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I have this tree that I am unable to identify. Even the people at the local nursery have no idea what it is. Maybe someone here can help.
The tree has red leaves year round. The tree flowers when the new leaves come in but produces no fruit. It never really loses its leaves in the winter. It has tons of little sprouts that emerge from the roots and the root system is very large. Please help me ID this tree. It's driving me crazy because people are always complimenting on it and asking me what it is and I have no answer. Thanks in advance.
It looks an awful lot like my crab apple except for the holding leafs all year but if you're south of here it could happen, maybe. Apples are not self fertile and would not produce fruit without being cross pollinated.
Im in southern South Carolina. Closest I could ever get from looking at pics online was some sort of red plum but the descriptions all said that it would produce edible fruit. Can't seem to find it now though. It flowered about a month ago and unfortunately I do not have pics. The ones I posted were taken yesterday. We had a very mild winter and spring came unusually early this year. Theres a ton of little trees popping up from the roots of this one. If I were to take a few and allow them to grow elsewhere in the yard, would it allow for fruit next year when they flower? Thanks for all of your responses thus far! Hopefully we can nail this down!
One thing we do know is that it doesn't produce fruit since it is alone and there are no others like it in your area!
It needs to be cross pollenated.
The suckers will need to remain attached for at least a full year before you can dig one up that will have roots. These suckers will take a several years before they are large enough to produce flowers!
I think you have done it! If I remember correctly the flowers are small 3/4"-1" across and white with a slightly pink tint. Simple looking flower with only 5 or so petals. I just looked on the tree and there is no trace of where the flowers were so definately no chance of fruit. Thanks for the info on how to reproduce the tree as well. My mother-in-law has dug up a few of the small ones with hopes of growing them. They already had a good bit of roots but I imagine it takes a bit more for the sapling to be hardy enough to survive on its own.
Thanks again for the ID and all the replies. I really would not have been able to ID this myself. I am just getting into gardening because this is my first house and the yard is pretty barren asides from the "mystery tree" and some yuccas. I have a lot of work to do and I will definitely be here asking questions in the future. Thanks!
I have always found that with suckers if you cut them away from the parent and leave them in place for a year then the sucker has self established and can be moved with their own root system.
I think that even a sucker that is moved a bit away from the parent would act as a pollinator.
But it would take several years to get big enough to bloom
Leaving the suckers for a year alows them to form a woody stem!
True, severing the root will help the sucker develop its own root system prior to digging up and moving!
I'd pick the tallest suckers to do this to, the rest you can mow over, or pull out!
I get confused with fruit tree pollinetion. Apples and sweet cherries need a different cultivator to pollinate.
Will plums cross with a geniticly identical tree?
I have read that many peaches are self fertile but need to be pollinated by insects. At least I hope thisnis the case as my peach tree is the only one in the neighborhood.
Clones work just as well!
Most fruit orchards are all clones from the original hybidized fruit tree, be it apple, plum, cherry, pear....
All are grafted on to a standard hardy species in each group.
Some cultivars of ornamental plums and cherries have sterile flowers, with no fruit production they need to be cloned (grafted onto a hardy plum or cherry stock plant), or from root suckers.
Now since some cultivars (Bing) need another variety in order to produce fruit, the seeds produced will not produce a Bing tree, but an earlier hybid without the characteristics of a Bing!
The same goes for peaches, the seedlings will not be the same as the parent tree! This doesn't mean the tree will not produce fruit, the fruit will not be the same, and the new tree may not be as disease resitant then the parent tree!
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