Field of Science

Nice new tree - Persian ironwood

Well, it remains too dry, but TPP could not help himself when a visit to a favorite nursery found a great tree, Parrotia persica, sometimes called Persian ironwood [a native of Iran]at a bargain price.  This is a small tree that's in the same family with witch hazel; the leaves look quite similar and provide nice color.  A lot of people would miss the flowers, which are also similar to reddish flowered witch hazel.  Dirr raves about this tree, and if you don't know what that refers to, then you shouldn't be buying trees like this anyways.  This specimen has a stem diameter of over 3" and it's nearly 8 feet tall and a nice tear-drop shaped crown, and at under $200 this is a great deal.  This is usually a good time of year to plant trees, and there are often sales.  So it'll need to be watered, but what you gonna do?  An old spruce along the sidewalk in the front of our house is in serious decline after last year's drought, aided and abetted by current conditions, so a new tree/shrub will be needed in this location, but nothing that will get too big because the back ground is handsome and screened from view. 

1 comment:

James said...

Excellent choice. I'd never heard of the plant when the local arborist offered one to a neighbor whose magnolia was dispatched by an old honeylocust during a storm a few years back. But now I've seen it, and it's a darn beautiful tree.