Q: A tree I planted a number of years ago in my yard got way to large for the space. What could I have done differently?

A:Well, this is a common problem that we deal with when we get questions from the public regarding the right plant in the right place. Analyzing the site is very important when we're talking about selecting a plant for a particular location. Sun or shade situations are one aspect, but also the amount of space you have is a very common problem, with people often planting too large of a plant in too small of a space. It's very easy to do. When you go to a nursery and you're picking out a little plant that's three or four feet tall, in a pot or something like that - it's hard to imagine that plant at mature size. We have a plant right here, an Amur maple, or Acer ginala, as it's known, which is one of those kinds of plants that people typically buy when they're quite small, and they don't realize how large they get. This plant is 25 feet across and 15 or 20 feet tall, and this is fairly typical of what you're going to get with a seedling type Amur maple. There are some cultivars of Amur maples that do stay a little bit smaller, but generally speaking, you do have to think of the mature size of the plant when you're selecting it in the nursery and really imagine that plant at that size when you're thinking about the particular space you're going to put that plant into. One of the other common problem plants we have is arborvitae. When you go to the nursery and buy a little, tiny, two foot pyramid arborvitae, and then you plant it right next to the door of your house or too close to the foundation, or under the eaves of a house - that plant grows quite rapidly into a 15 to 20 foot tree, and then it starts blocking windows or blocking access to doors, or impeding the traffic flow around a sidewalk. So, selecting the right plant for the right place is a very important consideration when you go to the nursery and buy a plant.

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