All I can say is, "What a shame." Tulip trees are beautiful. Wish I could grow them here. Best of luck.

Just today I've noticed my maple trees dropping their leaves. I've never seen my grass look so bad. I'm worried about my well running dry. WHEN'S IT GOING TO END???

My young 6-foot tulip trees have died. Surprisingly, I have 2 baby tulip volunteer seedlings growing under a big pine tree which look fine. I think I'm going to trade these babies in the spring, unfortunately :(

Tuliptrees can go completely bare during a drought, yet suffer little dieback. They may even put out new leaves while the drought is still on.

-Tony

They may not be dead! Some trees will drop their leaves early to reduce their water loss--no stomata in branches and trunks--and will green up just fine next spring. If you can't bear to wait 'til next spring--give it a ew weeks and nick an accessible small branch. (Could be tough on a tulip...) If it is green and "springy" inside it is still alive and you should give it a chance. We had a drouht anumber of years a go and all the oaks in my yard dropped their leaves in august. I was convinced they were dead and called an arborist to consult about removal. He laughted and told me to wait--and they were all fine the next spring. GOOD LUCK! Melanie

My Tulip trees have been dropping leaves all summer, looks like October, but I'm NOT raking yet! Typical, but a pain!

I don´t know about tulip trees, but our back garden is overhang by a line of poplars, outside of our property. When the temperatures started to climb last July, they shed their leaves almost entirely in the course of a week. I was racking leaves from my patio as if it were Fall. By the way, I saved them all in a wire mesh in order to get yummy leaf mold next year. I only racked the ones which fell on the patio and passages, the ones which fell on the borders stayed there as mulch. Everything helps in the heat.

The same happened last year and the trees were not injured at all and came back beautifully in the Spring, plus I got some mulch for free.

Eduarda

so then its just a survival mechanism? or is it something to worry about? I have seen Red Maple, Tupip trees ( Poplar), Dogwood, Ash, some Hornbeam,Beech, and just as many Spicebush (I think its Lindera benzoin) as tulip trees. But I haven't seen any sweetgum, older oaks, hickory, or any other shrubs effected. Unrelated to the drought I have seen many green catapillars with many black spots and an orange head. They totally demolished a young pine tree and I don't know what to do. I looked them up in an insect book, but I only found 1 species that lives in the east that eats pines and this wasn't it. What do you think? thanx again!

Sam
(zone 7)

Sam;

Your caterpillars are redheaded pine sawflies.
You can do a Google to learn more about them.

They usually show up on my small grove of Loblolly pine and in a couple of days, the local wrens have eaten every one.

Cheers.
--Jim

HEY!

I GREATLY apprreciate the help! It turns out you are totally right. I looked them up in Google, and I found a Virginia Tech site. It said that they generally come out sooner than they did here, but thats alright. They seem to have disapeared. Only a few are left on a smaller pine near the totally defoliated one. I would guess they are pupating. Do the adults bite or anything? I didn't find that info, but thats ok I doubt they would. Its weird, I have only seen that one clutch of the larva, no other trees have been effected. I'm just glad they only eat pine!! I had transplanted a young wild grape vine (that was just mature enough to have grapes) right next to the effected pines. WHEW! I had been lookin for what they were in hope of saving the grapes around it. Thanx again for the help!!

Sam

All of the sycamores have been dropping leaves around here. So much for the fall "colors". :-(

I have several mature Tulip Poplar trees in my backyard. They are typically one of the first trees to defoliate at the end of the summer. This summer, they are trying to conserve moisture by defoliating more rapidly. My backyard & deck are covered with fallen leaves.

Again, using grey water on all the trees, bushes, flowers, & veggies is the ONLY way to get through this crisis.

Also, does anyone know of any good rain dances and/or chants? I'm open to all suggestions :~)

Here in Atlanta, the tulip trees have been losing their leaves and pine trees their needles since late July in response to the drought. Our local gardening expert says its a survival mechanism to lessen the amount of water the trees need for survival. Raking in the mid-90s is no fun, but hey, I've got all the pine needle mulch I need and the compost pile is very, very happy!

Good Morning: Does anyone have a website featuring a picture or painting of a tulip tree blossom? A friend is requesting that I paint a bloom for her house warming and the only picture I can find is the entire tree.

Thanks

I found A LOT. Here are a few links...http://www.cnr.vt.edu/dendro/dendrology/syllabus/ltulipifera.htm
http://www.wcisel.com/plants/tuliptree/tuliptree_closup.htm
http://www.dianedmiller.com/tulip-tree-blossom-2.htm

The last two have better views of the insides. Hope I helped some. Oh, just FYI, I just searched www.google.com for 'Tulip Tree Blossom' and that is where I found those three. I'd love to see the painting!

Sam

Dizilizy,
Here are also some more pictures I came across while checking out the ones from Sam. My neighbor has a Tulip tree in her back yard and wanted to know how to start one from seed and i told her I would get on here and see what i could find out. Well nothing yet on it. But i have seen lots of pictures of them. LOL

Have fun with the painting,
Traci

http://images.google.com/images?q=tulip+poplar&svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&start=0amp;sa=N

TRACI!!

Your friend whats to know HOW to get the seeds to grow? Mine come up everywhere! I would guess if she wants to do it by hand, she can collect the seeds in fall. Then buy some sphagnum peat moss, get it moist, mix that with some seeds, put that in plastic baggies and put that in the vegie section of the frige over winter----then plant them like any other seed in spring. OR she could always just collect some, and throw it on a section of ground in fall, and lightly cover the area with more dirt. Then hope that she doesnt forget about them in spring and watch for them to come up.

Sam

My magnolia tulip tree with light pink blooms has been struggling for the last three years. I love its location, partly shaded but some direct sunlight. Every year it has fewer leaves and blooms. Douglas fir nearby seems to be competing for root space in the soil. Hard soil. Should I try to amend the soil with something or transplant? 8 year old tree.Many of the branches have moss growing off them and look dead. Should I take these branches off or leave them? They would probably be half of the tree at this point. We live in Seattle and the tree is surrounded by pines and rhodies.

My magnolia tulip tree with light pink blooms has been struggling for the last three years. I love its location, partly shaded but some direct sunlight. Every year it has fewer leaves and blooms. Douglas fir nearby seems to be competing for root space in the soil. When I planted it originally, we used some loam, but the surrounding soil is pretty hard. Should I try to amend the soil (and how should this be done?)with something or transplant? 8 year old tree.Many of the branches have moss growing off them and look dead. Should I take these branches off or leave them? They would probably be half of the tree at this point. We live in Seattle and the tree is surrounded by pines and rhodies.

We have been having a bad drought, even when it rained up north of us, we kept getting missed. We haven't had a real decent rain since June!

Re Tulip poplars, they were the last ones to drop their leaves this year. The ones that lost their leaves first were the ash, they had a bad year too because of that ash borer that is around destroying trees. The ash had been losing their leaves early, around the beginning of september here. Other trees did the same thing, maples especiall boxwoods looked pretty bad, no good fall colors this year, the leaves are done with except tulip poplars are still holding on. The few sycamores we have dropped their leaves super early.

Even my zebra grass looks like it's dying, the leaves are all turning brown. I hope it survives for next year, as it's fully grown.

My bamboos seem to be the only plant doing well.