I'd sure give it a nice mulch bed so that the mower or weedeater can't get near it.

...and it can grow more quickly if it doesn't have to compete as much with the grass for its nutrients and water.

It's fine. You can come along next year and spray round-up and then mulch it further. At least you planted it, you all know what I'm saying(?)

Congratulations on your new tree. You've enriched everybody's life.

Dax

I took the picture right after it went into the ground. It's not mulched yet. It's doubtful we'll mow again this year.

Thanks.

We planted a sapling maple in our front yard about 5 years ago, and it's over 20 feet now. We selected it from a wild outcropping of seedlings from one of the most gorgeous Trident maples we've ever seen. Gotta have some good genes, right? It should begin to slow down the vertical growth and begin to get nice and fat, now.

It's a joy to watch the growth and development of young trees and I know that you'll truly appreciate yours. Chalk Maple is one of my favorites.

Mulch does a lot more than just protect the tree trunk from our human assaults. A generous (meaning widespread, not thick) application helps create a very good environment for the roots and microorganisms with the soil/root system. In fact, mulch can be hugely beneficial for your tree, even in the winter months. Root growth and development will continue much longer in a warmer soil, for example. That's a good thing, right?

Yes, mulch is a very good thing and carries with it many benefits. Did I really come off as that much of a newbie in my original post? :) I promise the tree was mulched after the photo was taken. The cedar shavings in the photo are not intended as mulch - they contained goat poo that I got at our spring plant swap and never used. I was doing my perennial bed and had some left over, so I decided to give the tree a handful as well.

Please don't worry about the mulching or other basic care of the tree - I really just wanted to show it off. Arktrees recommended this cultivar, and I promised to post a photo.

The other reason I posted is that I was curious about the branching habit of Chalk Bark. Not a lot of photos available online, and I haven't seen anything showing the form of a mature tree.

Looks like a fine, healthy tree! Congrats!

Thanks Sue! It came from Nearly Native Nursery in GA. They were extremely nice and helpful on the phone, and the way it was packed for shipping was amazing. :) Not terribly expensive, either. They were the only place I could find that carried it. Arktrees knew of one other nursery in our region.

I just found a full photo of Acer Leucoderme - this one doesn't look too old, but it does look like it branches very close to the ground.

Here is a link that might be useful: Chalk Bark Maple

Isn't that an understory tree? Is it in the shade?

Dan

Connie,
Sorry I'm a bit late on your thread (too much work). Anyway, your tree looks great, and about the same size as the one I bought last spring. Ours also branches low to the ground in the same way, but those branches don't seem to grow allot, as the branches on ours are much longer on the top. Also the other Chalk Maples where I bought ours, were branched in the same way, so it seems normal for them. I also received two 1 year seedlings of Acer luecoderme last week, and they branched just above the ground as well. Those two I'm going to grow out for a while. So would seem to be the norm. Just prune them off in a year or two if you like.

In any even, I'm happy to have been able to help you. If it develops fall color, please post that as well. As well as any other observations you can make (i.e. growth rate, bud break, drought etc.) that might be helpful to those that find your posts later.

Lastly, I have included the link again for a source of Chalk Maple for those in this region of the country (shorter shipping distances).

Arktrees

Here is a link that might be useful: Pine Ridge Gardens

No, it's in full sun, as you can see. I read various recommendations for light, and many said full sun. I think it is often an understory tree, but my impression is that it is not strictly so. Do you have personal experience growing this tree? I would love to hear about that.

Ours is in full sun, and didn't seem to mind. Pine Ridge Gardens had them in partial shade, but the owner told me she had shipped several to a customer in Texas that planted them in full sun without problems.

Arktrees

Hey Arktrees, just saw your post! Thank you again for this recommendation. :) I think it's going to work out great! I'm glad to know that the branching seems normal. I wouldn't mind if it branched low, I think. I do hope I get to see a little fall color, and if I do I'll take another picture. Could you post a picture of yours? I'd love to see how it's come along in a year!

I've planted Cornus kousa, Acer griseum and Carpinus caroliniana in full sun...I've been told they are all meant for part sun/part shade. They seem to be doing good.

What I find is that wind is more of an issue than sun.

Nice little tree btw...looks like you'll have no problem establishing a good central leader.

Do you have personal experience growing this tree? I would love to hear about that.

Not out here - I'm a westerner, just forest ecology text experience. If they've selected for sun tolerance, great.

Dan

Connie,
Here is a picture of our Chalk Maple before I planted it. Ours is not planted in a lawn area, and does not appear that it will have much in the way of color this year (as expected). I will be taking more pictures in the spring when it's growing. Our tree is about 4.5 feet tall.

Arktrees

Sorry, forgot the link.

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Nice! Thanks for the picture! I think yours was a little bigger than mine, and it sure has more branching. It was great that you got to go to the nursery and hand-pick it. I guess I won't get my hopes up too much for seeing color this year.

I do think I'm going to be really happy with it. Oh...I'm also still taking off this Friday to go to the tree farm. They have a Commemoration I want to look at too. :)

Connie,
I had not planned on buying anything for myself when I went to Pine Ridge Gardens. I was tree shopping, but not for myself. However when I saw the Chalk Maples, and this beauty in particular , wellll I just couldn't pass it up.

Also see below a couple pictures of our Commemoration Sugar Maple. This has not been a good color year at all. Far too much drought, too warm during the day, and wild temp swing from day to night. Still our tree was developing some really nice color (much redder than last year) until today. Wind! Wind! Wind! dried out allot of the foilage, and so it will never reach full peak color. However I did take some pictures over the weekend. The first picture is from this past weekend. The second picture is from peak color of last year (much cooler, extremely wet, and no sun). The orange was sooooo very orange last year. Much more red-orange this year.

October 2010

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October 2009

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Oh wow. I love that orange! I like both colors, actually. :)

I know what you mean about the wind. Holy cow! This morning I got up and hubby said, "Um, your sunflower blew over and it's on the ground with the roots up in the air." !!! This is the one you can see in the photo above. I had to leave it there because I was late for work. :( I talked to my Mom on the way in and she may be able to do a rescue mission this morning. I don't remember having wind like this in the fall.

I hope the CBM does OK with all the gusts.

I'm also wondering if the fall color is going to be toast after this. We had scheduled a family photo shoot this Friday in the hopes of a background with great fall leaves. This weekend we went to the Ag Center and found an awesome location at the edge of the woods - looking down the path it was nothing but orange, red and yellow everywhere. Gorgeous! I'm going to have to ride by on the way home and see how they're doing.