Hi the

In my front yard I have a deciduous tree with maroon leaves--I don't
know what it is, but it was here when I moved in 12 years ago. It has
a nasty habit of throwing up runners within a 3' radius around the
trunk. Is there a better way to handle this than just me and my
pruning shears? It makes it difficult to plant flowers around it,
then runners appear everywhere in my beds. It also seeds itself
everywhere in the yard. The small seedlings are easy to pull out if
they are 6" or less, but those runners are driving me nuts. Any
suggestions?

Thanks,
Cynthia

"Jacquard_The_Ripper" wrote in message
news:3f0717f9.597720556@news...
Hi the

In my front yard I have a deciduous tree with maroon leaves--I don't
know what it is, but it was here when I moved in 12 years ago. It has
a nasty habit of throwing up runners within a 3' radius around the
trunk. Is there a better way to handle this than just me and my
pruning shears? It makes it difficult to plant flowers around it,
then runners appear everywhere in my beds. It also seeds itself
everywhere in the yard. The small seedlings are easy to pull out if
they are 6" or less, but those runners are driving me nuts. Any
suggestions?

Thanks,
Cynthia

What you probably have is an ornamental plum tree, usually the variety
Thundercloud. If you mow around the trunk you can take care of the suckers
with minimal effort on your part. This is usually why they do not have
flowers planted around the base. The better and more permanant solution is
to remove the tree entirely, and even then you'll be dealing with suckers
for quite some time as the roots will refuse to die in a timely manner. It's
a very pretty tree, but it's far more of a pest than it's value as an
ornamental.

Sunflower
MS 7b

I would respectfully disagree with your assessment. It's a gorgeous tree!
*And* those 'ornamental' fruits are delicious.

Dave

"Sunflower" wrote in message
...

"Jacquard_The_Ripper" wrote in message
news:3f0717f9.597720556@news...
Hi the

In my front yard I have a deciduous tree with maroon leaves--I don't
know what it is, but it was here when I moved in 12 years ago. It has
a nasty habit of throwing up runners within a 3' radius around the
trunk. Is there a better way to handle this than just me and my
pruning shears? It makes it difficult to plant flowers around it,
then runners appear everywhere in my beds. It also seeds itself
everywhere in the yard. The small seedlings are easy to pull out if
they are 6" or less, but those runners are driving me nuts. Any
suggestions?

Thanks,
Cynthia

What you probably have is an ornamental plum tree, usually the variety
Thundercloud. If you mow around the trunk you can take care of the
suckers
with minimal effort on your part. This is usually why they do not have
flowers planted around the base. The better and more permanant solution
is
to remove the tree entirely, and even then you'll be dealing with suckers
for quite some time as the roots will refuse to die in a timely manner.
It's
a very pretty tree, but it's far more of a pest than it's value as an
ornamental.

Sunflower
MS 7b

Find out what the tree is and then get back to us.


Jacquard_The_Ripper wrote in message
news:3f0717f9.597720556@news...
Hi the

In my front yard I have a deciduous tree with maroon leaves--I don't
know what it is, but it was here when I moved in 12 years ago. It has
a nasty habit of throwing up runners within a 3' radius around the
trunk. Is there a better way to handle this than just me and my
pruning shears? It makes it difficult to plant flowers around it,
then runners appear everywhere in my beds. It also seeds itself
everywhere in the yard. The small seedlings are easy to pull out if
they are 6" or less, but those runners are driving me nuts. Any
suggestions?

Thanks,
Cynthia

"David J Bockman" wrote in message
...
I would respectfully disagree with your assessment. It's a gorgeous tree!
*And* those 'ornamental' fruits are delicious.

Dave



They're pretty much "thug" trees here and a couple of months of not removing
those suckers will leave a homeowner with a plum thicket. I've seen one of
those thickets 30' wide and that had to be removed with a bobcat. They also
have weak wood and are prone to having limbs snap off in ice storms or high
winds. I personally think their bad qualities outweigh their good ones, but
that's a matter of taste and gardening philosophy as to the
maintainence/benefit ratio. (I don't like trimmed boxwoods either.) For a
purple/red foliaged tree without those problems, I prefer continus for sun
and red leaved Japanese maple cultivars for shade. And for "edible"
ornamentals, I still like my crabapples, from which I make a beautiful jewel
colored jelly. But, different tastes are why none of our gardens look
anything like the others. (Unless that Florida dope Gary Allen designed
them.)

Sunflower
MS 7b

On Sat, 05 Jul 2003 21:26:06 GMT, "Cereoid-UR12yo"
wrote:

Find out what the tree is and then get back to us.

It's a "red-leaf ornamental cherry" according to a local nursery guy
who saw a twig this morning.

Cynthia

Sunflower wrote:

"David J Bockman" wrote in message
...
I would respectfully disagree with your assessment. It's a gorgeous tree!
*And* those 'ornamental' fruits are delicious.

Dave



They're pretty much "thug" trees here and a couple of months of not removing
those suckers will leave a homeowner with a plum thicket. I've seen one of
those thickets 30' wide and that had to be removed with a bobcat. They also
have weak wood and are prone to having limbs snap off in ice storms or high
winds. I personally think their bad qualities outweigh their good ones, but
that's a matter of taste and gardening philosophy as to the
maintainence/benefit ratio. (I don't like trimmed boxwoods either.) For a
purple/red foliaged tree without those problems, I prefer continus for sun
and red leaved Japanese maple cultivars for shade. And for "edible"
ornamentals, I still like my crabapples, from which I make a beautiful jewel
colored jelly. But, different tastes are why none of our gardens look
anything like the others. (Unless that Florida dope Gary Allen designed
them.)

Sunflower
MS 7b

I think perhaps those purple leaf plums which are most problematic are Prunus x
blireana, a truly inferior form that is prone to heavy suckering, in addition to
the whole host of prunus insects and maladies. Prunus cerasifera, which includes
Thundercloud, Newport and Krauter Vesuvius among the common cultivars, are far
superior landscape additions and tend to be not nearly as problematic as the
blireanas, which were more commonly planted 10-20 years ago.

pam - gardengal

Jacquard_The_Ripper wrote:

On Sat, 05 Jul 2003 21:26:06 GMT, "Cereoid-UR12yo"
wrote:

Find out what the tree is and then get back to us.

It's a "red-leaf ornamental cherry" according to a local nursery guy
who saw a twig this morning.

Cynthia

You need a better nursery. It is an ornamental plum (cherries only have
a red tinge to the foliage when it emerges in spring, but not a true
maroon, season-long coloration), most likely a variety of Prunus x
blirenana or P. cerasifera. There is an off chance it could be a purple
leaved form of chokecherry, Prunus virginiana, but those tend to be much
less common. Given your description of the heavy suckering, I'd put my
money with the blireana or the chokecherry. Your options are limited -
either live with the tree and its suckering by mowing those that invade
the lawn and pruning out those in the planting beds or remove it.

pam - gardengal

This description on he
http://web.reed.edu/trees/TreePages/PRUN.html
sounds likely. The leaves do come out green and then turn maroon
later on.

Prunus virginiana `Schubert'
Schubert Choke Cherry

Thanks, I can see that I need to be more diligent with keeping the
suckers down.
Cynthia

either live with the tree and its suckering by mowing those that invade
the lawn and pruning out those in the planting beds or remove it.

pam - gardengal