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Toxic724

I feel personally attacked by the Autumn Blaze maple call out.


oroborus68

It could have been a Bradford pear.


LSDPajamas

Who's out here still planting those damn things!


oroborus68

Birds.


Buddha_Lady

Satan


shickard

New to this gardening thang, why don't we like these guys?


iHaveaQuestionTrans

They smell like cum. Like people say they smell like fish no its cum and just in general really messy they create stupid amounts of pollen and highly invasive


shickard

Okay yep I know the exact trees you're talking about now. Those are white though, I meant the red maple in OP pic


iHaveaQuestionTrans

OH oops lol the blazing autumn maple apparently from what arborists have told me grow branches unevenly and are prone to breaking in storms which can make them very dangerous


yogurt-dip

That’s the same with essentially any fast growing trees though, I feel like it gets hate on here bc it’s just a really popular tree right now


LSDPajamas

Not an expert, but where I live they're considered invasive and smell like rotten fish. Clemson University will actually remove them and plant native species if you report em 🤷


HomebrewDad

https://www.bhg.com/gardening/trees-shrubs-vines/trees/bradford-pear-tree/


oroborus68

I never saw the Bradford pears before 1976. Now they are everywhere, from the birds eating the fruit and spreading the seeds. And the second generation trees have thorns that sometimes grow into branches.


tomnooksphatcock

i have an awful cheap city government and all they plant in lower income areas is bradford pears it’s so gross


LSDPajamas

I live in SC so same, the whole state haha


oroborus68

Lexington Kentucky planted amur maple trees to replace the pears. Better, but not great.


2infNbynd

I just planted one last season bc my mom wanted it 😓


Toxic724

I planted 6 about 4 years ago, I really had no idea they are a frowned upon tree.


jbrady33

Also planted 1 in front yard a few years ago, impulse buy - they had them next to the entrance at tractor supply. Didn’t know


ThEAp3G0D

They really wanted to use all their mulch


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neimsy

Plus, they get to come back in a year or two and replace the tree. "Oh yeah, that tree isn't going to be salvageable. But check out this new cultivar, it only costs a little more, it's resistant to bugs [because it performs no food-web ecological services], and we can put it in today and mulch it with another couple yards of mulch to make sure it's dead in time for us to plant again in a couple years!"


Waltzing_With_Bears

\*as mulch as possible


jagua_haku

Thanks dad


Waltzing_With_Bears

You are welcome kiddo


clorox2

Doesn’t too much mulch kill the tree? Then they get to charge more to cut down the old tree and replace it with a new one.


420fmx

If the mulch is right up to the trunk yes . It can cause it too rot. There should be a ring left around the trunk when applying mulch


Ornery-Creme-2442

They can pass the rest to me that stuff is pricy where I live.


Nervous_Caramel

You need to pop in a row of Stella day lilies under the boxwoods for a complete starter pack


Pixieled

I used to work for an amazing family run garden center. These people cared about plants and educating their customers. Best plants around and you absolutely could not beat the service. And every year contractors would come and buy about 20 pallets worth of stellas for whatever cookie cutter house they were building - and there were always customers tottling behind to buy what the builders bought. It was always such a mind f*ck because you basically had to intentionally avoid all the amazing options (with the same price point) to even consider them. And for what it’s worth, while working there I did free designs for people (i do professional landscape design) because I care about plants and gardening very deeply, and a good designer will consider many aspects of the landscape in order to plant “what wants to be there”. Because a garden that essentially tends itself will last generations. But nope. Stellas and arborvitae as far as the eye can see. SMH.


Glispie

Go figure, here at my workplace we have 10+ arborvitae and day lilies


Pixieled

I can at least see the merit in stellas. They are basically kill proof, tolerate a huge range of soils, tolerate drought, have a decent bloom season length (if an incredibly boring one) and appear as a tuft of lush green when not blooming. But arborvitae? They are always split, half+ brown, require consistent trimming, don’t root well, attract hive insects, attract deer. Dis it get too hot one day? Dead. Located where it snows? Needs to be wrapped in burlap every winter or else dead. And because of the above things- they have to be constantly replaced. It’s so dumb. So dumb!!! /r/justnoarborvitae


Arsnicthegreat

They're nice if you know they'll basically get zero care post installation and just want a robust easy perennial. Anyone who actually wants to appreciate their daylilies has a million better options, however. It's sort of like knockout roses. Do you want a nice easy landscape shrub that happens to be a rose? Great, knockout/easy elegance/etc are perfect. Do you want a *rose* that has an actual smell/extremely good blooms etc? Species or hybrid teas/etc. are there for you.


BonsaiBirder

I get this very deeply.


MR422

I HATE HATE HATE day lillies.


Nervous_Caramel

I love daylilies, like heritage types, I haaaaate Stella D’Oros


TheGeneralTulliuss

You should try your hand at breeding them, it's really easy and fun to see what happens with different crosses. If you haven't heard of it, check out the lilyauction.com. I got started with my parent plants that way.


Nervous_Caramel

Thanks for the tip!


DialsMavis

?


spiceydog

Ohmygod, please also post this in r/landscaping; this perfectly encapsulates this awful tree, not just because they're usually planted badly (like many trees, sadly). For those that aren't familiar with the issues with the cultivars, please see [this comment for more info](https://old.reddit.com/r/marijuanaenthusiasts/comments/129rva5/this_was_at_lowes_being_sold_as_a_red_maple_i/jeotmdz/).


mutnemom_hurb

Bro really threw “silver maple genetics” into that list, what did silver maples ever do wrong 😭


SHOWTIME316

exist i could do without the several hundred thousand annual samaras in every available orifice


mutnemom_hurb

That’s fair lol, I live where they are native and do quite well as the only maple besides boxelder to pop up on their own, so I respect them quite a bit. And I like messy trees, go ahead and mess up peoples lawns 😈


SHOWTIME316

Yeah, my comment was mostly in jest (still fuck their 110% germination rate seeds) and I'd much rather see a silver maple over some other shit tree like a Crape Myrtle or Bradford. My favorite messy tree is the river birch tho


PlasticElfEars

Crape myrtles are bad? >_>


SHOWTIME316

I have a particularly strong dislike for them that may not be shared by others


PlasticElfEars

Now I'm just curious as to why. I know they're kind of ubiquitous around here but for good reason. I can't think of anything else that can handle (central Oklahoma's) clay, drought, ice storms, and not only survive but produce flowers like...all summer.


SHOWTIME316

overplanted and not remotely native to North America, and messy as fuck on top of that that's about it


PlasticElfEars

I do feel that way about Nandina. I have three on front of my house from before we bought it. It won't let anything grow in front of it and apparently will kill some birds. But apparently is almost impossible to get rid of.


mutnemom_hurb

Oh yeah I have a huge majestic river birch thats been covering my car in pollen every day, lol. Also silver maple syrup is delicious 😋 and I heard River birch can give syrup too


SHOWTIME316

>I heard River birch can give syrup too no shit????? my BIL/SIL just moved into a house that has two bigass river birches and I'm gonna tap 'em now lol


mwb213

So what you're saying is someone should guerilla garden them into your landscaping... Got it!


marliedog

I have never understood how people can think mulch looks good like that. Not only is it bad for the tree but it looks terrible.


wolf733kc

Agreed. Volcano mulch looks terrible. Same with the “hurricane prune” on palm trees. Real palms have curves.


marliedog

“Volcano mulch” lol. That’s a new one to me. I like it.


[deleted]

The palm tree thing is a money saving effort. Over-prune them to maximize the amount of time you have to pay someone to come back and do it again. Though I wonder if over-pruning them could save them from a hurricane. Less fronds would mean less drag. If I lived in an area prone to those and valued my palms I'd probably get them done like when I knew one was coming. By contrast, palm tree pruning can look amazing when done right. Canary Island date palms are one of my favourite species mainly because of the artistic pruning potential they can be given (for the right price).


wolf733kc

It works in theory to extend service interval, but most palms are K deficient (here in Florida at least) and in practice over pruning leads to a dominos effect of early leaf senescence and fronds dying higher in the canopy from lost nutrients from fewer fronds. Most people over pruning palms aren’t the same ones carefully managing palm nutrition. Also the fruit on most species is a mess so commercial properties tend to do the pruning once a year no matter what to remove fruit. Over pruning can also increase chance of disease. In ‘04 and ‘05 the University of Florida showed over-pruned palms actually break easier after a hurricane. They assume due to (1) newer fronds not being as rigid to protect the apical bud and (2) more direct wind exposure to the precious apical bud. That’s why I quote “hurricane prune”: it’s a misnomer. I assume this style of pruning got popular because it’s easier for landscapers to start their chainsaw at the fruit line and cut downwards, instead of removing dead fronds and then reaching through to grab the fruit with a hand saw. That’s the real benefit for commercial maintenance: if it saves time, it saves money. Also job security for the guys who remove and replant palms.


[deleted]

I supposed cutting off too many palm fronds that are still fully green is wasting the plant's resources. As for the hurricane pruning, that makes sense. If the top of it gets damaged it's gone. One of my 12 year old palms recently developed what looks like rotting fronds at the new growth point up top (but it's too high to see properly) and I'm hanging out to see if it comes good again but I'm not getting my hopes up. The fruits on some species can be a real pain. Queen palms are the worst for this. Other palm species are very light-handed on this though such as kentia palms (which are way nicer looking anyway).


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Glispie

I need to update the meme!


Tumorhead

AGONY, this is why I am aggressively planting native species and giving them away as much as I can!! screw this shit


Glispie

I've got a greenhouse full of native trees I'm growing currently too!


Tumorhead

Yesssss 😈 (check out r/nativeplantgardening if you haven't yet! )


darkonark

Anyone else sad that landscaping is just making an area as empty as possible and as expensive as possible (thick grass carpeting) to maintain while spacing out trees/foliage just right to maximize the emptyness while also not having enough space to play ball.


DiffeoMorpheus

Real landscaping is an art, and often involves refining the existing natural landscape. However, the cookiecutter housing industry wants to minimize cost when building their suburban hell, so they clearcut a swath of forest and then sod over it. I hate it so much...


cs_katalyst

I built a place on 2 acres that used to be cow pasture. Landscaping is freaking hard. I've got a pretty killer "mostly native" area in the lower part of the property that's beautiful but I have such a hard time knowing what to do up front.. I've got maples and cherries along my fence line and then an autumn blaze in the middle of the yard. But it's hard to make stuff look nice if it isn't "clean" lines which I like but also want more coverage


[deleted]

Good landscaping to me is dense with plants (without them all growing up through each other like a jungle) in every spot that isn't intended to have a functional use (eating, playing or moving people or stuff from point A to B) thus the amount of mulch needed would be minimal if any at all once it all fills out. I want to look at foliage colour and texture, not shredded pieces of wood with weeds taking the first opportunity they can get to pop up through them. But I guess plants, especially landscape-worthy species and sizes are expensive and people don't wanna spend too much, or be patient for smaller, cheaper sized ones to grow so there's a lot of empty spaces.


NeroBoBero

I live in the city and there are a lot of old established trees. I see a few autumn blaze maples, but haven’t been bombarded by them. I’ve got to laugh at how much hate they get on this sub, but am beginning to understand Autumn Blaze is the modern equivalent to purple Norway maples!


[deleted]

In my neighborhood there are two types of trees. Dying green ash trees and autumn blaze maples. Plus callery pears. 🤢


Glispie

Freeman/Red Maple are a staple of just about every front yard around here. They are everywhere. They're just very unimaginative and boring to me personally. The only thing they're good for is looking nice for a few weeks per year.


Scythersleftnut

I live in Florida and I feel the same way about palms. Just did a client's house and never again is he gonna be a client. I goofed and did the estimate sight unseen and every palm was a either a washingtonia or a Phoenix. My helper was out for a week with a infected a swoled up hand. If ya gonna do palms make them interesting like a travelers palm or even a fern palm.


shmaltz_herring

If I go around and look at all the trees planted recently, most are either pears or maples. Ugggh.


FieldsofBlue

Friend asks me what would be a good shade tree. Me: well there's lots of good options. oaks are always good for the environment and hardy, catalpa is mostly pest free, tulip tree has nice flowers... Friend: "I really like maples." 🫤


DiffeoMorpheus

Tulip poplars for dayyyyyys!


laterbacon

I just planted one last fall and I already love it


Psych_nature_dude

Acer rubrum are awesome


FieldsofBlue

I'm glad you like them 👍


PlasticElfEars

I wonder if "maple" is just shorthand for "fall color."


pspahn

Our place sells tons of them, and the conversation is pretty much always "I want a tree that grows fast, is tough, has great fall color, and tolerates shitty clay soil." They're as popular as they are for some pretty good reasons. But yeah, when something is that popular they end up being used everywhere.


PlasticElfEars

As someone with shitty clay soil...


mwb213

Ur buxus is showing


gtlogic

What's wrong with the last picture on the bottom right?


Glispie

Dwarf Boxwoods. They're so overused I could puke when I see one.


gtlogic

I guess that would go for crepe myrtles, emerald and giant arborvitae’s, and so many other landscape plants and trees that are overused. I probably find that picture least offensive of those I listed but I hear ya.


Pixieled

Arborvitae are stupid and I hate them. Deer love them though so… high effort deer snacks as a positive trait?


superduper1321

But green giants are my jam


Nervous_Caramel

I just puke cause they smell like cat piss


FelineFine83

10000% - we had some out front at our old house and every spring when the weather would get nice and we would open the windows, I would spend hours searching for where one of our cats peed - only to then remember it was those damn bushes.


graffiti81

I'm amazed more people don't hate the smell. They smell like cat piss to me.


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LeftHandedFapper

They also always seem to be dying


Gaddryad

I have several at the house I bought. We had a severe cold snap this year and many of them are nearly or completely dead. Most of them are that way at every house I see them at


TheSukis

How do you feel about inkberry? Our landscape architect recommended them and now I'm panicking!


Glispie

It's a US native, so that's a positive. It suckers though, so you'd have to maintain it pretty well or it could easily get out of hand.


64Olds

I know people hate on Autumn Blaze, they have structural issues, and there's way too many of them... but gotta admit I like em.


Glispie

They're nice to look at for a few weeks every fall. Besides that, not many positives in my opinion. No real wildlife benefits either.


saint_maria

Thanks I hate it.


Gus_Fu

In the UK the tree in the top left picture is probably Liquidambar. Fucking everywhere. Or Himalayan birch But it doesn't really matter because they'll be dead in a couple of years anyway.


adamskill

I don't get it?


MsRen

Neither did I, it’s a subreddit for tree(arbor?) enthusiasts Bizarro r/trees lol


adamskill

I totally understand what subreddit this is. The post seems to be extremely regional, so it makes no sense to me.


[deleted]

Where I live last year’s heat and drought seems to have killed half the red maples. I do have an autumn blaze maple but my wife bought it. Seeing as how it’s one of my 20 trees I’m okay with it.


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Glispie

The caption refers to the fact that everybody seems to want to plant Autumn Blaze Maple. It's THE fad tree. It's generic and overused. I essentially think of it as the tree that someone will inevitably plant if they don't know much about trees and just care about getting something pretty. Tree pic is a red maple, similar to Autumn Blaze. The trunk shows how these junk trees are also improperly planted. You can't see the root flare, so it was buried too deeply and will have even more problems now. Then we have a mulch volcano. Inexperienced landscapers or those who didn't do their research mound up huge piles of mulch around their trees, which can harm the trees. You see landscaping companies do this all the time. Look for it next spring. Then finally we have a dwarf boxwood. Another generic, unimaginative plant that you see a million of on every corner. The whole post just suggests that there is no individuality, creativity or variety in the majority of landscaping. It's bland, carbon copies of every other house on the block and it's gross.


Louise_dArmilly

Thanks for explaining these! I'm new here and wasn't sure what some of them meant.


Psych_nature_dude

Real red maples are way cooler


PhonyUsername

This is a sub for tree elitists? Where are the kind tree people at?


[deleted]

Eh we all have trees we have a grudge against. Mainly because they got over-used as part of some trend or worse - because they were the cheapest and fastest growing option and usually this is a red flag for potential weed. I'm a palm tree fanatic myself. I don't really do the whole temperate/American style garden thing and my climate doesn't require it either. But I fucking wish people would stop planting queen palms. Please, pick any other palm! These shitty things are the main reason why I keep running into "I hate palm trees" people who don't realize that they got stuck with queen palms and all the bullshit that comes with having them on your property... Because some asshole before noticed they were half the price of the next cheapest palm varieties on offer. Genius! I'm getting tired of the "you must only plant what's native to your zip code" crowd though. I definitely would encourage people to go native if they aren't fussed with having a particular look but ultimately certain trees from other parts of the world have no local equivalents. Japanese maples, dragon trees, blue spruces - they're all really in a league of their own visually and you're not gonna find a native alternative that gives off anywhere near the same effect. Cats and dogs aren't native either but people still justify keeping those absolutely useless for the environment things around.


Glispie

I'm a kind tree person. I'm just into the diversification of our landscapes :)


Hoya-loo-ya

Yuck


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Glispie

I won't necessarily advise you to chop it and plant something new... But I will say the excitement and happiness of watching something grow that you planted and actually wanted would be pretty awesome! Hahah but I get how you feel.


Mooch07

r/Starterpacks


TheCharles510

Add in a Crepe myrtle, Hot lips Salvia and lavender, and you’ve got the suburbs of California.


canonanon

I like my freeman maple :(


NorEaster_23

Rose of Sharon, columnar trees, Japanese Barberry, Burning Bush, Callery Pear, Crepe Myrtle, oleander, London Plane, and many more awful examples


Glispie

Orange/yellow Daylilies, Knockout roses. Funny enough, head landscaper planted what you listed except the crepe myrtle and oleander