Do you know what happens when you plant the wrong tree in the wrong spot? Jim and I know. When we moved to Gloucester in 1994, we were landscape novices, having lived our earlier years in military housing and the suburbs. We didn’t know much about planting trees, but we knew we wanted a lot of them, just not too close to the house. Oak, beech, pine, sweetgum and other native trees grew in the woods. The previous owners had planted a ginkgo, a southern magnolia, and dawn redwoods. Several littleleaf lindens (Tilia cordata) lined the entry road.
Jim and I wanted more trees, though, so we added several willow oaks and black gums. We also added a weeping Higan cherry (Prunus subhirtella “Pendula”). When you measure your yard in acres for the first time, rather than in square feet, you often make the beginner’s mistake of planting new trees too close. That is exactly what we did with the weeping cherry. We planted it between two littleleaf lindens. It looked pretty there, and the lindens we...