Sapporo Autumn Gold Elm Trees

Sapporo Autumn Gold is a medium-sized, upright and spreading tree with an open canopy that doesn't cast very dense shade, making it a good choice for the average sized garden. The shiny leaves are narrow, serrated ovals which, true to their name, turn a warming yellow in autumn before they fall. The lemon and lime coloured spring foliage is attractive too, and sometimes carries a hint of pink. New bark is smooth and grey, turning sooty and grooved with age.

Sapporo Elms don't resemble the old European Elms, but they're a fine foliage tree in their own right. As far as the White-letter Hairstreak butterfly and White spotted pinion moth are concerned, they may as well be the same tree. Both species are just about surviving in this country; it's probably too late for native populations of the large tortoiseshell butterfly, which is also partial to Elm, but planting these trees gives them a chance of staging a comeback from captive specimens.

It's vigorous to about 15 metres.

Browse our large garden trees, or all of our trees.

Delivery season: Elm trees are delivered bareroot during late autumn and winter, approximately November-March inclusive.
Choosing a size: Small trees are cheaper, easier to handle and more forgiving of less than ideal aftercare, so they're best for a big planting project. If instant impact is your priority, or if you are only buying a few plants for use in a place where it's convenient to water them well in their first year, then you may as well use bigger ones. All our bareroot trees are measured by their height in centimetres above the ground (the roots aren't measured).

Features

Height: 15m
Doesn't look like old Elms, but feeds same butterflies.
Highly resistant to DED
Soil: Moist, light, alkaline is ideal
Bareroot delivery only: November-March

Growing Elms

Favours light, alkaline soils, where it produces best yellow Autumn colour, but otherwise likes clay.

History & Trivia

This tree was cultivated by Dr Eugene Smalley at Wisconsin University in the late 1950's, with seeds from the botanic gardens at Hokkaido university in Sapporo, Japan. It is a hybrid of Japanese Elm, Ulmus davidiana japonica, and the dwarf Siberian Elm, Ulmus pumila.

It has extremely high resistance to Dutch Elm Disease, not quite 100%, but close enough to be used as a benchmark for testing other cultivars against.

Standard trees are measured by their girth in centimetres 1 metre above ground level: their trunk's waist measurement. Unlike sapling trees and hedge plants, standards aren't measured by their height, which will vary quite a bit both between and within species.
So, a 6/8cm standard tree has a trunk with a circumference of 6-8cm and an 8/10 standard has a trunk 8-10cm around. This measurement makes no difference to the tree's final height.
On average, standard trees are 2-3.5 metres tall when they arrive, but we cannot tell you precisely how tall your trees will be before we deliver them.

Elm Trees (Ulmus)

'Wredei' Golden Elm Trees

Sapporo Autumn Gold Elm Trees

Wingham Elm Trees

Wych Elm Sapling Trees