Ginkgo Biloba (Maidenhair Tree)

The Ginkgo Biloba Tree (Ginkgo biloba), also called the Maidenhair Tree, is a deciduous shade tree that grows 50 to 80 feet tall and 30 to 40 feet wide in USDA zones 3 through 8. It grows at a slow to moderate pace, wants full sun, shrugs off clay, road salt and city pollution, and turns a clear, glowing gold every fall. Ginkgo has no close living relatives and its ancestors were shading dinosaurs some 200 million years ago, so a well-sited tree can outlive the house it shades.

Our Ginkgo Biloba Trees are grafted from male stock, so you get the fall color without the fleshy, foul-smelling seeds that female trees drop. This is the classic wide-spreading species form: a long-lived lawn or park tree, a street tree, or a bonsai subject with real Ginkgo genetics. If you need a narrower tree for a tight spot, the columnar Princeton Sentry Ginkgo is a male selection too, and the Autumn Gold Ginkgo is a male with an especially symmetrical crown.

What does a Ginkgo biloba tree look like?

The leaves are the giveaway: soft green fans, 2 to 3 inches across, usually split by a notch into two lobes (that's what "biloba" means). They ride on long stems and flutter in the lightest breeze, which is how the tree earned the Maidenhair name from the fern with the same look. Young trees are open and a little gangly. Give them a decade and the canopy fills in to a broad, balanced crown.

In fall the whole tree turns gold at once. After the first hard frost the leaves often drop within a day or two, blanketing the ground in yellow. It's one of the best fall color displays you can plant, and it means one raking, not six.

How big does a Ginkgo tree get, and how fast does it grow?

Expect 50 to 80 feet tall and 30 to 40 feet wide at maturity. Growth is slow for the first few seasons while the roots settle in, then picks up to a slow to moderate pace. Plant it where it can keep that space: well away from the house and clear of overhead lines. You're planting for your grandchildren as much as for yourself.

Where should you plant a Ginkgo biloba?

Full sun, at least six hours a day, gives the best form and the brightest gold. Ginkgo adapts to almost any soil that drains, from heavy clay to sand, acidic or alkaline. It tolerates road salt, compacted soil and polluted air better than most shade trees, which is why cities from New York to Tokyo line their streets with it. Its roots aren't known for lifting sidewalks and driveways, another reason it's a street-tree favorite.

Use it as a lawn tree, a shade tree over a patio, a street tree, or the long-lived anchor in a windbreak. For fall color, pair its gold with the scarlet of an Autumn Blaze Maple, or plant it beside a Bur Oak for two trees that will still be standing in a century.

• Fan-Shaped, Two-Lobed Leaves on Long Fluttering Stems
• Glowing Gold Fall Color, Leaves Drop All at Once
• 50-80 ft Tall, 30-40 ft Wide, Hardy in Zones 3-8
• Grafted From Male Stock, No Messy Seeds
• Tolerates Clay, Salt, Drought and Urban Pollution
• Living Fossil: Shade, Street, Specimen and Bonsai Tree

Is this a male or female Ginkgo tree?

Male. Ginkgo is dioecious, so each tree is one sex or the other. Male trees shed pollen from small yellow-green cones in spring and don't set seed. Female trees, once mature, drop fleshy tan seeds each fall, and the pulp smells strongly as it rots and can irritate skin. A seed-grown Ginkgo can't be sexed by eye, and a female may not reveal itself for 20 years or more, which is why arborists recommend planting only males. Our trees are grafted from male stock, so you won't be cleaning up seeds. In very rare cases a mature male puts out a few seeds on a single branch, and that branch can simply be pruned off. Our guide to male, female and sterile trees walks through the trade-offs.

How do you care for a Ginkgo tree?

Ginkgo care is mostly patience. Water deeply once or twice a week for the first two growing seasons, using the finger test to check the soil before you water again. After that, it handles dry spells on its own. Spread a 3 to 4 inch layer of mulch out to the drip line, kept off the trunk.

Prune only to remove dead or crossing wood, in late winter while the tree is dormant; heavy cutting spoils its natural shape. A balanced slow-release fertilizer in early spring is plenty. Nothing routinely troubles a Ginkgo: it has no serious insect or disease problems, and deer usually leave it alone. In zones 3 through 6 plant in spring or early fall; in zones 7 and 8 fall planting gives the roots a head start. Our planting calendar by zone has the windows.

• Full Sun
• Any Well-Drained Soil, Clay to Sand
• Moderate Water While Establishing, Drought Tolerant After
• Prune When Dormant, Lightly
• Male Tree: No Seed Cleanup
• Resistant to Pests, Disease, Salt, Wind and Pollution

Why buy your Ginkgo biloba from Nature Hills?

Nature Hills Nursery is America's largest online plant nursery, family-owned and operated since 2001. Your Ginkgo ships as a nursery-grown container tree with an established root system, and we time delivery to your zone so it arrives when it's safe to plant. Plant Sentry checks every order against state shipping rules before it leaves. And every tree is covered by our Growing & Glowing Guarantee for 45 days, with the remedy your choice: replacement, store credit or a full refund.

Plant one now and give the next hundred autumns something to look forward to. Order your Ginkgo Biloba Tree from Nature Hills today.