Katsura Tree
Cercidiphyllum japonicum
Asks for steady moisture and a mulch every spring; give it those and it makes very few other demands.
- Type
- Tree · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Foliage color
- Blue-green · Bronze, red and brown
- Sunlight
- Full sun through dappled shade — either suits it.
- Watering
- Water regularly; dry ground is the one thing it will not put up with.
- Feeding
- All-purpose balanced
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- March
- Pruning
- Very little, and only in late winter.
- Mar–Apr Flowering
- Apr–Oct Bud Break
- Oct–Nov Leaf Fall
- Nov–Dec Winter Dormancy
- Jan–Mar Winter Dormancy
- Plant spacing
- 23 ft
- In-row spacing
- 23 ft
- Between rows
- 28 ft 8 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
- Root system
- Woody, shallow and far-reaching
- Working depth
- 12–24 in
- Can reach
- 4 ft down where the soil allows
- Spread
- 46–69 ft across, about 2–3× the width of the plant
Almost all of a tree’s roots are in the top two feet of soil, where the air is, and they run out well past the branch tips. The deep taproot most people picture belongs to the seedling; the tree grows out of it and spends the rest of its life spreading sideways instead.
The habit is Katsura Tree’s own; the figures are what that habit usually comes to at this size, not a measurement of this species. Roots follow the soil either way: a compacted pan, a high water table or heavy clay stops them well short of any of it, and deep open ground lets them go further.
- Generally trouble-free No notable pest or disease problems when grown in the right conditions — one of the easy ones.
Hostas, Ferns, Astilbe, Ligularia
Trees, like this one.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com