American Elm Ulmus americana

American elm builds a shape almost nothing else in the deciduous trade repeats: a clean trunk that divides low into a handful of arching limbs, which then lift and spread into a high vase of a crown. The bark is grey and broken into deep corky ridges, and the rough, doubly toothed leaves turn soft yellow before they fall. It has always been an avenue and parkland tree, planted where a wide crown can arch out over a road or a lawn with nothing above it to hit.

Deep soil, cold nights and roots that travel

Give it full sun and deep soil that holds moisture, with moderate water through the first summers while the root plate spreads. It suits temperate and cool districts and colours more reliably where autumn nights are properly cold. Site it carefully. The roots run wide and shallow, they sucker readily where they are cut or disturbed, and in time they will lift kerbing, paving and shallow services, so this is a tree for lawn, parkland or a wide verge rather than a courtyard or a narrow nature strip.

The failure mode is elm leaf beetle. Through Victoria, South Australia and much of inland New South Wales the larvae skeletonise the foliage from early summer, and by February a whole avenue can look scorched. It seldom kills an established tree, but it removes the reason you planted one, and the practical answer is a trunk injection program on a set cycle rather than spraying a crown you cannot reach. Dutch elm disease, the thing that emptied North American streets of this species, is not present in Australia, which is why it can still be planted here at all.

Elm, hackberry or flame tree

The nearest calls in this batch are hackberry and Chinese flame tree, and they sort themselves out quickly. Hackberry takes the sites that defeat elm, alkaline and compacted and windy, and it needs no injection program at all, which is the strongest argument against elm anywhere the beetle is active. The flame tree is a smaller, flat topped courtyard and car park tree that pays you in summer panicles and pink papery capsules, where elm offers only form and a quiet autumn yellow. Choose American elm when the site is large, the soil is deep, and that arching vase is the whole point of the planting. The rest of the advanced trees cover similar scale.

Keeping an elm sound

Prune in late winter while the tree is bare and the branch structure is easy to read. Young trees repay a few minutes a year: keep one central leader, take out any tight forked union that will split later, and lift the lower limbs gradually over several seasons rather than all at once. Avoid heavy summer cuts, which push suckers from the base and the root run, and remove suckers flush at their point of origin instead of shortening them. Feed in early spring with a complete slow release fertiliser spread out to the drip line and watered in, then top up the mulch, keeping it clear of the trunk.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 2 sizes, from 45L up to 100L, priced from $229.00 to $649.00 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. Every size here is established stock rather than a starter plant, so this line is intended for immediate effect rather than for growing on. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to choosing a tree for a small backyard.