First Editions® Tiger Eyes® Cutleaf Staghorn Sumac

Have you been noticing a really interesting and eye-catching plant around your town? First Editions® Tiger Eyes® Cutleaf Staghorn Sumac PP16,185 (Rhus typhina 'Bailtiger') is a cold hardy shrub that looks almost tropical!

You'll love every nuance of this plant's color! New spring growth is lively chartreuse green quickly changing to yellow. Both colors contrast nicely with rosy pink leaf stems! As magnificent as the summer colors are, the dramatic effects of yellow, orange, and intense scarlet in autumn are unparalleled.

This is a showy, colorful plant that gets noticed. Sunny yellow, fine textured foliage draws your eye all season long and the bright leaves have a delicate, lacy look! Everything about it stands out, including the gentle interplay between the branches, which angle upward, and the deeply cut leaflets, which drape downward.

Tiger Eyes® Cutleaf Staghorn Sumac is a deciduous shrub that is full and finely textured. However, you can train your Sumac into a small single-stem tree in the lawn by removing the lowest limbs back to the main trunk. Keep the lawn mowed all around it to maintain that tidy form. Hardy throughout USDA Planting zones 4 to 8, these mature to 6-foot tall and wide shrubs or small trees!

Planting and Application:

Use Tiger Eyes® as a focal point in your landscape. This becomes a beautiful specimen plant that will stand out in any landscape. Yes, Tiger Eyes® Sumac looks dramatic, but is actually really easy to grow! Use as a small tree or single-stem plant in large garden containers.

Small yard? Yet still want a ton of impact? Try Tiger Eyes in large containers for your patio or outdoor seating areas.

Room to spare? Great, plant it in the ground and let it do its thing to bring color and charm to your landscape. While not as aggressive as the wild Sumacs, even this smaller variety can easily grow to fill a naturalized area. It's wonderful when you can let it spread the way it wants. Plant one or more for an incredible presence in your yard or a woodland area.

It can be an accent or used in mass plantings. It tolerates a wide range of soils as well as urban conditions! Create long, irregular drift plantings in open sunny areas. Vary the spacing between plants and move from a single plant on either end to two or even three plants deep near the center of the drift.

Don't plant turf on slopes. Decorate them with the bright colors of Sumacs, instead! On the lowest section, plant Gro-Lo Sumac as groundcover. Then, plan out a layer of Tiger Eye® for a bright band of color. Use a gentle zig-zag and vary the spacing between plants for the most natural look.

At the top of the slope, use the larger varieties of Staghorn and Smooth Sumac. Each fall, you'll have an amazing display of color with very little maintenance. Add evergreen trees, boulders, and large shrubs to your slope planting. Layer in Red Twigged Dogwood and Ornamental Grasses, and the look will work for you all winter long. What a visual treat and all of it is far safer than mowing while slowing erosion!

This cutleaf form of Sumac works well as a backdrop to your favorite perennials. Tiger Eyes® makes a spectacular showing in the sun garden and Rock Garden. Why not use your front berm as a wonderful feature in your garden? Or, use it in front of larger, dark green evergreens to become the star of the show!

Depending on the partner plants and the styling you give it, it would work in an Asian-inspired garden, contemporary, rustic, or even in an extremely modern setting. Plant it in a sunny backyard along the back of your perennial or mixed shrub beds. It will pop against evergreens, or the cool blue tones of Russian Sage and Blue Shadow Fothergilla.

• Colorful Chartreuse, Yellow & Pink Foliage for Summer
• Tropical Look & Fine-Cut Leaves
• Unique Flowers & Seed Heads
• Yellow, Orange & Scarlet Fall Color
• Excellent Plant for Massing or Backdrop
• Hardy Thriller for Containers in Smaller Yards

#ProPlantTips for Care:

Sumac Shrubs need full sun to achieve the best coloration. It can take just about any soil type you care to give them and will even work in poorly drained soils or very dry. Talk about tough! This plant is very adaptable to most soils. While it's a young plant, you'll need to provide regular water to establish it. Once its roots are established in your native soil, the plant becomes very tolerant of dry or wet soils. A 3-4 inch deep layer of mulch over the roots helps keep weeds down and holds moisture in the soil more consistently. This is a set-it-and-forget-it plant. It even thrives in clay soils!

The only task you'll need to do is Pruning. Prune this non-aggressive Sumac in early spring. You can even cut back the plants right to the ground. This allows new shoots to develop from the roots. This refreshes the plant. It will respond quickly reaching 3-4 feet in the very first season after being cut off.

If you are maintaining your Tiger Eyes® as a colony, you can keep it fresh and vigorous with great color if you remove 1/3 of the largest, oldest branches to the ground in early spring. You'll do this each year for 3 years. This is called Renewal Pruning and it gives you a steady supply of young, full shoots.

Deer don't prefer the taste of Sumac. As with all new plants, it's a great idea to remind Bambi of that fact by spraying Deer Repellent as you plant it. Reapply following directions. You might also try fencing off young plants if deer pressure is high. Once your plants are established, the fences have done their job and can be removed.

• Full Sun
• Any Well-Drained Soil
• Moderate To Low Moisture Needs
• Drought Tolerant Once Established
• Prune Early Spring/Renewal Prune Every 3-5 Years
• Deer Tend To Leave This Plant Alone

First Editions® Tiger Eyes® Cutleaf Staghorn Sumac is a perfect choice to add color, charm, and style to the good times at your place. Enjoy it! But order now, NatureHills.com sells out of this cool plant very quickly!