My Blooming Horse-Chestnut Trees
The large and colorful horse-chestnut trees are in full bloom now at my Bedford, New York farm.
Every year around this time, the horse-chestnuts, Aesculus, burst with gorgeous pink flower clusters. I have a pair of these handsome trees at one end of my long Boxwood Allee just outside my stable. I also have a grove of horse-chestnuts along the carriage road to my Summer House. And, we just planted an allee of young trees in front of the storage building in one of my back-fields.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
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- The horse-chestnut, Aesculus, is a large deciduous tree. This is one of a group of horse-chestnuts that were originally potted up as bare-root cuttings and nurtured for more than a year.
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- As part of our large tree-planting project here at the farm, I decided to plant this group along a carriage road leading to a storage building. Because of their wide growth, these trees were positioned about 20-feet apart.
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- Horse-chestnuts should be planted in moist, well-drained soil in full sun or partial shade.
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- First, the crew dug the holes – deep enough to accommodate them with the top of the rootball flush with the soil.
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- As we do with all our trees, we add a generous amount of fertilizer. A good fertilizer made especially for new trees is sprinkled in the hole and generously around the base of the tree once it is in the ground.
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- Here, Pasang finishes planting one of the trees and carefully ensures there is good contact with the soil.
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- Horse-chestnuts grow at a medium rate – about 13 to 24 inches per year.
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- The bark is a pale creamy gray-brown, with a smooth, soft, fine texture. It’s not very strong but its softness makes it ideal for carving. Horse-chestnut trees also exhibit interesting twisted limbs.
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- And here is Chhiring giving all the trees a good, thorough drink. Trees should be well watered, especially in their first year until their roots are established.
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- I have more mature trees along a carriage road and on two sides of the donkey paddock. These trees are now bursting with reddish-pink clusters. These trees begin to flower in mid-May and quickly attract lots of attention.
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- The flowers provide a rich source of nectar and pollen for insects, particularly bees. The horse-chestnut is native to the Balkan Peninsula. It was first introduced to the UK from Turkey in the late 16th century and widely planted. Though rarely found in the woodland, it is a common sight in parks, gardens, streets and on village greens.
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- The horse-chestnut can grow to a height of about 50 to 75 feet and a spread of 40 feet at maturity. We also added a couple more young horse-chestnuts in this area.
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- The palmate leaves comprise five to seven-pointed, toothed leaflets spreading from a central stem. The leaves are light green as they unfold, emerging dark green at maturity, and are about four to 10 inches long and doubly serrated on the margins.
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- The most prominent horse-chestnuts at the farm are these two in front of my stable. This photo was taken in the second week of May. These trees grow in an oval to a rounded shape and are among the earliest trees to leaf out.
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- And here they are earlier this week full of gorgeous flowers.
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- When they start to bloom, the flowers look like this. The individual blossoms have four to five fringed petals.
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- Here they now in full bloom – so bright and colorful. The distinctive, rose-red, cone-shaped flower clusters look so pretty against the lustrous dark green leaves.
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- These flowers are followed by attractive, spiny, green seedpods from midsummer through fall.
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- Established trees require little care other than occasional pruning in late winter as needed.
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- These trees make wonderful shade trees for large areas – when selecting a space for planting, always consider the mature growth of the tree.
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- Growing horse-chestnuts is easy and well worth the little effort involved. These trees make wonderful additions to the landscape for many years.
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