Wendy Floral: Weepers Are the Pedal Steel Guitar of the Garden

There’s nothing remotely like the pedal steel guitar. When played by a true artist, its caressing whine instantly collars even the most detached listener and unceremoniously shoves them down the five flights of stairs that lead directly to an emotional reckoning.

A beautiful weeping tree adds the same affect to the garden. The instant we come upon one, an emotional chord is struck. In our hearts. In our souls. It’s pretty hardcore. The classic weeper, of course, is the weeping willow. There’s nothing like one draping over a lazy body of water.

Weeping willow.

But there are some among us who argue that an old weeping beech is even better. Until someone else comes along and claims that it is, in fact, the purple weeping beech that is the holy grail of weeping trees. Until someone else shuts them both down with a solid evidence that, no, it is actually the weeping, purple, fastigiate beech that is proof that God exists.

Weeping beech.

Weeping purple beech.

Weeping purple fastigiate beech. ‘Purple Fountain.’

But they’re all wrong.

Any weeping katsura is not only proof that God exists but will also answer any other hard questions you might have. ‘Amazing Grace’ weeping katsura does all that and also makes you rich.

Cercidihyllum japonicum ‘Pendula.’ Weeping katsura.

‘Amazing Grace’ weeping katsura at Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum.

A gaggle of geeks under the boughs of ‘Amazing Grace.’ Indeed.

But the truth is, there are a lot of great weeping trees that can bring tremendous emotional wonder to your garden. Unless you use a lot of them. Okay, you can line a stream with a hundred weeping willows and it will look awesome. Or pepper a road with a dozen weeping cherries. But even a pair of different weepers together is an outrage. And more than one of any in a normal backyard or garden suggests the homeowner needs help. Name one band with more than one pedal steel guitar player. What does that tell you? When something is already great, it’s easy for more to immediately become too much.