Parks, Recreation & Leisure

Parks, Recreation & Leisure / Parks & Forestry

Landscaping Tips

City Trees for Winter Interest
Winter is here, bringing with it gloomy days, bitter cold, and a wide range of frozen precipitation. For many, enjoying nature’s landscape is over for the year, not to return until the flowering trees bloom again in the spring.

However, it’s during the winter that many of our trees are at their finest. Everyone can recall a moment, usually after one of the first snowfalls, when the snow is so pure and white it’s blinding, coating everything in site, and powdering the outline of every tree branch for miles.

Many trees are noted for their array of color or textural bark characteristics, often used as the top identification features for these trees. The City has created Tree Trek brochures for Northam and Lane Road Parks, with another for Fancyburg Park on the way in the New Year. Many of the trees in these brochures feature outstanding bark characteristics that can be fully appreciated at this time of year.

The Northam Park brochure is available at the Tremont Library. Similarly, the Lane Road Park brochures can be picked up at the Lane Road Library. They feature an easy to follow numbered route and offer detailed information about each tree.

Many of the trees on the Tree Treks are young, but you can still observe the fascinating bark features of trees like Lacebark Elm (Ulmus parviflora), which has beautiful patchy orange and brown bark. It reaches a height of 30'-40’, is resistant to Dutch elm disease, and can have a nice red/orange fall color.

Another tree on both Tree Treks is River Birch (Betula nigra). Well known for it’s pealing salmon colored bark, the River Birch is the best birch for Ohio. It is highly resistant to the bronze birch borer, can reach a height over 40’, and has short-lived yellow fall color.

One of my favorite evergreens is on the Lane Road Tree Trek. Lacebark Pine (Pinus bungeana) is an amazing three-needled pine with exfoliating bark in patches of gray and silver. The tree eventually reaches 30-40’.

The grand American Beech (Fagus grandifolia) also appears on the Lane Road Tree Trek. Native to the U.S., it dislikes poor soil and compaction. The tree has the smoothest gray bark of any tree I know that is unfortunately too often the victim of name carving. American Beech can reach well over 50’ in the ideal environment, graced with glossy green leaves that turn bronze in the fall.

A fine, mature specimen of Shagbark Hickory (Carya ovata) stands in the middle of Lane Road Park. The bark is made up of interesting long pealing gray plates, which curve out at the ends. The tree, famous for it’s large hickory nuts, grows 60-80’ tall, and has a yellow-brown fall color.

My favorite small landscape tree for awesome bark is Paperbark Maple (Acer griseum). Paperbark Maple appears in multiple locations in Lane Road Park as well as a street tree. Its exfoliating cinnamon colored bark is a showstopper. The tree is great for the small landscape eventually reaching a height of 20-30’ and offers a good red fall color.

No tree brightens the winter skyline better than the Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis). I wouldn’t recommend it as a landscape tree, because it can reach over 75’, has messy leaves that drop in wet seasons due to anthracnose, and a messy twig and fruit drop. However, the Sycamore, with its huge patches of gray and white, shines in the sun on a winter’s day. Our grand champion tree in UA is a Sycamore that is over 90” in total diameter. The multi-stemmed tree sits proudly at the intersection of Cambridge and Yorkshire.

Take time to appreciate the unique features of the winter landscape whether by car as you hustle around or on a winter walk in one of our City parks. You will be delighted at how diverse and unusual the bark of trees can truly be.

Parks & Forestry Division
Parks & Recreation Department
City of Upper Arlington
3600 Tremont Road
Upper Arlington, OH 43221
Phone: 614-583-5340