Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Sapindus drummondii/Sapindus saponaria var. drummondii, Western Soapberry.....fall color

This is one of a row of Soapberries that sit alongside the road just past the entrance to China Valley. Ed Aldrich gave me a seedling a few years back and I planted it in the Beltsville Library Garden. I have plans for semi-espaliering it against the eastern wall. We'll see.

These trees seed heavily and we weed out hundreds of seedlings. It always seems a shame. I've often wondered about this as a nice small tree here in USDA Zone 7. The flowers are less than spectacular, but the foliage is clean and attractive, the form of the tree itself is pleasant, it tolerates extreme drought when established, and seems to be disease free, though admittedly my experience is limited.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello. Does the soap berry have berries? I would like to see what the actual berries look like and try them. I would love a seedling too. Dididillard@gmail.com
Thank you

ChrisU said...

Haven't looked lately but it usually seeds heavily ; we often weed out dozens and dozens of small soapberries!