Liquidambar styraciflua 'STELLA'

Sweet gums are highly ornamental trees or shrubs which have been on top of the popularity list for centuries. They come from North America from where they spread to almost the entire world: from colder parts of temperate regions to southern countries where summer temperatures easily reach 40 °C. Their give-away are star-shaped leaves which can easily be mistaken for maple leaves, and their autumn colours which are simply breathtaking.

Stella is an attractive sweet gum selection, similar to Stared variety, yet a little broader in habit. Its leaves are beautiful, 15-20 cm large, deciduous, star-shaped, deeply lobed, green in summer and rich scarlet red and deep burgundy red in autumn for almost 2 months. An extra feature is the leaf shape because it changes during the growing season just like leaves of plane-leaved mulberry. In spring emerge purely star-shaped leaves with entire margins, but from early summer newly emerging foliage gains little horns at the tips of the lobes making the leaf look like a snowflake.

It grows moderately (30-40 cm per year) into a tall shrub of narrowly pyramidal habit, and can be trained into a single-trunk tree, too. It is easy to shape and can be kept smaller by pruning at the end of winter. Once you give it a desired form it does not usually go wild to spoil it for a long time. Another nice feature is the fruit. Formed in about 3 cm wide spiny spheres they can be quite attractive to look at and a bit irritating when stepped on barefoot once they have hardened up, if not cleared from pavements or lawns in spring.

Sweet gums are quite soil adaptable but prefer semi-fertile, deep, evenly moist but well-drained soil that should be acidic or at least neutral. It will not thrive on chalk or lime. Once established they can take both temporary flooding and drought. The more acidic and moist soil you can provide (by adding peat and mulching the roots with bark) the better autumn colours can be expected. The location should be sunny as it does not tolerate shaded areas. If you buy a plant taller than say 1.5m stake it well for minimum of 2 or rather 3 years. Plants older than 3 years are fully hardy to about -27°C (USDA zone 5).

Last update 18-07-2020