but that if sown in autumn, part will come up in the next spring and part in the following year.
Dawson in an excellent paper on the Propagation of Trees from Seed,[1] says, "The tulip tree invariably takes two years, and as the proportion of good seed is as I to 10, it should be sown very thickly to ensure even an ordinary crop."
Probably this opinion was based on his experience with seeds grown in New England, where they do not ripen so well as they do in the south, for my own experience, gained by sowing seeds received from Meehan of Philadelphia, is different. In the spring of 1903 I sowed part of the seeds in a greenhouse, where they began to germinate six weeks later. Of those sown in the open ground, perhaps 10 per cent germinated in June. The following summer was cold and wet, and the seedlings in the open ground made slow progress, being only 23 inches high in the autumn, whilst those kept under glass were from 6–15 inches high at the same time. The young wood seems to ripen better than that of most North American trees and, as the spring of 1904 was favourable, they were not checked by frost. But the seedlings are difficult to transplant, owing to the fleshy and brittle nature of their roots, and are therefore best kept in a box or large pot till they are two years old, when the roots should be trimmed and planted out in deep sandy soil, and watered the first year; after this they should be transplanted frequently until large enough to put in their permanent situation, and if tall and straight grown trees are desired the young trees must be very carefully pruned, as like the Magnolia they do not thrive so well if large branches are cut off.
The tulip tree rarely ripens its seed in England, and that which I got from a tree at Westonbirt in Gloucestershire in 1901 did not germinate. But I am informed by Mr. A.C. Forbes, that a self-sown tulip tree is growing in the sand walk at Longleat, and Colonel Thynne confirms this in December 1904, when he tells me the young tree is 8 feet high. This, however, is the only instance I know of in England where natural reproduction has occurred.
Soil and Situation
The tree requires a deep, moist, rich soil to bring it to perfection, preferring heavy land to light, and apparently disliking lime in the soil. It probably prefers a moderate amount of shade when young, and would be more likely to grow tall and straight if surrounded by other trees. But isolated trees sometimes grow with a clean straight stem, as at Leonardslee in Sussex (see below) even on dry soil.
In the Gardeners Chronicle for 1879 there was much correspondence on the merits of this tree for general cultivation in England, from which I extract the following particulars, which will be valuable to intending planters.
Most of the correspondents agree that it grows best on heavy soil, inclining to clay, or with a clay subsoil. Sir W. Thiselton Dyer says it does not do well on the light, dry soil of Kew Gardens.
- ↑ Trans. Mass. Hort. Soc. 1885, p. 152.
