Dan's Garden: Ohio Buckeye and Amber Maple trees

I’m standing underneath a couple of my favorite trees because they don’t get very big, but they are very hearty. They grow all over North Dakota.

I’m at Dina and Bill Butchers yard on Country Lane in Bismarck. They’ve had these trees about 28 or 30 years.

This is a Ohio Buckeye with the Buckeye seeds on them right now. It’s a nice, hard seed inside and it looks like an eye of a deer, or a buck, when you take this corky flesh off. You plant these seeds in the fall and they crack over the winter and grow the next spring.

Sister to the Ohio Buckeye is called Horse Chestnut and the leaves on the horse chestnut and the Ohio buckeye usually have five to seven leaves in each leaflet. This Ohio Buckeye, their pointy on the end of the leaves, but the Horse Chestnut, they are more rounded. But they’re related on the end, like a brother and sister. So it’s a good tree that's 25 to 30 feet high and maybe 15 to 18 feet wide.

Another good tree is Amber Maple from the Amber River region in eastern Siberia. These are very hearty and they have great orange and red fall color, just like Ohio buckeye do, and they get about the same size: 25 to 30 feet high and maybe 15 to 18 wide.

So if your looking for a couple small trees, or different varieties that don’t get to big that are totally hearty, they are in the top three or four easy ones to grow here. Think of Ohio Buckeyes, think of Amber Maple, great fall color, easy to grow and a fun addition to your yard.

Thank you Bill and Dina for letting us be here again in your yard.

So until next week everybody, good gardening.