My Silverberry

[Dav4]

This is a tree I acquired about 3 months ago after spending a day with Tyler Sherrod. It literally fell out of the back of his pickup as he drove down my driveway... no lie! Any way, it's apparently an old and imported deciduous Gumi or Silverberry. It's got a fantastic trunk, bark, and old branches, but the existing front showed multiple areas of reverse taper, and some of the branches have all the growth on the end and/or lack taper. Here are some pictures from right when I got it in mid January... it was already beginning to grow. At this point, I decided to cut long runners back to induce some back budding and clean up dead spots on the branches. I also cleaned up all the uros and filled them with epoxy putty with the hope that they eventually disappear under the rolling bark. They are very cool looking but I felt leaving them alone might eventually compromise the health of the tree, and I understand that this tree will cover them up readily when they're filled.

 

[Dav4]

After the cutback and clean up, I wired out some of the newer smaller branches and started re-positioning some of the older branches with guy wires. I decided to change the front about 90 degrees to the right. The base of the trunk is very impressive from this side, the branching is still in favorable positions, and the trunk still has nice subtle movement. Here is the tree today after getting it's first spring cut back.

Old front


New front


The ubiquitous dropped branch. This was the first branch on the right in the original front, and is now the first branch on the left. With the new design, It's been pulled down about 4 inches and rotated clockwise about 30 degrees or so. These are old branches, and the branch did tear a bit during the surgery (note the cut paste) but has grown well since and is healing well at this point. There's a smaller, younger branch behind it that's been wired into a similar position... just in case the old one doesn't take .

 

[Hartinez]

Love that bark Dave and the branch structure established is spot on. Your current photos hide that inverse taper at the base of the tree well. The rest of the inverse spots don’t bother me as much. I’d love to have a Silver Berry at some point myself! That bark though.

 

[Adair M]

Of course it fell out of the pickup truck! Tyler left the lift gate open!

 

[penumbra]

Inverse taper does notbother me at all on a rugged old tree like this. We see it all the time in wild trees. I am glad I am not one of those that stresses over such things.

 

[leatherback]

Wow.. That looks like a BIG tree too. How big is it?

Lovely old texture on the bark. Cool!

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Nice! This is a natural fit in your collection Dave. The blooms‘ scent in the fall is amazing.

 

[Dav4]

I didn’t think I had a pre-cut back photo of this one, but apparently I did…

 

[Dav4]

Wow.. That looks like a BIG tree too. How big is it?

Lovely old texture on the bark. Cool!

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

That is nice. I have not seen silverberry with bark that old before. Nice.

 

[JudyB]

Boggles the mind this tree. It will be stunning in fruit! Do you plan to defoliate this summer?

 

[thams]

Nice!! I love seeing silverberry stock posted up. Gives me something to excited for what mine might look like in 10 years or so.

 

[Dav4]

Boggles the mind this tree. It will be stunning in fruit! Do you plan to defoliate this summer?

At this point, I'm not planning on anything other then aggressive feeding and cutting back as needed. My plan is to really try to thicken up the lower branches over the next few years, so I gotta let it grow!

 

[Dav4]

Another cut back and foliage reduction this past week. I'm playing around with potential new planting angles and like this one. I'll take more pictures in the fall once the leaves have fallen.

 

[JudyB]

Another cut back and foliage reduction this past week. I'm playing around with potential new planting angles and like this one. I'll take more pictures in the fall once the leaves have fallen.

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Are you sure this will loose foliage over winter? Mine keeps thru winter, then I defoliate in spring to get a new set. Your leaves look slightly different than mine though, wonder if there are different cultivars. I like your new angle.

 

[Dav4]

Are you sure this will loose foliage over winter? Mine keeps thru winter, then I defoliate in spring to get a new set. Your leaves look slightly different than mine though, wonder if there are different cultivars. I like your new angle.

I was told by Tyler that it was deciduous and it was definitely sans leaves when I got it. I believe it is an Autumn Olive or Japanese silverberry- Elaeagnus umbellata. I believe they bloom in mid to late spring, though, and no flowers so far. It apparently did bloom while in the Kennett bonsai collection.

 

[Adair M]

Another cut back and foliage reduction this past week. I'm playing around with potential new planting angles and like this one. I'll take more pictures in the fall once the leaves have fallen.

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Hmmm... the way your back yard slopes, you can display it at this angle all the time without having to repot!

It’s looking great Dave! I’m glad you got this tree.

 

[coh]

I was told by Tyler that it was deciduous and it was definitely sans leaves when I got it. I believe it is an Autumn Olive or Japanese silverberry- Elaeagnus umbellata. I believe they bloom in mid to late spring, though, and no flowers so far. It apparently did bloom while in the Kennett bonsai collection.

Hard to tell from the photos but from looking at the leaves, it looks like Autumn or Russian olive (leaves don't look as leathery and as scale covered as the more typically used variety which I think is E. pungens). Autumn olive and Russian olive are spring bloomers while E. pungens blooms in fall. When it eventually blooms you'll know for certain. I have an E. pungens and it holds its leaves through winter, but I keep it above freezing. Not sure how well it would handle "gen pop" wintering conditions.

In any case, what a massive tree! Given the prices I've seen for silverberry material, you could probably buy a car with the proceeds if you decide to sell it after more development/refinement.

 

[Hartinez]

Looking great for sure Dave. I will say though, I prefer your original planting angle. The movement from base to apex is more dynamic to my eye. I didn’t comment, but I felt the same way about your black pine in the other thread. I like to see the apex move your eye one way or another gracefully. Straight up down feels too vanilla for both of these phenomenal trees. Great stuff regardless.

 

[Tycoss]

The bark and branch structure of this tree are beyond stunning! Once the branches thicken into proportion with the trunk this will really be a top notch tree.