Taking Place In The Trees

Elm trees are known for their toughness in urban conditions; it’s why so many were planted in the American landscape.  For speed of growth, beauty of form, and wholehearted commitment to growing in all sorts of conditions, almost nothing beats Ulmus americana.  The elm’s Achille’s Heel, of course, is Dutch Elm Disease, which decimated the population of them through the twentieth century.  For the last half of the twentieth century, it was quite unusual to see American elms planted anywhere; they almost entirely disappeared from the market.

It wasn’t impossible to find them, though, and scientists and a few growers continued to work on developing disease-resistant strains of this majestic tree.  The Elm Research Institute grew and distributed clones of elms it believed showed resistance, and in the 1990s Dr. Denny Townsend, a geneticist with the National Arboretum, released two of the first DED-resistant cultivars of American elm, called ‘New Harmony’ and ‘Valley Forge’.  Bit by bit the American elm began to reappear in the landscape.

I was part of the design team for the streetscape restoration of Boston’s downtown area during the Big Dig design and construction phases.  We selected the National Arboretum elm cultivars, among a range of trees, to help fill out the planting palette for what became the Rose Kennedy Greenway.  So far, the trees have been doing swimmingly.

Last week Matt Foti’s crew spent a few days on the Greenway moving a collection of trees bare root from one of the parcels near Quincy Market.  The Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy will be building a permanent carousel on that parcel, and they wanted to save and reuse the trees that had been growing where the carousel will be placed.  Matt called to tell me about the work, which involved moving some red maples and some American elms that had been in the ground for the last 6-7 years.

The red maples, about 6″ in diameter, moved quite easily; their roots had readily broken out of the original root balls and grown nicely out into the planting medium.  Blowing them out was a simple process.

The American elms, however, had gargantuan root systems that seemed to go on forever.  Root growth was thick and profuse, and the crew had to keep blowing further and further out, and further and further under the root plate.  Here are photos that Matt sent of the elm roots:

Tremendous root mass on an elm that had been planted only 6-7 years earlier.

One elm getting lifted out of its planting hole.  Sinker roots had to be blown off; though the tunnel top is three feet below the surface, it appears that the roots on this tree had grown down to the concrete surface. Note the clean cuts on roots that had to be severed.