(5yr Native Tree Challenge) Tum's Baccharis halimifolia (Sea myrtle)

[Tums]

Sea myrtle is a member of the Aster family and blooms in fall. It's native all up and down the eastern coast of the US, reaching the tip of its northern range here in Massachusetts. The female plants (right) supposedly have flashier white flowers than the male (left) which has yellow/cream flowers.

Afterwards, the female flowers turn into these airy-looking seeds/fruits.

They can develop this neat looking ridged bark but I'm unsure if that will happen within the contest time.

I bought two gangly sale plants, a male and a female, from my local native plant nursery last fall and cut them back recently. The male is backbudding all over but the female plant is barely doing anything - not sure if it was less healthy going into winter. I may have to go pick up another one if this doesn't make it. At this point they're literal sticks in pots, but I'm thinking some kind of broom for styling.

 

[HorseloverFat]

SO neat!!!

 

[Tums]

Right??

 

[Tums]

Both have leafed out pretty wildly although the male (left) continues to be more vigorous than the female plant. I think the spring growth will harden off in a few more weeks and I'll have a look at branch selection/height. I think I can see spots on both where many branches are coming out of the same height on the trunk, which is promising.

Edit: although now thinking about it, the trunks are still pretty skinny. Should I just let them go for the year?

 

[Tums]

End of season update time.

Species pros:
Fast growing, trunks thickened a decent amount this year.
Backbuds well when cut back.
Already have some interesting looking bark.

Cons:
Plants do not branch on their own very much after the initial growth spurt. I'll have to figure out how late I can prune for branching without delaying/removing flowers.
Multiple branches tend to sprout from a single point and swell a lot.

For some reason I left the female in the shade for a few weeks so the blooms were out of sync with the male. Will have to wait until next year to see what the female seed pods looks like, or maybe I did get some? The male flowers are NOT very exciting but at least the bees liked them. Second photo is a terrible picture of the female flowers.



Both male and female have whorls of branches about halfway up which I think I can just cut to for a broom. We'll see how they handle the chop and rootwork at once. I can't remember which is which in these photos though and it's dark outside right now.

 

[Tums]

For both, I cut back, put on a tourniquet, and planted into the ground. Spring has been pretty cool so far so they're still budding out but looks like the weather is going to pick up now. I really forgot which one is which because the label was on the nursery pot, so I'll have to wait until they flower again to find out. Not much to look at for now.

 

[dbonsaiw]

Looks great. I'll be following along on this thread as I collected a small baccharis halimifolia this season. I thought the trunk was interesting and originally thought it was black locust before it leafed out.

 

[Tums]

Sorry to disappoint, it seems like that was a pretty severe shock to them. One is just leafing out now and the other hasn't done anything at all (pretty sure it's dead). I'll update if either pulls through.

 

[Tums]

I think I'll have to give up on the remaining one; it hasn't moved at all so even if it recovers, I doubt it will amount to much in the contest span. Not sure what went wrong, maybe I just overwintered them poorly in their nursery containers?

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

They should have been winter hardy. Perhaps too wet over winter?

Interesting genus, over 500 species native to the Americas.

 

[Tums]

They should have been winter hardy. Perhaps too wet over winter?

Interesting genus, over 500 species native to the Americas.

Yes, I moved house last year during the repotting window and it wouldn't surprise me if the nursery mix just broke down too much during the year. if I have this situation again, I have some ideas like taking the plant out of the pot and temporarily planting it. I would like to try this species again though, I think it's got some interesting features.

 

[dbonsaiw]

Here's my BH that I collected in early spring. Odd little tree.

 

[Tums]

Here's my BH that I collected in early spring. Odd little tree.

I think I mentioned earlier in the thread but they like to form big knobs/bumps where multiple branches leave the trunk, so I'd keep an eye out for that.

 

[dbonsaiw]

I think I mentioned earlier in the thread but they like to form big knobs/bumps where multiple branches leave the trunk, so I'd keep an eye out for that.

Yes they do. Do you prune all but one branch from a single point?

 

[Tums]

I think that's pretty common advice for most species (no "bar branches", avoid reverse taper) but definitely for this one.