Why Plant Variegated Tulip Tree?
Award winning with stunning beauty to match, that's the Variegated Tulip Tree! This deciduous tree offers a strong growing pyramidal growth habit in its younger years. With age, the Variegated Tulip Tree gains more of an oval shape, filling in landscapes and earning its designation as a shade tree. After winter dormancy, this stunning cultivar produces bright, creamy white foliage with a hint of green in the center. As summer progresses, the color of the variegation undergoes a slight transformation as the center darkens, while the edges turn more chartreuse in color. With the end of the warmer months, the glossy variegated foliage undergoes another evolution turning a vibrant yellow in fall. In late spring, we are gifted with blooms of lime green tulip shaped flowers, offering a lovely orange at the base of each petal. Following the blooms, the Variegated Tulip Tree produces cone-like fruits, aiding in the seasonal interest by adding winter to their repertoire. As mentioned above, the Variegated Tulip Tree has been granted the Award of Garden Merit and we can definitely see why!
How to use Variegated Tulip Tree in the landscape?
Reaching heights of 70’ or more and a width spanning 30’, the Tulip Poplar definitely does not fall under the category of 'small trees'. When looking to add one of these glorious trees to your landscape, make sure to consider the space needed for the Variegated Tulip Tree to grow properly. These trees offer a strong central leader and pyramidal shape when young, rounding out over time. The Variegated Tulip Tree also offers seasonal interest from spring to fall, offering multi-tonal foliage that gracefully changes to hues of gold in fall. Blooms of white flowers are often not seen due to the height of the tree and the fact the flowers themselves face upwards towards the sky. With the ending of the blooms, cone-like fruits add texture to your landscape during the winter months. Now, utilized as a shade tree or planted as a specimen to be admired, the choice is yours to make. Also, if being used in a garden space, either prairie or meadow garden styles work wonderfully with this tree.
Planting Zones
Hardiness Zone: 4-9
How To Plant Variegated Tulip Tree
The Variegated Tulip Tree prefers locations where full sun can be found, but it will tolerate some dappled shade. Soil that offers moist, well-draining qualities suit this tree best, however they can tolerate sandy more clay like locations as well. These are low maintenance trees, requiring little to no pruning other than cosmetic design fitting for your landscape. Once established, these trees are capable of handling standing water periodically and also offer drought tolerance. Give it a go and grow one on your own!
How To Water
So, you've just planted your very own Variegated Tulip Tree and now it's time to consider watering! After the planting and initial deep watering, we recommend keeping a steady watering schedule to promote the best growth possible. Achieve this by watering at least twice weekly until established. Once established, Variegated Tulip Trees do offer tolerance to drought, however watering every once in a while won't hurt! Lastly, keep an eye on local weather patterns and water accordingly during periods of hotter more dry weather.
How To Fertilize
Feeding your Variegated Tulip Tree is easy and beneficial! When first planting, we recommend using our Elements Starter Plant Food by mixing a portion of the plant food into the planting site, when the tree is placed, apply fertilizer as a top dressing and water accordingly. A rule of thumb we live by here at Bower & Branch is to fertilize in spring or fall, if the tree is planted in fall then fertilizing in spring would be your next step and vice versa.
How To Prune
When considering the maintenance of your Variegated Tulip Tree, do we have some good news! These trees normally don't require much of your time. In most cases, once the foliage has dropped in late fall or in early spring before the flow of sap, you may remove any dead or broken branches, it would be within your best interest to also remove any poorly formed limbs. With that being said, we hope you enjoy your Variegated Tulip Tree for years to come!
How Does Shipping Work?
Bower & Branch Trees, the real BIG trees, don’t fit in a box! Our big trees, sizes XL and bigger, require expert delivery and care, that means our extra-large trees are shipped on Bower & Branch trucks. We are the only ones who know how to ship our big and bigger trees and plants with tender loving care. We deliver your trees and plants directly to you. Ask Bower & Branch about planting services – we'd be happy to assist in installation.
*For Big trees and Shrubs, Size XL and bigger: Review our Seasonal Shipping Timelines and Policy here.
Your trees and plants are grown across the United States at various Bower & Branch Growers. Depending on your location, your plant orders may be shipped from various locations. Please expect orders with multiple items to be delivered over a number of days as a result. Orders made up of numerous items or selections will not arrive at your home on the same day.
Shipping Delays:
From time to time, Bower & Branch Growers may determine to delay order shipment based on various factors for plant health. Weather in your region, as well as, where your plants are grown, is always considered when shipping. Extreme weather conditions may delay some or all of your order. Bower & Branch allows our Growers to make final shipping decisions based solely to benefit your trees and plants’ health and success.
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.
