a Tree in 2009 April 02

Great Old Trees April 09

2008 Articles

2007 Articles

2006 Articles
 

Dutch Elm Disease, a European  fungus for which American Elms had little defense, wiped out most of the American Elms, and several adverse weather events were  equally damaging to the many Siberian elms that had been widely planted around farm places and in communities across Wyobraska during the 1930’s and 1940’s.  The loss of the American Elms occurred in communities all across the United States, but it was especially devastating to the city forests of Wyobraska communities because of the relatively high percentage of the total city tree populations they comprised.   And replacing the elms was more difficult in Wyobraska than in most other areas of the country because the soils and climate of Wyobraska limited the number of viable tree species that could be successfully planted to replace the American Elms. 

Other elms were not an option at the time because the work to develop Dutch Elm Disease resistant hybrids of elms was just getting underway.  It was not until the very late 1990’s that the first of the new disease resistant elm hybrids began to show up in nurseries around the country, and only now are we beginning to get any good information about the possible adaptability of any of these new elms in Wyobraska.  The initial news appears to be good.   

Several elms native to Japan and China had been introduced to the United States in the 1800’s, but had never gained widespread popularity simply because American elms were so readily available and easily grown.   When the vulnerability of American Elms to Dutch Elm Disease first became obvious in communities on the east coast in the 1960’s, tree researchers there began looking to Asian Elms as a source of elm hybrids that might be resistant to Dutch Elm Disease.  Their work would soon be replicated in tree breeding and testing programs around the country.  The result of these programs has been the reintroduction of elms to the American landscape. 

Frontier Elm's fall color

good options for most Wyobraska locations.     The oak trees sold in your local garden center are mostly grown from seed, which means that each one is at least a little bit unique.  This is a big difference from trees like maples, ash, and lindens—which are mostly all named varieties, with each tree of a given named variety having exactly the same genetic make-up of every other tree of that named variety.  So while every ‘Patmore Ash” will look exactly like every other ‘Patmore Ash’, no two bur oaks, or English oaks, or northern red oaks will look exactly alike.   

That individual uniqueness of seed grown trees is both good and bad.  On the bad side it’s possible to get a tree with poor or somehow defective genetics that doesn’t grow well in your landscape.  Fortunately, that’s pretty rare.  Oak seed for trees to be grown in the nursery trade is usually collected from beneath high quality specimen trees.   On the good side, the genetic diversity of seed grown trees greatly reduces the chances that a single insect or disease problem will devastate that particular population of trees—and then there’s also the benefit that no two trees look exactly alike, as well. 

Both English oak and Northern Red Oak have what I would consider a proven adaptability to Wyobraska landscapes.  Both are medium to large shade trees, with the traditional oak shaped leaves, dark green color in the summer, and varying fall color.  Both should probably be planted only in irrigated lawn or landscape beds, though—as is the case with most shade trees, by the way.  Two others—chinkapin oak and gambels oak are smaller shade trees or naturalized landscape plants that offer shade tree potential with greater soil adaptability and drought tolerance.   Both can be grown either as multi-trunked clumps or as single stem trees. 

Hybridizing work is now well underway which is attempting to produce oaks with the soil adaptability and hardiness of bur oak with some of the improved fall color and more uniform growth habits of other oaks.  I look for some new oak prospects to be available to the public in only a few more years.  I think these new oaks will likely be good prospects for Wyobraska.