Panoply
Newly Registered
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Mar 14, 2015 5:42 pm

Getting Gingkoes & White Dogwoods to grow.

Hello,

I am having a great deal of difficulty getting these two types of trees to grow in my yard. My soil is mostly clay :( . We DID have a beautiful, mature White Dogwood but it was lost during a hurricane when not one but two enormous pines fell on it. So they CAN grow here.

Is there a way I can improve the odds of having these 2 trees grow here? Please be VERY specific as I am very much an amateur gardener. Assume no knowledge on my part.

Any and all advice is welcome, so lay it on me!

Thanks,
Pan

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rainbowgardener
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 25279
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

both of those should be easy to grow and not mind your clay soil. Can you say more about what "difficulties" you had when you tried? What happened to them?

Do you know your soil pH? Ginkgo likes quite acidic soil, pH 5.0 to 5.5, although it can tolerate a pretty wide range. Dogwood likes a somewhat acidic soil, pH 5.5 to 6.0 and is less tolerant of variation from that. If your clay soil, like mine, is alkaline, that may be causing some of your problems. You may need to work on acidification. But be aware that that is an on-going process. What ever you do to that patch of soil is going to gradually get neutralized by all the surrounding soil, so you will have to treat the area a couple times a year for more or less ever.

If this is the issue, you can consider growing something that likes alkaline soil -- lilacs are a good choice.



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