Emma’s Tree of the Month: ULMUS hollandica ‘Lobel’ – Upright Elm

Emma, December, 2023

For May, the responsibility for choosing the Staff Tree of the Month rests with Emma. Not that it was a particularly hard decision (more on that in a moment). For those of you who are not familiar with Emma, she’s a doer of many Sales, Marketing and social media related tasks. Emma is also the daughter of Linda and Andrew, who both work at Easy Big Trees. Yes, this is a family company in more ways than one.

Emma’s easy choice (no pun intended) for tree of the month is ULMUS hollandica ‘Lobel’ – Upright Elm. It was relatively straightforward for Emma because when you work at a Nursery, you tend to have your favourites. Not that this means Emma ignores other trees. It’s just that some trees are more equal than others.

It’s also an easy choice (still no pun intended) because there’s been much fanfare about the recently revamped George Street in Dunedin. Helping beautify the retail area is a certain Upright Elm. That was the easy choice by the council (pun intended now) because of all the reasons in the tree description below.

ULMUS hollandica ‘Lobel’ – Upright Elm

The dark green leaves are small, rough and closely arranged on short branches which maintain a pyramidal form, eventually forming a dense crown. They turn a striking bronze colour in Autumn and make for a remarkable site when planted in lines to define an avenue. A hardy tree, it’s particularly well suited to coastal areas, tolerating salt winds well.

– Deciduous, will grow to a substantial 15x8m
– Suitable for street, rural and group planting

Photo: ULMUS hollandica ‘Lobel’ – Upright Elm in 80L container, 3m height, 7+ years old.

But one landscaping project is not enough to show how beautiful this tree is, so we will give you two more. All trees supplied by Easy Big Trees:

Green foliage ULMUS hollandica 'Lobel' trees line in Rolleston Streetscape.
Testimonial from Nicola, Easy Big Trees client from Arrowtown