Maidenhair Tree Ginkgo biloba Lemonlime Spire

Lemonlime Spire is a male ginkgo selection that holds a narrow upright column rather than the loose, often lopsided shape a seedling ginkgo keeps for its first decade. The leaves are the fan-shaped, parallel-veined blades no other tree in cultivation carries, a lighter lime green than the type, turning clear butter yellow before they go. Being male, it sets none of the fleshy seed that smells foul once trodden on. It suits avenues, driveways and narrow beds where a wide crown will not fit.

Patience, and what full sun does for the column

Ginkgo is close to indestructible once it is in. It handles frost, heat, wind, compacted soil, alkalinity and city air, and it has no pest or disease worth naming in Australian gardens. Give it full sun, because a shaded tree leans and loses the tight column that you paid for, and moderate water through the warm months while the root system is still small. Deep soil that drains gives the quickest result, but it will grow on ordinary suburban clay provided water does not pond over winter. Because the crown is narrow, an avenue can run tighter than you would space a spreading tree. The failure mode is impatience. This is a slow tree, and no amount of fertiliser or extra water speeds it up. Overfeeding and constant irrigation only rot roots and force soft growth. Buy the size you actually want to look at, since a small plant will not catch a larger one for many years. Bare root stock is lifted dormant and must go straight into prepared ground with the roots never allowed to dry.

Ginkgo, tupelo or pear for a deciduous feature

Autumn is the reason all three sell, and they do it differently. Tupelo Afterburner gives scarlet rather than yellow, is broader through the middle and copes with ground that stays damp, which ginkgo does not. Manchurian Pear is faster and adds a heavy white blossom in early spring, but it needs structural pruning to stop the forks splitting. Ginkgo asks for nothing and keeps a slim, formal outline for decades. Take ginkgo for a narrow space and a long horizon, tupelo for colour in a wetter garden, and pear if you want scale in a hurry. Ginkgo also sits comfortably in a run of advanced trees where uniformity matters, because the clone gives you matched form down the line.

The lightest pruning schedule of any tree here

Prune in late winter while the tree is bare, and prune very little. Remove any second leader competing with the main stem, take off damaged wood, and stop. Shortening the top of a fastigiate ginkgo ruins the outline for years because it regrows slowly and unevenly. Feed lightly in early spring while the tree is young, then taper off. Keep a mulch ring clear of the trunk and top it up each spring rather than reaching for fertiliser when growth looks slow, because slow growth is simply what this tree does. Autumn clean-up is easy to plan for: ginkgo drops most of its canopy inside a few days.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 9 sizes, from 200mm up to Bare Root Regular, priced from $64.95 to $449.00 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. The smaller pots hold younger plants that cost less each and establish quickly, which suits hedges, screens and mass planting where the plant count adds up. The larger sizes carry several more years of growth on the farm and give height and presence straight away, which is what you want for a single feature position or a screen that cannot wait. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to choosing a tree for a small backyard.