Are New, Resistant Elm Trees Coming to Minnesota?

[MineralMan]

It appears that there's some hope for replacing old Minnesota elm trees, lost to Dutch Elm Disease. Elms cloned from a resistant tree in Vermont are beginning to become available in Minnesota for replanting. It's all still experimental, but the elm trees may finally return. As someone who has a 50-year-old silver maple in my yard, I'm aware that it's approaching the end of its life, and hope I'll be able to replace it with a new elm tree one of these years. I hope it works, and I won't be planting another elm tree that just dies like the old elm trees. Here's more information in a recent news story:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-vt-elmrenaissance,0,3947268.story

[Brickbat]

1. Here's an MPR story from last year about work being done at the U.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/06/10/newamericanelm/

[MineralMan]

2. Thanks!

[Brickbat]

3. You're welcome! I liked the guy's point about not rushing to fill the void with just one cultivar,

since that's what got us into trouble in the first place.

[Minnesota Raindog]

4. Us morels hunters love dying elms!

That's the silver lining here...

[MineralMan]

5. Well, you're right about that. Old elm trees that die certainly

are a prime growing ground for those tasty fungi. I love morels. Yes, I do.

[trotsky]

6. Especially with the ash trees soon to be gone...

it will be good to get some of those beautiful canopy elms growing again.

[MineralMan]

7. Well, I hope that can happen. Of course, any elm tree I plant

will take longer than I have left on this planet to grow that large. Still. I miss seeing the old elm trees I used to see. They were always so beautiful. These days, Elm Street is a sad street name.

[trotsky]

8. Nothing beats an elm in my opinion.

Big old oaks are gorgeous in their own right, but elms are just magnificent. Heartbreaking to see them go.

[MineralMan]

9. Well, I love the look of the huge silver maple in my front yard. I

can't say I love the huge layer of leaves each fall and almost as thick a layer of maple seeds in the spring, but it's a beautiful tree. Still, it forces me to clean my gutters about six times per year, but I need the exercise.