A tree worth the mess.

[Jeff]

We have a flowering crab next to our front door. The *DanG thing drops little crab apples from the time fall gets here until it starts to bloom in the spring. After it blooms it drops thousands of petals all over to be tracked throught the house. It has tiny leaves that drop in the fall and get sucked in every time someone opens the front door.

 And then there are the 3 to 5 days a year like this. I just came in from working on a new slab bench. The tree was in my view the entire time. I think I will go back outside, pull up a lawnchair, put my back to the road, and enjoy my tree...

[RavioliKid]

Beautiful tree, Jeff!

I wonder how long it'll be until my Paulownias start blooming?
 :D

[Jeff]

Another View

[woodman]

  And i bet the wild life like it year round.

[Jeff]

Jim,
There is only one thing I have ever seen eat those crabs. Every spring around mid april we have a flock of Cedar wax wings come in and spend a day or so in it feasting. Other then that, nada.

[Tom]

Doesn't Crab apple make good wine and jelly?

[Jeff]

Not these! Its an ornamental crab. If you try to put one of these in your mouth your tongue sticks to the roof of your mouth and yer eyes turn inside out. The are the worst thing I have ever tasted on purpose. :D

[Tom]

Tupelo does the same to my mouth if I try to eat one off of the tree but when cooked into a jelly with sugar added they are really flavorful.  I was told once that bitter was sensed by the same taste buds as sense sweet.  Perhaps, if this is true, your crabapple is "too" sweet. :D

Oh, if you walk slowly in the rain, you won't get nearly as wet as you would if you run. :P

[Ron Scott]

A pretty tree with landscape values and very popular with cedar wax wings and many other game and non-game wildlife depending upon location. Be thankful that it's not a 24" oak over your roof.  :  

[Corley5]

Or even worse a black walnut.  They really suck as yard trees.  Grandma Whittaker has six in the fence row by her house with one hanging over the roof and two in her barnyard.  They make a big mess >:(.  One year we picked up 4 fifty five gallon drums of walnuts .  After a frost she has a hard time sleeping at night because of the nuts hitting the roof :(.  Definetely a tree that belongs in the woods ;D.

[Sawyerfortyish]

How about one or two of those good for nothing willow trees to make a mess

[Corley5]

Mom and Dad have one of the weeping variety in their backyard and yes it is a super messy tree >:(  but at least it doesn't drop nuts all over ;D

[Ron Scott]

Those large frozen walnuts will even put some dents in the modern day car hoods if you park under them. They will also set of the burglar alarm which can also become annoying.

[Jeff]

Anybody ever had any experience with a female Ginko tree? I heard they are a mess in their own way.

[Don P]

OOO that smell...
can't you smell that smell :D

It could be better named Stinko, someone planted a few of them around the Roanoke Farmers Market...nothing makes me want to buy produce more than the rotting smell produced by those things :

[CHARLIE]

Jeff, at my last home I had a flowering crabapple in the back yard.  It was absolutely beautiful about every other year. One year I made crabapple jelly from the tiny apples. It was DanG good jelly and had the prettiest rose color. I didn't peel the apples 'cause they were too small. I just cut 'em in half and threw 'em in the pot peelin' and all. Took a bunch of 'em though.

My neighbor had a walnut tree and it bore a heavy crop of walnuts every other year.  He used to scoop 'em up with a snowshovel and wheelbarrow them around to the back of his lot and make a huge pile. The squirrels would then bury them all over my yard. Then in the Spring, I had a lot of little walnut trees growing......until I mowed.

Messiest tree I've ever had was some kind of plum tree when I lived in Boynton Beach, Florida in about 1971. It was a huge tree that overhung my driveway. Each year it would have a heavy crop of purple plums that would ripen, fall and make a mess. The purple juice would do a number on a car. I don't believe the plums were any good to eat either. Seems like Ficus tree rings a bell but I'm not sure. I just can't remember. I've heard that when you reach a certain age, two things happen. First you lose your memory and secondly.....uhhh...I can't remember what the second thing was. :

HEY!  I just noticed.....I GOT ANOTHER TREE! 8) 8) 8)

[Tom]

Way to go, Little Brother.  You get that for going over 500 and you got a new title too.  That's what you get for making so many good posts.  You are one of only a small few so far with such a magnanimus title.  That's almost as good as a hat. :D

[woodmills1]

lets see, 2 huge willow in the back yard, no problem no nuts, ha!  then there is the catalpa on the side, no nuts, but leaves the size of elephant ears and those bean pods are so much fun.  but wait, 2 ancient horsechestnut trees in the front yard, yes they have nuts that even the hogs won't eat. pickin up the yard has become a full time job, and the old house only had some walnuts. easy! :D :D

[Don P]

The catalpa at my grandfolks had worms that wintered underground and then came up to dine every spring. Not sure if its all of them or if theirs was just...fortunate. As kids we thought it was great since those "catawba" worms were good easy bait.

[Tom]

That's got to be all of them, Don.  Throughout Georgia and much of N. Florida, Catalpa is grown in yards as a "Fish Bait Tree".   In St. George  there is one that grows close to the intersection in town that is the "Town Tree".

The worms are carried to the river where they are turned inside out on the hook and supposedly make the best bait a man could get.  Excess worms are put in little bags and frozen for use later.  There are "secret" processes for freezing them and those who know how can make money in the off season sellling fish bait.

http://www.ag.auburn.edu/dept/ent/bulletins/catalpasphinx/photo7.htm

http://www.aces.edu/department/ipm/catalpa.htm

[DanG]

The female "tawber fly", actually a moth, I think, will return to the same tree where she crisla...er...chrys..er..ah..hatched, to lay her eggs in the soil.  The little worms crawl up the tree and proceed to strip it of all sign of foliage, in about a week's time.  The tree will put on new leaves and be ready to supply food for a fall crop of worms.  You can "seed" a tree, by taking a few leaves with worms on it, and placing them on a new tree. If any worms survive the fishermen and the mockingbirds, the tree will have worms in the future.

Tom, do folks over your way bite the worms in half, or do they do it the sissy way, and use a knife? ;D

[Tom]

Oh-h-hh  Yuch-h-h-k

If you push the hook on his "end" he will turn inside out as slick as a whistle.  The big ones get pinched.  Bit!?  Yuk. That green stuff gets all over your chin.

[Eggsander]

As far as messy trees go, you're right with almost any fruit and I've seen walnuts that have permenantly stained concrete driveways. But you have missed the king of messy trees (and it definately ain't worth the mess)   the cottonwood. A big one looks great out standing by the river somewhere, but try having one in the yard. 12 months out of the year there's something coming out of them things....catkins, sap that's something like epoxy, sticky seed pods that'll take the paint off your truck, cotton, truckloads of leaves, and to even it out over winter it'll drop small branches.  :D
My old man hated that tree, but it was on the lot line and the neighbor liked it (of course he lived up hill from it). It's still there today.

[CHARLIE]

I have to agree with you about that cotton tree Eggsander. It's a DanG messy tree and I know that Rochester won't allow them to be planted along streets anymore. I think they are using Lindens.  When that cotton starts flying it almost looks like a snowstorm and white fuzz is everywhere. Woodcarvers like to carve the bark though 'cause it's so thick and cuts like butter.

[timberbeast]

My parents had a flowering crab when I was growing up,  very pretty as Jeff's pictures indicate,  but my Dad got tired of the mess a few years before he died and cut it down.  I took one small piece,  about 6" dia and 20" long,  and "milled it"  into half inch slices on my shop bandsaw,  and made a little mini-stickered pile.  Beautiful wood,  was going to make jewelry boxes from it,  but like the mini-piles of Lilac,  Apple,  Pear and Peach,  it burned when the house and barn did.
Messiest tree I had was at my old house in Milwaukee,  a Mountain Ash.  The blossums stunk,  and the fallen berries would get all over the sidewalk and tracked into the house.  It was fun,  though,  to watch the drunk birds trying to fly after they ate the fermenting berries! 8)