An artist's touch

Photo: Emerald City Tulip Tree, fall foliage

When it comes to trees, Keith Warren has a bit of the Midas touch. But it’s not magic that has helped Warren select some of the most successful tree cultivars in the marketplace. Instead, he’s an amalgamation of artist and scientist with an uncanny ability to see both the beauty and the mechanics of a plant.

For more than 40 years, Warren has walked the fields of J. Frank Schmidt & Son nursery in Oregon. He spent the first few years as Schmidt’s farm manager at the Sunset Farm in Canby growing hundreds of thousands of shade trees. Next he moved into a research and development position where he created and improved production techniques.

“Think of it as an in-house extension agent,” he explains. That morphed into plant development where, throughout his time at the nursery, he made some 30 tree selections.

Of all the trees in his portfolio, Warren acknowledges that Redpointe Maple has made the most impact to the market out of all of his selections.

“It’s our No. 1 selling tree,” he says.

Redpointe Maple (Acer rubrum) was selected in part for its extreme resistance to chlorosis in high pH soils, Warren says. This opened up the market for this tree in areas where previously it couldn’t be sold. Redpointe also possesses a good resistance to spider mites, he adds. The tree has also done well in the market for its strong branch structure.

“A lot of the faster-growing red maples have a weak branch structure, and there was a problem with splitting in red and freeman maples. But this one didn’t have the structural problems,” he says.

Of course the screaming red fall foliage doesn’t hurt, either.

There wasn’t any micromanaging when Warren stepped into the product development department.

“Schmidt gave me a lot of freedom to produce what I thought was best for the market,” he recalls.

Warren’s main goal, which is in alignment with the nursery’s mission, is to find trees that solve a problem. As product development director at J. Frank Schmidt, Warren and his team placed special emphasis on developing tough, adaptable and long-lived tree cultivars that will survive and thrive in urban settings where typical trees may fail.

“I always attempted to not just intro something just because it’s different, but because it’s better and solves some need that existing plants couldn’t,” he says.

Most of his plant development came from special seed source collection, while some were from hybridizing or selective breeding, he says.

When someone is responsible for so many innovations, it’s not really fair to ask them to name a favorite. Instead, I asked Warren if he had to design a landscape using only his trees, what would he choose. These selections made the list.

• Redpointe Maple (pictured)
• Armstrong Gold Maple
• Sparkling Sprite Crabapple
• Firestarter Tupelo
• City Sprite Zelkova
• Emerald City Tulip Tree

Click here to read the full profile in our March issue.