I am curious about the yearly cycle of the Sumac. Do the soft blooms fall off and are they replaced? We have just moved to this location with a beautifully formed Sumac.
In My Garden Blog
Inland Northwest, High Desert
October 18, 2001
By
Cathy Walworth,
Twin Falls, ID
Staghorn sumac in her fall fashions.
Consider Sumac for Fall Color
We've watered, raked, mowed, weeded, pruned and fed. Finally it's fall; the evenings have turned cool and days have shortened. Now it's our turn to sit back in the lawn chair and enjoy the garden.
A Different Beauty
While the colors of summer are lovely, fall is glorious. Here in the high desert it's a challenge to grow something that presents us with a fall color other than yellow. Our light rainfall and alkaline soils don't cotton to many plants that color up. One easy-to-grow exception is the sumac.
Deciduous sumacs laugh at our cold winters and snicker at hot, dry summers. They stand out when their leaves turn to brilliant reds, golds and orange. Female staghorn sumacs produce an interesting red cluster of fruits in a cone shape that attracts birds and defines their winter silhouette. They even like our sandy-silty soil. Heavy, slow-draining soils will kill them. Sumacs must have been made for us.
A staghorn sumac graces our drive. We like the fact that it spreads by suckers. All by itself it has formed a little hedge that defines the corner of our driveway. If it happens to send up something in the wrong direction, it is easily pruned back. In the smaller garden you'd want to prune it into a lovely, graceful tree shape. Most grow to only about 15 feet tall, others reach up to 30 feet.
More than a Pretty Face
Our staghorn sumac has never had an insect or disease problem. She is watered with an old-fashioned sprinkler hose that just barely reaches her after soaking a flower bed. Her leaves are almost feathery. Thick enough to be pretty; spaced just right so we can see through the shrub here and there. I don't remember ever giving her extra fertilizer -- she seems to get along fine with whatever is offered to the lawn and flower garden nearby.
Try a sumac in your garden. I think you'll get along splendidly.
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Jean Rotter | April 11, 2007 | 5:34PM