Ulmus Glabra 'Camperdownii' - Cultivation

Cultivation

About 1835 - 1840 (often miscalled as '1640'), the Earl of Camperdown’s head forester, David Taylor, discovered a mutant contorted branch growing along the ground in the forest at Camperdown House, in Dundee, Scotland. The earl's gardener produced the first Camperdown Elm by grafting it to the trunk of a Wych Elm Ulmus glabra. Every Camperdown Elm in the world is from a cutting taken from that original mutant cutting and is usually grafted on a Wych elm trunk. Other grafting stock has been used, including Dutch Elm Ulmus × hollandica, Siberian Elm Ulmus pumila, and English Elm Ulmus procera (although this ultimately produces suckers). The tree is grafted at circa 1.5 m above ground level.

Camperdown Elm is cold hardy, suffering more from summer drought than winter cold (to zone 4), although 90% of the University of Minnesota elm trials specimens were lost during the exceptionally severe winter of 2002-2003. The cultivar requires a large open space in order to develop fully, and so is not recommended for small home grounds. The tree is often confused with the much taller 'Horizontalis' (Weeping Wych Elm) owing to both being given the epithet 'Pendula' at some stage.

Camperdown Elms satisfied a mid-Victorian passion for curiosities in the 'Gardenesque' gardens then in vogue. Many examples were planted, as 'rarities', in Britain and America, wherever elite gardens were extensive enough for tree collections (see Arboretum). There are many on university campuses, often planted as memorials. Camperdown Elms are used in stately landscaping of American university campuses, such as at the campus of the University of Idaho, where a number were planted many decades ago. Others featured in townscapes such as at the Lakeview Cemetery, Seattle, and Kripalu Yoga Center, Stockbridge, MA. The tree was also introduced to Australia, where a number still survive, notably in Victoria.