Why Good Trees Fall Down....Stripe Bark Maple Dies at the Miller Botanical Garden

"Even great gardeners can make mistakes in the beginning," says Richie Steffen, Curator at the Elisabeth Miller Botanical Garden in Shoreline. The crew there is cleaning up a downed Stripe bark maple this week, a once beautiful tree that succumbed after 40 years to its badly girdled root ball.
 
The old Acer grosseri var. hersii fell over unexpectedly, although Steffen had noticed the tree seemed to be declining.  But he had no idea  the roots were rotted away. It's a reminder to loosen and spread roots of any containerized tree you plant, or they'll just continue to circle in on themselves and not plunge more deeply and widely into the soil so the tree can support itself as it grows. 

This stripe bark maple lived nearly 40 years before being downed by rot and roots - it fell across the alpine staircase in the lower garden...

Miraculously, the tree didn't take any other shrubs or trees with it - look at that lucky conifer still standing between the branches/trunks...

Once the base of the trunk was cleared out ¾ of the roots had rotted away only leaving a few fat girdling roots to hold it up.

Comments

[Lauren Hall-Behrens]

Great post!!

[Richie Steffen]

It is a tramatic event to have a tree fall in the garden, but I am excited at the opportunities it has opened for the area. Time to started looking for replacement plants! Perhaps Schefflera gracilis or a group of Rhododendron pachysanthum..........

Richie

[Scott Weber]

Poor thing...it really shows how important it is to plant things (especially trees) correctly!

[Karen]

It's always sad to lose a tree and a good reminder of planting properly.

[DariaW]

As a cautionary tale, it'll assuage my feelings of guilt and help me be more ruthless when I plant

[cherry tree]

Its very sad to lose a tree,especially for those who have extreme love for nature! But mistakes are in the nature of humans! And that is fine enough!