The easy-to-care ornamental tree is known for it’s fall colors.
It is the ideal ornamental tree when it reaches maturity when it can bloom after about its fifth season.
It makes an excellent specimen or focus of the center of a garden surrounded by native perennials.
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Soil
Your sourwood tree prefers acidic, organically rich, moist, well-drained soils.
Again, its native habit will inform you greatly to its preferred environment.
Water
For an ornamental plant, the sourwood does not have huge levels of thirst.
The Spruce / Adrienne Legault
The main consideration is watering newly transplanted trees for get them to establish themselves.
Sourwoods are notorious for bad transplanting, so it’s vital that you adequately water the newly planted tree.
Fertilizing before maturity will create more work for you and weaker wood on the branches.
Susan A. Roth / Courtesy of DDM
Types of Sourwood Trees
Unlike most ornamental trees, the sourwood does not have manycultivars.
The best way is to plant sourwood by seed.
If your tree has twig blight, you will notice deadened leaves at the branch tips.
The Spruce / Adrienne Legault
Pruning the infected branches and fertilizing the tree will help alleviate twig blight.
Keep an eye on the tree to verify the blight does not spread.
Leaf Spot
Leaf spot is not often serious and can cause discoloration in some leaves.
The Spruce / Adrienne Legault
Simply allow them to fall or prune them away.
Sourwood trees are magnets for bees.
The Spruce / Adrienne Legault
