We planted this mail-order tree from Nearly Native Nursery in April 2014. It struggled through the 2014 summer with several portions of the main stem dying off while a second stem sprouted from the base.
I snipped off the dead top in the winter of 2014/15 and in July 2016 it was shorter than it was when we first planted it. It was surviving in the clay soil of our yard, but certainly not thriving. The leaves turn orange in the autumn. In the spring of 2015 and 2016, a couple of small yellow male flowers appeared, showing it was a male plant.
On August 19th 2017, the Sassafras was looking pretty sorry for itself - the leaves were sparse and many were yellowing. This tree looked worse every summer. In the spring of 2018, like so many other trees that year, the Sassafras was looking better than normal - unfortunately I made my biggest pruning mistake ever and snipped off a branch full of vigorous new leaves. However, it continued to grow vigorously all summer. Bad news for the Sassafras - after a couple of months at least of the ground being water-logged, in late September all the leaves of the Sassafras suddenly went from vibrant green to brown. It looked like this one had drowned - a scratch test revealed it to be dead almost all the way to the base. Such a pity as this was one of my most improved trees compared to previous years. In January 2019 I bought a new 3 gallon Sassafras, from Buchanan's Native Plants. This time I planted it on slightly higher ground.
Unfortunately this Sassafras died by mid summer, perhaps due to the terrible heat, or perhaps due to the terrible clay soil.
In mid-September 2020, I bought my third Sassafras, a healthy looking specimen from Buchanan's Native Plants. I planted it on September 12th in a highish spot in the yard - picture is at the top of this page. One last try. This Sassafras died during the winter of 2020 / 2021. Possibly due to the "Big Freeze" event. That was the last attempt to grow a Sassafras in this yard - luckily I have plenty of healthy specimens in my North Carolina forest. |
Sassafras #2 (end of June 2019)
Sassafras (July 2018)
Sassafras (July 2017)
Sassafras (July 2016)
Sassafras (2014)
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