A refined shade tree with shimmering silver-backed leaves that catch every breeze and turn your landscape into living light
FEATURES:
- Rich green leaves with striking silvery undersides for a two-toned shimmer
- Strong, pyramidal form that matures into a broad, elegant shade canopy
- Fragrant summer flowers that attract pollinators
- Excellent tolerance to heat, drought, and urban conditions once established
- Beautiful street tree or lawn specimen with tidy structure
- Low-maintenance and long lived
- Hand selected fresh from our grower
- Ships on our trucks because of the size of the tree - does not fit in a box
Bower & Branch Landscape Design Tip
Sterling Silver Linden looks best when it has room to show off its full canopy and catch the wind. Plant it in full sun for the strongest growth and the brightest leaf contrast. Water consistently during establishment, then transition to deep watering during dry stretches once mature. Keep mulch in a wide ring around the base, but avoid piling it against the trunk. Minimal pruning is needed, mostly to maintain a strong structure while young. If you want a shade tree with polish and personality, this one delivers both, with a little sparkle thrown in for free.
Growth Facts
- Hardiness Zone: 4-7
- Mature Height: 50-60' tall
- Mature Width: 25-40' wide
- Exposure: Full Sun
- Spacing: 40-50' apart
Sterling Silver® Linden
Bower & Branch Trees and Plants
Tilia tomentosum 'Sterling Silver'
Regular price
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A refined shade tree with shimmering silver-backed leaves that catch every breeze and turn your landscape into living light
FEATURES:
- Rich green leaves with striking silvery undersides for a two-toned shimmer
- Strong, pyramidal form that matures into a broad, elegant shade canopy
- Fragrant summer flowers that attract pollinators
- Excellent tolerance to heat, drought, and urban conditions once established
- Beautiful street tree or lawn specimen with tidy structure
- Low-maintenance and long lived
- Hand selected fresh from our grower
- Ships on our trucks because of the size of the tree - does not fit in a box
Bower & Branch Landscape Design Tip
Sterling Silver Linden looks best when it has room to show off its full canopy and catch the wind. Plant it in full sun for the strongest growth and the brightest leaf contrast. Water consistently during establishment, then transition to deep watering during dry stretches once mature. Keep mulch in a wide ring around the base, but avoid piling it against the trunk. Minimal pruning is needed, mostly to maintain a strong structure while young. If you want a shade tree with polish and personality, this one delivers both, with a little sparkle thrown in for free.
Growth Facts
- Hardiness Zone: 4-7
- Mature Height: 50-60' tall
- Mature Width: 25-40' wide
- Exposure: Full Sun
- Spacing: 40-50' apart
Why plant Sterling Silver® Linden?
Sterling Silver Linden is a tough, easy-to-grow medium to large-sized tree that will give you a cool and shady spot to put a picnic table, a pair of adirondacks, or a lounge chair. On breezy days, you’ll look up and see its silver-backed leaves dancing and shimmering in the sunlight, and in early summer, you’ll inhale the sweet scent of its cream-colored flowers. You can also plant this handsome shade tree along your property line for a seasonal privacy screen that will be appreciated from both sides of the fence.
Although there are Lindens native to the U.S., this tree belongs to a European/Middle Eastern species of Linden that was brought to this country in colonial times. The late Willet “Bill” Wandell of Illinois—the same nurseryman who introduced the Autumn Brilliance® Serviceberry—gave us this selection in 1986. Sterling Silver stood out from a batch of seedlings he purchased in 1957, the parentage of which was unclear. An office fire in 1979 destroyed the records that would have revealed the seed source of the crop that produced this superior tree.
How to use Sterling Silver® Linden in the landscape?
Put some "bling" in your garden! Silvery foliage emerges in spring with blue-silver undersides. This fast growing tree has an upright growth habit and produces fragrant cream colored flowers in late spring/early summer. An excellent choice for a shade tree, lawn tree, street tree - even in city plantings.
Planting Zones
Hardiness Zone: 4-7
How To Plant Sterling Silver® Linden
Lindens’ only real drawback is that their leaves are a favored food of Japanese beetles, which will eat the leaves down to the veins, or “skeletonize” them. Sterling Silver is less susceptible than most Lindens—perhaps because the undersides of the leaves are so fuzzy (how would you like to chew through leaf-fuzz?). Lindens are in other respects “Wonder Trees,” growing without complaint in urban areas, despite having to contend with pollution, hard-packed soils, and small planting holes. Sterling Silver has a medium growth rate and hardly ever needs pruning.
How To Prune
Sterling Silver Lindens hardly ever need pruning work done, but if needed, it is best to do so in late winter to early spring.
Frequently Asked Questions
The standout feature is its foliage. Leaves are green on top and silvery underneath, creating a shimmering effect in the wind and giving the tree a brighter, more reflective look in the landscape.
Yes. The summer flowers are lightly fragrant and highly attractive to bees and other pollinators, making this tree a beautiful choice for a pollinator-friendly landscape.
Not much. Prune only as needed to remove dead wood or to shape the structure while the tree is young. Once established, it naturally develops a strong, tidy form.
How Does Sizing Work?
The size of our trees have nothing to do with the container size like you may find elsewhere–big doesn't mean just height - it’s also vigor, age, and overall health. Other online retailers are going to tell you that a plant is a seven gallon, that means nothing to your tree or plant (or you.)
Our trees for sale online are graded on large, x-large, and even bigger sizes. This is because our trees are sized by their age—the higher the letter, the more mature the tree. The age determines the trees’ overall height, size of the trunk and the overall branch density.
All of these characteristics are what you should be looking for when choosing a tree for immediate impact and instant curb appeal. Our extra-large tree and plant sizes are sure to wow you and your neighbors!
See the size guides below.
Our Guarantees
3-YEAR-TREE GUARANTEE:
Bower & Branch offers a Three-Year Tree Guarantee on all of our trees, sizes X-Large and up. Only the finest and the most experienced growers are awarded the opportunity to grow for Bower & Branch, so we offer the best guarantee available.
If your tree(s) should fail for any reason during the three-year guarantee period, you will receive an online gift card in the amount that you originally spent on the tree.* You can then use this online gift card for any Bower & Branch Purchase.
* Bower & Branch provides online gift cards in the amount of the original purchase price of the tree(s). The amount does not include any additional costs such as delivery, planting, tax, or any other products or services. Online gift cards can be applied towards any Bower & Branch purchase on BowerandBranch.com and have no expiration dates. Bower & Branch does not guarantee tree replacement or availability of any desired product at any time. Cash refunds are not offered. Bower & Branch requires that all original tags and receipts are present when a guarantee request is initiated. The Bower & Branch Three-Year Guarantee only applies to plant material that has been planted in the ground. Container plantings are NOT covered.
At Bower & Branch, we do our best to honor all guarantee fulfillment requests to ensure customer satisfaction. However, we reserve the right to refuse the request if the required guarantee steps were not satisfied. Bower & Branch also reserves the right to deny any guarantee fulfillment request that is made as a result of animal damage, problems with plant hardiness and zone issues, or acts of nature (snow storms, hurricanes, and similar).
Reach out to a Plant Whisperer with any questions:
- Email: plantwhisperers@bowerandbranch.com
- Phone: 866-873-3888
- Or via Online Chat
