Liquidambar Styraciflua ‘Slender Silhouette’

There are not too many trees that are suitable for small gardens, so we were delighted when this one was introduced from the USA, where it has won a Gold Medal. It is a cultivar of the American sweetgum, Liquidambar styraciflua, and as the name suggests it has a tall, slender habit. Like its parent, it produces lustrous, maple-like green leaves, which take on spectacular shades of orange and crimson in the autumn before they fall – especially if they are grown in acidic soils with lots of sun. It will also produce curious, spiky fruits that ripen from green to brown, and hang from the branches like exotic dangly earrings. An easy to grow tree that will reach around 18m tall (it puts on an average of 30-60cm (1-2ft) each year), but will only spread to around 2m wide.

The tree has glossy green maple-like leaves in summer, which turn to rich red, orange and golden shades in the autumn holding on to the tree for some time, with the best red colours produced in acid soils. It has insignificant flowers, but produces golf ball-sized brown spiky fruits. Sweetgums are soil tolerant but prefer deep well-drained soil in a sunny spot and once established can withstand both temporary flooding and drought. This variety won a gold medal in America in 2010 from the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.