This feature will appear in the blog throughout the year. Many plants have fallen out of favor over the years, but for the sake of biodiversity and landscape interest they deserve to be resurrected. Today’s featured plant is:
Oxydendrum arboretum, commonly called sourwood or lily of the valley tree
Sourwood is a pyramidal tree, 25 to 30 feet tall by 20 feet wide. Its deeply furrowed bark is greyish brown. The foliage is a rich, dark, iridescent green in spring, becoming a dark, lustrous green at maturity, turning yellow, red and purple in fall, often sporting all three colors on the same tree. Sourwood flowers in June to July, bearing fragrant, ¼-inch white urn-shaped blooms on four- to ten-inch wide, drooping panicles, reminiscent of a lacy veil. The flowers open from the base of each raceme toward the apex and last for three to four weeks.
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This is truly an all-season ornamental and an excellent specimen plant. Sourwood pairs extremely well with Hydrangea quercifolia, especially in the fall when the pinkish red foliage of the sourwood against the deep burgundy of the hydrangea is striking. Sourwood prefers acid, peaty, moist, well-drained soils, full sun to part shade. Full sun maximizes fall color. This tree does not do well in highly polluted areas such as inner cities but is well-suited to suburban gardens.