Is an american elm a good tree to plant in Indiana?
American Elm can work here, with caveats. Still common statewide as a volunteer and in fencerows and creek bottoms — what is gone is the mature street elm, not the species. Both Dutch elm disease and elm yellows (phloem necrosis) are established in Indiana, and elm yellows is the one nobody knows about because it kills DED-tolerant selections too; if a customer wants to replant elm, the tolerant American elm cultivars ('Valley Forge', 'New Harmony', 'Princeton', 'Jefferson') are tolerant and not immune, with 'Valley Forge' and 'New Harmony' carrying the longest test record.
What you'd be signing up to clean up
Elm seeds in early spring — flat papery samaras ripen and drop in April and May, often before the tree has finished leafing out — so they blanket gutters, pools and beds weeks ahead of anyone's spring cleanup, then sprout in every crack. A declining elm also sheds fine deadwood continuously, and the interlocked grain means any wood a homeowner keeps is miserable to split by hand.
Where to keep it away from
Wide, shallow and famously vigorous — elm is a bottomland species and roots like one, so surface rooting through turf and lifted walk panels are routine on mature specimens. Roots will not crack an intact lateral, but in the older Indianapolis-area neighborhoods still running clay tile, an elm's root vigor plus the many degrading joints in that pipe make it a common find during a camera inspection.
Related
- How much does it cost to remove an american elm?→
- Should I remove or save my american elm?→
- When should an american elm be pruned?→
- Are american elm roots a problem for foundations or pipes?→
- Is my american elm dying or just stressed?→
- How much does it cost to remove an american basswood?→
- Should I remove or save my american basswood?→
- When should an american basswood be pruned?→