Large-leaved lime

Large-leaved lime: how do you recognise it?

Habit

Tree of 25–35 m with a broad, domed crown about 18 m across.

Leaves

Alternate, lopsided heart-shaped, 6–15 cm, finely toothed. Underside light green and softly hairy all over, with white tufts of hair in the vein axils.

Bark

Grey, finely fissured. Young twigs hairy.

Flowers

Clusters of 2–5 fragrant yellow flowers on a tongue-shaped bract, in late June.

Fruit

Hard, globular nutlets with 5 distinct ribs.

Difference from small-leaved lime

Small-leaved lime has a smaller leaf with a blue-green underside and rusty-brown hair tufts, and flowers about two weeks later.

Difference from common lime

Common lime (Tilia × europaea) is a cross between the two limes, very widely planted, and shows intermediate forms.

Flowering: June · Harvest and fruit: April–June · Pruning: November–March

Identify by feature: Heart-shaped leaves · Lopsided leaf base

Looks like it, but isn’t

• Small-leaved lime Tilia cordata: smaller leaf with a blue-green underside and rusty-brown hair tufts. Difference from small-leaved lime
• Common lime (Tilia × europaea): a cross between the two limes, very widely planted, with intermediate forms.

Why grow it?

• A top tree for bees: in late June the whole crown hums, and beekeepers harvest lime honey from it.
• The flowers have a sweet scent and, dried, make the well-known lime-blossom tea.
• Tolerates hard pruning very well: ideal pleached as a privacy screen, or pollarded.
• Can live for centuries: a lime is a tree you plant for your grandchildren.
• A dense crown that casts cool shade in summer.

Large-leaved lime: where does it grow best?

• Sun to partial shade.
• Rich, moisture-retentive soil, preferably chalky, such as loam or clay; on poor, dry sand it grows poorly.
• Don’t plant it over a patio, drive or parking space: in summer aphids drip sticky honeydew.
• Allow for 25–35 m in height and a crown of about 18 m: as a free-standing tree only for a park, a farmyard or a very large garden. In a smaller garden it can be grown pleached or pollarded.

Light

Sun or partial shade

Legal basis

Any garden soil

Moisture

Normal

Size

30 m tall, 18 m wide

Hardiness

Throughout Belgium, no protection needed

Goes well with

• Small-leaved lime: Flowers about two weeks later: together they extend the lime blossom season for bees.
• Hornbeam: Another tree you prune into shape: a hornbeam hedge next to a row of pleached limes makes a crisp garden room.
• Field maple: A native small tree or hedge that, like large-leaved lime, likes chalky soil.
• Common ivy: Evergreen ground cover for the dry shade beneath the dense crown.

Good and bad companions

Goes well with

• Tolerate the shade under this tree: oregon grape, rhododendron, oleaster, japanese skimmia, garden privet, camellia, laurustinus, box-leaved honeysuckle

Best kept away from

• Sun-loving plants get too little light under the dense crown: english lavender, heather, butterfly bush, blackthorn, highbush blueberry, sea buckthorn, japanese rose, broom

Large-leaved lime: when and how to plant it?

1. Plant from November to March when the ground isn’t frozen.
2. For an avenue or yard, choose a young root-balled or bare-root tree and secure it to a stake with a tree tie.
3. For pleached limes, it is best to buy trees already trained on a frame; plant them a frame’s width apart, so that the branches of neighbouring trees just touch.
4. Mix a little compost into the planting soil, but no fresh manure.
5. Water after planting and during dry spells in the first two or three summers.

Care

Watering

In dry spells during the first few years; an established lime copes in ordinary garden soil.

Feeding

Not needed in good soil; a layer of compost around the base is enough.

Suckers

Limes produce lots of shoots at the base and on the trunk: cut them off in summer to keep the trunk clear.

Pleaching

Tie the new shoots of a young pleached lime to the frame and each winter prune whatever grows beyond the framework.

Aphids

Let ladybirds and parasitic wasps do their work: spraying a large tree is pointless.

Tip: No room for a 30 m tree? Plant a row of pleached limes along the boundary: you get a green screen at eye level, the scent and the bees, and a single winter prune a year keeps them in shape.

Large-leaved lime: when to prune it?

Pruning months: November–March.

When: During winter dormancy (November–March). Cut off water shoots on the trunk in summer.

How:

• Large-leaved lime tolerates hard pruning very well: on a pleached lime, cut all new shoots back to the framework every winter, and cut a pollard back to its head every few years.
• For a free-standing tree, formative pruning while young is enough: a single leader, crossing branches removed and the crown gradually lifted to the height you want.
• Keep the base of the trunk free of shoots.

Caution: A pleached or pollarded lime is ongoing work: skip a few years and the shoots thicken, making the cut back a heavy job.

Pruning: when and how · Pruning calendar and basic rules

Propagation

Sowing

Limes germinate slowly and erratically: sow the nutlets outdoors in a seed tray in autumn and be patient – they often only come up in the second spring. If there is a small-leaved lime nearby, the seedling may be a hybrid.

Layering

In winter, bend a low branch or base shoot down to the ground and cover it with soil; after a year it will have rooted and you can sever it.

Large-leaved lime: how does it get through the winter?

Hardy throughout Belgium: no protection needed.

• Fully hardy.
• In winter you can recognise it by its hairy twigs with plump, reddish buds that show only two or three bud scales.

Diseases and pests

• Aphids and sooty mould: The lime aphid secretes sticky honeydew, on which black sooty mould grows. Harmless to the tree, but a nuisance for whatever is underneath.
• Spider mites: In hot, dry summers the leaves turn bronze and drop early. Water young trees; a mature tree simply leafs out again the following year.
• Little red nails on the leaves: Small, red, pointed galls caused by a gall mite. Harmless: no action needed.
• Lots of suckers: Typical of limes. Cut them off in summer, or the trunk disappears in a mass of twigs.

Through the year

• January: Prune during dormancy: shape pleached and pollarded limes.
• February: Pruning; planting season when there is no frost.
• March: Last month for pruning and planting bare-root trees.
• May: Leaves emerge; watch for aphids.
• June: Flowering in late June, full of bees; pick blossom for tea.
• July: Cut off suckers; water young trees in dry spells.
• October: Yellow autumn colour; the nutlets fall: sowing.
• November: Planting season; pruning can start again.
• December: Prune pleached and pollarded limes.

What can you use it for?

Food and drink

Dried lime flowers make a well-known tea.

For wildlife

A top tree for bees: lime honey.

Wood

Soft, fine-grained wood, the favourite of woodcarvers.

Garden and landscape

Avenue and village tree, also espaliered against house walls.

Caution: Aphids secrete sticky honeydew: best not to park under it in summer.

Edible and useful

Blossom (June)

Pick the blossom together with its pale bract on a dry day, when most of the flowers have just opened and smell strongly: in June for large-leaved lime, from late June to mid-July for small-leaved lime. For tea, cordial or a fragrant bath. Leave plenty for the bees.

Leaves (April–May)

The young, soft leaves of April and May can be eaten raw; they taste mild and slightly mucilaginous, and are good in a salad or a sandwich.

Storing

Dry the blossom in a thin layer on a rack or in a paper bag, somewhere airy and out of the sun, until it rustles. Keep it in a tightly closed jar in the dark for up to a year. Old, browned blossom has lost its scent.

Caution: Do not pick from trees along busy streets or from trees sprayed against aphids. Throw away blossom that smells musty or has gone mouldy. Do not pick more than you need: lime trees are an important food source for bees. Never eat anything you have not identified with certainty.

Eating and using is at your own risk: see the terms of use.

Recipes

• Lime-blossom tea (Tea · 1 cup · 10 min)
• Lime-blossom cordial (Syrup · ± 1 litre · 30 min + 24 hrs steeping)
• Lime-blossom bath (Skin and body care · 1 bath · 20 min)
• Lime-flower liqueur (Liqueur · ± 700 ml · 20 min + 2 weeks steeping + 2 weeks maturing)
• Spring salad with young lime leaves (Dish · 2 portions · 15 min)

Good for wildlife

Bees

Nectar and pollen for honeybees and wild bees.

Bumblebees

Nectar and pollen for bumblebees, also from deep flowers and early in spring.

Ladybirds

Aphids on the plant are food for ladybirds and their larvae.

Caterpillars

Host plant: caterpillars of butterflies or moths eat the leaves.

Did you know?

• Lime blossom makes a well-known tea. It flowers about two weeks earlier than small-leaved lime.
• Lime blossom makes a well-known tea. Large-leaved lime flowers about two weeks earlier than small-leaved lime.
• Lime wood is soft and fine-grained: the favourite of woodcarvers.
• The tongue-shaped bract acts as a wing: the nutlets spin down with it and are carried further by the wind.
• The tongue-shaped bract stays attached to the fruits and acts as a wing: the wind carries the cluster away, spinning as it goes.
• Platyphyllos comes from the Greek platys (broad) and phyllon (leaf): ‘broad-leaved’.