Free Tree Offer.....Plumstead Township Residents

Name That Tree I'm native to the European Alps, you know, where the great discovery of Otzi, the 5,300-year old man was made in 1991, and also the Balkan mountains, as well as the Carpathians near the Black Sea. My normal range extends north to the country which gives me my name and I merge with the "obovata" specie of my genus in northern Russia. Introduced to the British Isles as early as 1500 AD, I am now widely planted in North America, particularly in the northeastern United States. I have quite a range if I say so myself: I grow well in in southern Canada from Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia all the way across to Vancouver Island. In America, I grow well in the Pacific Coast states, and in the Rocky Mountains. I'm in naturalized populations from Connecticut to Michigan and where altitude makes it cool for me, I'll grow in the mountains of the Appalachians as far south as Georgia as well as New Mexico and Arizona's northern mountains. I grow with fir trees, or with hickory and oak trees, as well as maple, beech and birch trees, or aspen and birch trees. I grow quickly, especially when I'm young, the fastest of any of the trees in my taxonomic family. My record height was in The Olympic National Park of Washington State at 143 feet, but my normal mature height in the area of http://www.highlandhillfarm.com southeastern Pennsylvania is 80 to 100 feet. My form or profile shape is conical with horizontal to upward sweeping branches that often droop small branchlets ("Profeeele" as Jackie Gleason's best friend Ed Norton used to say on the classic TV comedy which ran from 1952-1969 constantly repeating the same 39 episodes). My drooping pendulous branchlets make a uniquely attractive sort of skirt, hanging straight down as much as several feet in length, especially on my upper limbs. This is a rare feature very few trees can say they have. Leaves on my branches are stiff, 1/2 to 1 inch long, 4-angled but somewhat flattened, with a sharp pointed tip, shiny deep green and a mere sixteenth of an inch in diameter. Each one is borne on a raised, woody peg (sterigma). Diameter, you ask? Are my leaves the needles of an evergreen tree? My flowers are monoecious; males are yellow-brown in large groups with my females upright, and purple-colored. My fruits are very large, almost cylindrical cone-shapes, 4 to 6 inches long, with stiff, thin scales that are irregularly toothed, chestnut brown, maturing in fall. My branches have twigs which are slender to medium in size, lacking "hair," tree fur, with a shiny orangish red-brown surface. The leaves or needles are borne on woody pegs with buds that are very loose. The orange-brown scales resemble a rose. As my twigs develop into full branches my bark progresses from the orange red-brown into darker and darker shades eventually becoming a flaking scaly gray with plates as much as a few inches in area that can fall off. Just like people all continually lose their outer later of skin, you could say I too "exfoliate." Soil requirements I make are rather liberal. I prefer moist, well-drained, acidic sort of soil which can be loamy to sandy. But I'll grow well in dry, rocky, even claylike (argillaceous, you could say and impress your friends) ground too. I grow most anywhere, just check my range again, as I described above. Okay, so I won't grow in the desert. Or in a swamp, on the other side of the coin, the other end of the spectrum I WILL DIE if the ground is overly WET. I like rain. You see, we trees can like water, enjoying lotsa rain, while NOT wanting soil that stays wet. There is a difference for us there. Please note, I am ESPECIALLY drought tolerant. You don't have to worry about watering me. Partial shade is okay, even if I do prefer full sun. I'll grow happily in hardiness zones 3 through 7, where the coldest temperatures can get as low as 40 degrees BELOW Zero, or relatively mild winter lows get down to just 10 degree above zero, like in Virginia or Kentucky. For Bucks County, in southeastern Pennsylvania, my temperature preferences are positively perfect (How's that for a little alliteration? See, I'm a pretty smart tree too.) Insects and diseases generally don't bother me. Only Cooley Spruce Gall Aphids will get me and mess up my flowers, my cones, and the spider mites which bother other trees can affect me too. Yet, these two troublemakers don't come near to killing me. I'm relatively inexpensive to purchase as compared to imported fruit trees. I make a great landscaping tree, I'm proud to say I'm ornamental, and make a great windbreak or snowbreak along walkways and driveways. So, whaddya say? Ya got enough information fer sure. What tree am I? If you think you know go to my web site at http://www.seedlingsrus.com and get my email address. Email me the answer and when you come to our farm I will give you a free on. We have 500 these trees to give out by Feb. 27th 2006. (Residents of Plumstead Township will get a free tree even if they guess wrong.)