Festival Sweetgum Tree

The name says it all, this beautiful shade tree delivers a festival of fall colors! A highly regarded selection, Festival Sweetgum Tree (Liquidambar styraciflua 'Festival) is both tall and very narrow in form, making it ideal for modern and urban lots. The spring flower clusters become persistent spikey seed balls that birds love!

This tree boasts a perfectly straight trunk and interesting, corky ridges that run all along the bark. But its most outstanding feature is the spectacular early fall color! The Festival Liquidambar's beautiful glossy star-shaped leaves turn a mix of oranges, reds, and yellows with hints of purple in the fall.

The color comes on slowly, so the progression is an ever-changing display of fall color that lasts well over a month. This fall color is particularly appreciated in milder climates of USDA growing zones 5 to 9, where dazzling fall color is not as common! Use this fabulous improved native variety in your warm-weather yard but be prepared! You'll have to host a Block Party every year to celebrate its beautiful fall leaves.

Planting and Application:

Festival Sweetgum's size and narrow form make it ideal to line a driveway or to provide shade from the hot afternoon sun in a smaller yard, or side yard! Smaller urban lots light up with the addition of these stately and colorful specimen trees!

Host guests around a backyard bonfire just as the leaves begin to set off their own fiery colors! Or shock all the neighbors with a specimen planting on a berm as a crown jewel to your front yard curb appeal! Create naturalized groupings that attract songbirds and wildlife!

Lovely shade trees in backyard seating areas, using a mulched bed around the tree so you won't have to worry about the ornamental spikey seed balls getting into your lawn or underfoot. Loving higher moisture, plant Festival Sweet Gum in Rain Gardens and moist soil locations along streambanks and ponds.

• Star-Shaped Green Foliage
• Beautiful Fall Colors
• Stays Narrow for Modern Yards
• Bird-Friendly Seedpods & Sheltering Strong Branches
• Perfect Accent Tree, Shade & Specimens

#ProPlantTips for Care:

Sweetgum trees are pest and disease-free and easy to grow and care for! Best in full sun and well-drained, moist, and slightly acidic average soils, but can tolerate wetter soils and periodic drought for a short time, including salt, alkaline, and clay sites. Establish your tree with careful watering, and thereafter, water regularly to protect your investment.

Apply a 3-4 inch deep layer of pine bark or pine straw mulch to young trees, and spread it three feet outside the canopy. Spread the mulch out further for mature trees to keep the spiked seedpods from getting into the lawn. You will find that your Sweetgum has such a great form you will need to do little or no pruning, but if you do prune it is best to trim in the spring.

• Easy Care Native Cultivar in Full Sun
• Tolerates Periodically Wet & Dry Well-Drained Soils
• Widely Adaptable to Many Well-Drained Soil Conditions
• Pruning Best Done In Spring
• Easy Care & Pest & Disease Resistant

Gorgeous color, slim profile, and easy native hardiness, the Festival Sweetgum Tree will bring the festivities to your landscape with ease! Order now at Nature Hills!