Handkerchief Tree
Davidia involucrata
Late frosts are what spoil it, scorching the new growth just as it opens.
- Type
- Tree · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Foliage color
- Green
- Flower color
- White
- Sunlight
- Full sun
- Feeding
- All-purpose balanced
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- May
- Apr–May Bud Break
- May–Oct Flowering
- Oct–Nov Leaf Fall
- Nov–Dec Winter Dormancy
- Jan–Apr Winter Dormancy
- Plant spacing
- 26 ft 3 in
- In-row spacing
- 26 ft 3 in
- Between rows
- 32 ft 10 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
- 52–79 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 Handkerchief 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.
Rhododendrons, Magnolias, Hostas, Ferns
Green-leaved trees, like this one.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com