Coveting a Sugar Maple
Sugar maples do not grow here. That's what I always thought, although I wasn't sure why that was so. I learned from Jason Griffin that it's because our soils are too alkaline, our moisture is too sparse, and our summer temperatures are too high. At our latitude the eastern border of Kansas is the western extent of their range, Dr. Griffin told us.
All that is true about growing sugar maples in Kansas, except for one glorious exception: the Caddo Maple. This tree has a fascinating history.
Caddo County is located in western Oklahoma. That area is host to a species of sugar maple that tolerates alkaline soils, heat, and drought. Seeds were left behind in an isolated pocket when a prehistorical glacier came through and deposited detritus along the way (this was Dr. Griffin's explanation). The Caddo Maple is named for Caddo County, Oklahoma.
John C. Pair was a Caddo Maple champion. He planted a number of those trees at the Horticulture Research Center that was eventually named after him, and, now, more than 50 years later, those trees are still thriving. Last week I fingered a sturdy leaf on one of them. It didn't have a blemish on it anywhere--not edged in a crackly, brown border as some leaves on less well-adapted trees were. The leaves had not yet begun to change into their autumn hue, which is yellow--not flaming red or orange, as I had hoped.
The Caddo Maple is not a good lawn tree because it will not tolerate watering as frequently as is required here for maintaining quality turf. So it really needs to be planted where it can safely be ignored, except perhaps for the first few years of its life. I presume that it will also create shade so deep that grass does not easily grow under it.
Maples in general have relatively thin skin (bark), which is easily damaged during the freezing/thawing that may occur during our sunny but cold winters. This might show up as a vertical crack on the southwest side of the trunk. Wrapping the trunk during the winter is one way to try to prevent this, but Dr. Griffin is not a fan of trunk wrapping. He says it traps moisture underneath the wrap and provides hiding places for insects, thereby opening the tree to damage from pests and diseases. If wrapping is done, the wrap should stay on the tree only from Thanksgiving to Easter. A better way to protect the bark is to leave low branches intact to provide shading for the trunk, until the tree is older and the bark is tougher.
Caddo Maple leaves hang on much longer in the fall than most leaves--more like an oak than like most maples. This also might help prevent winter trunk injury because of the shade they would help provide.
Dr. Griffin believes that propagating Caddo Maple trees would provide a good economic opportunity for some enterprising nurseryman. Amen. I'd love to see this develop for some good person I know. I haven't tried very hard to locate a source, but, sometime in the near future, I want to do so.
Caddo Maple is the first tree on my "indestructible" list for Kansas. I want one in my future.
*************
Added later: Online, I found a Wichita nursery that sells a John Pair Caddo Maple. It can't be mail-ordered, but a picture can be viewed on their website. In contrast to what I remembered hearing on my tour of the John C. Pair Center, the pictured tree has brilliant orange-red foliage. It's possible that when Dr. Griffin was answering a tour group member's question about fall color, he was responding about a particular tree, or perhaps about the predominant color for most seedling trees, rather than the specific John Pair selection. It's likely that this one is propagated by cuttings. Here's the link to a picture of the one available from Brady Nursery in Wichita. It goes by the name 'Autumn Splendor,' but the brief description identifies it as a John Pair selection. With the description is a reference to the fact that the tree must have good drainage. The size of the tree is 30' by 30'.
Here's a link to the John Pair Caddo Sugar Maple available from a Colorado nursery. It has more information on the culture of the tree than the Brady Nursery site does.
All that is true about growing sugar maples in Kansas, except for one glorious exception: the Caddo Maple. This tree has a fascinating history.
Caddo County is located in western Oklahoma. That area is host to a species of sugar maple that tolerates alkaline soils, heat, and drought. Seeds were left behind in an isolated pocket when a prehistorical glacier came through and deposited detritus along the way (this was Dr. Griffin's explanation). The Caddo Maple is named for Caddo County, Oklahoma.
John C. Pair was a Caddo Maple champion. He planted a number of those trees at the Horticulture Research Center that was eventually named after him, and, now, more than 50 years later, those trees are still thriving. Last week I fingered a sturdy leaf on one of them. It didn't have a blemish on it anywhere--not edged in a crackly, brown border as some leaves on less well-adapted trees were. The leaves had not yet begun to change into their autumn hue, which is yellow--not flaming red or orange, as I had hoped.
The Caddo Maple is not a good lawn tree because it will not tolerate watering as frequently as is required here for maintaining quality turf. So it really needs to be planted where it can safely be ignored, except perhaps for the first few years of its life. I presume that it will also create shade so deep that grass does not easily grow under it.
Maples in general have relatively thin skin (bark), which is easily damaged during the freezing/thawing that may occur during our sunny but cold winters. This might show up as a vertical crack on the southwest side of the trunk. Wrapping the trunk during the winter is one way to try to prevent this, but Dr. Griffin is not a fan of trunk wrapping. He says it traps moisture underneath the wrap and provides hiding places for insects, thereby opening the tree to damage from pests and diseases. If wrapping is done, the wrap should stay on the tree only from Thanksgiving to Easter. A better way to protect the bark is to leave low branches intact to provide shading for the trunk, until the tree is older and the bark is tougher.
Caddo Maple leaves hang on much longer in the fall than most leaves--more like an oak than like most maples. This also might help prevent winter trunk injury because of the shade they would help provide.
Dr. Griffin believes that propagating Caddo Maple trees would provide a good economic opportunity for some enterprising nurseryman. Amen. I'd love to see this develop for some good person I know. I haven't tried very hard to locate a source, but, sometime in the near future, I want to do so.
Caddo Maple is the first tree on my "indestructible" list for Kansas. I want one in my future.
*************
Added later: Online, I found a Wichita nursery that sells a John Pair Caddo Maple. It can't be mail-ordered, but a picture can be viewed on their website. In contrast to what I remembered hearing on my tour of the John C. Pair Center, the pictured tree has brilliant orange-red foliage. It's possible that when Dr. Griffin was answering a tour group member's question about fall color, he was responding about a particular tree, or perhaps about the predominant color for most seedling trees, rather than the specific John Pair selection. It's likely that this one is propagated by cuttings. Here's the link to a picture of the one available from Brady Nursery in Wichita. It goes by the name 'Autumn Splendor,' but the brief description identifies it as a John Pair selection. With the description is a reference to the fact that the tree must have good drainage. The size of the tree is 30' by 30'.
Here's a link to the John Pair Caddo Sugar Maple available from a Colorado nursery. It has more information on the culture of the tree than the Brady Nursery site does.
posted by Mrs. I (Miriam Iwashige) at
11:02 PM
2 Comments:
Here is an alternative source: http://www.soonerplantfarm.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/plants.plantDetail/plant_id/2353/index.htm
I live in central OK and our hot dry summers are just like in Kansas. It took me a long time to find a source after researching maples and deciding I wanted this one.
I ordered one online in late summer 2014, and they sent it very well packaged about a month later. This year is its 2nd spring with me. It seems to leaf out later than the other maples, and yes, it does hang on to at least a portion of its dried leaves through the winter. I planted it on the west side of my lawn, hoping to have some shade cast across my backyard in 10-15 years. I enjoyed your post about the Caddo Maple - thank you!
By
Anonymous, at 3/31/2016
Thanks for this information. They're out of stock, right now, unfortunately. I left a message asking to be notified when they become available again.
By
Mrs. I (Miriam Iwashige), at 3/31/2016
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