There’s nothing remotely like the pedal steel guitar. When played by a true artist, its caressing song instantly collars even the most detached listener and unceremoniously shoves them down the five flights of stairs that lead directly to an emotional reckoning.
A beautiful weeping tree adds the same affect to the garden. The instant we come upon one, an emotional chord is struck. In our hearts. In our souls. It’s pretty hardcore. The classic weeper, of course, is the weeping willow. There’s nothing like one draping over a lazy body of water.
Weeping willow.
But there are some among us who argue that an old weeping beech is even better. Until someone else comes along and claims that it is, in fact, the purple weeping beech that is the holy grail of weeping trees. Until someone else shuts them both down with solid evidence that it is actually the weeping, purple, fastigiate beech that is proof that God exists.
Weeping beech.
Weeping purple beech.
Weeping purple fastigiate beech. ‘Purple Fountain.’
But they’re all wrong.
Any weeping katsura is not only proof that God exists but negates the need for answers to any other hard questions you might have had. ‘Amazing Grace’ weeping katsura does all that and will also make you rich.
Cercidihyllum japonicum ‘Pendula.’ Weeping katsura.
‘Amazing Grace’ weeping katsura at Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum.
A gaggle of geeks under the boughs of ‘Amazing Grace’ and totally feeling it.
But the truth is, there are a lot of great weeping trees that can bring tremendous emotional wonder to your garden. Unless you use a lot of them. Okay, you can line a stream with a hundred weeping willows and it will look awesome. Or pepper a road with a dozen of the same weeping cherries. But even a pair of different weepers together is an outrage. And more than one of any in a normal backyard or garden suggests the homeowner is crying out for help.
Name one band with more than one pedal steel guitar player. What does that tell you?
Even when not in bloom, Prunus subhirtella pendula (weeping Higan’s cherry) brings drama.
But in bloom, Oh my!
A low grafted ‘Snow Fountain’ cherry dressing up a wall.
Can’t forget to included a conifer. Chamaecyparis nootkatensis ‘Pendula.’
Uh oh. I have two weeping trees. A Sargent’s weeping hemlock that I had to get after seeing one at the Ameriflora celebration in Columbus 30 some years ago. And a weeping Japanese maple. But they are far apart. And one’s a conifer and one’s not so it’s ok ?
What drives me nuts is people who paid a fortune for a weeping cherry and trim it to look like a pancake on a stick.
Or like a bowl haircut! Yeah, that’s a bad look. Not so with either Sargent’s or the maple.
I call that the “Cousin It” Weeping Cherry (Addams Family character).
I personally think it looks ridiculous.
I disparaged weepers as expensive and weird in the early years of my gardening life. I just wasn’t seeing them planted well I think, because I had a come to Jesus moment somewhere in 2010 and then I could not wait to get a larger place to start planting a gaggle of them. The willow (ubiquitous), Purple Fountain and the weeping nootka are all doing well – Karl Fuchs (deodar), and Juniperus rigida is freaking amazing (two of those) and just picked up a weeping taxodium – Falling Water. Deer ate my cercidiphyllum and I haven’t planted another yet. All this said, I still can’t get my head around the weeping firs. I think my love of weeping trees is about the soft draping quality of them – even with the weeping atlas there is that drape softening the Seussical shape. The firs are too uptight, they just look like they need a chiropractor. Sorry for crazy grammar/haphazard references – I’m phone typing. 🙂 – MW
Oh Marianne, I’m with you. Moved into a larger yard 4 years ago and have added a weeping birch out back, a weeping Siberian pea by the pollinator beds on the side, a small weeping pussywillow by the pond out front, and a weeping Alaskan cedar went in near the driveway just last week. (Yes, I know the Latin names but am not in a mood to fight with spellcheck over them.) I guess that makes me common, and looking for attention (Really Scott??) but I could no more choose just one than name a favorite child. So happy to hear I’m not the only one that had a recent conversion to admiring these beauties!
Seven in 12 years. You’re a convert. Hoping your property is large enough to separate this much specimen regimen. Damn. Should have used that in my blog! Juniperus rigida, the greatest least known plant. I do not know why this isn’t beautifying every forlorn commercial landscape!
Gotta ask. Who’s your favorite pedal steel guitar player ?
Current favorite is a little known guy in a relatively unknown band from Athens, GA. The band is Cracker. The player is only known as Pistol. When you see him play, he appears to be a savant-like fellow. Plays an amazing, almost psychedelic pedal steel.
Revelatory pedal steel moment that turned me from a hater to a lover belongs to Al Perkins in the Rolling Stones’ Torn and Frayed.
Best pedal steel usage can be heard on Uncle Tupelo’s Whiskey Bottle. Google it!
I had a neighbor whose line of weeping cherries on the crest of the ditch made me weep every time I drove by. Such a horrible waste of a potentially beautiful plant–lined up along a gravel road, encrusted in road dust like just another windbreak tree. So many better ways to use a tree with an interesting shape (I agree, when planted alone it can truly be breathtaking). Alas, my neighbor moved, the new owner has better taste, and the weeping cherries are gone. My heart need not feel heavy as I drive the lane.
Beautiful photos! When I was growing up we had a pepper tree in the back yard, it was just beautiful and a great climbing tree.
You left out weeping mulberry, fer cryin’ out loud.
love the musical analogy. spot on. I live in the country and weepers look out of place to me although I do have a weeping Norway spruce scrambling over 5 foot wall.
I can see that they would look odd out in the country but a weeping spruce dangling over a wall sounds nice.
Terrible oversight. Easily another sign of dementia.
I have an issue with weeping trees and I don’t think I’m the only one!
I’ll take a weeping willow, preferably next to the horizontal and reflective line of water but that’s about it.
For me, on the whole, weeping trees are visually sad and exude melancholy – ideal for cemeteries and crematoria but nowhere else!
I also find purple-leafed trees difficult – especially when positioned badly: The sun needs to be behind the viewer, not the tree. Behind the tree can create a “Black Hole” and any beauty can be lost in a glum silhouette.
Purple-leafed weeping trees? Yikes!!
Just as the numbers of genetics allow for freaks such as weeping trees, the numbers will also allow for a subset of human genetic freaks that don’t like them. LOL. But I get your point, especially with purple leaved plants. Only certain landscapes can support them. Like very large ones where you can plant one on an ridge to the east where the dawn sun can backlight it.
So many beautiful plants and trees, so little room on my 1/3 acre with three large oaks and a maple. I do have a weeping cherry. Maybe the neighbors would let me plant in THEIR yards? Hmmm, not sure my wife would want me spending even more time outside, especially in someone else’s yard.
Would one consider prostrata/prostrate to be weeping?
I enjoyed this article, and the comments too.
I love weeping specimens, too. Are there any weeping trees that are native to US?
There are definitely cultivars of native trees that are weeping. “Falling water” bald cypress is the one I have that’s native to NC. And beech and birch… I’m not sure how one would search for all of these but now I want to try!
I have a “falling water” bald cypress too! It’s amazing–I’m training it along a privacy fence and it just makes the whole garden so fancy. I’d love a few more but I’m afraid of ending up with the “bowl cut” grafted cherry look. Maybe it’s OK to have one in each section of the garden, if you can’t see the others from it? A reason for garden rooms!
Weeping trees aren’t used enough to take advantage of the views from inside. Put a path in there and a bench so one can hide in a “fort” and watch the play of light through the leaves! I’m obsessed with them, even the once ubiquitous weeping yaupon now difficult to find in local nurseries. A favorite weeper that can be used in smaller gardens is the green foliaged japanese maple ‘Ryusen’ that grows more vine-like than the typical and overused umbrella shaped weeping japanese maples. Currently I am training two to cover an arbor, a countrified “moon gate” made from a hay ring.
Great article Scott!
I love the photos and the article (and the comments)
My neighbors have a weeping tree, it is very pretty.