Poplar

A row of poplars along a fence

The poplar grows faster than most broadleaf trees, and that is exactly why it is planted where a screen is to come up within a few seasons. Tall slender crowns stand tight together in a single line, keeping the wind from driving dust off the fields and at the same time separating neighboring plots. A row of poplars therefore reads in the landscape as a boundary, not as a wood.

Contents

The package holds three trees: the tallest measures 11.4 cm, the middle one 10.1 cm and the lowest 8.9 cm. The differences between them are small, so planted in one line they read as a continuous belt put in all at once. All the pieces arrive finished and colored through.

How to found a row

For the screen to look believable it is good to keep roughly even gaps between the trunks and to wave the line slightly, because not even a real planting is set out exactly. The trio suits the back of a farmyard fence, the side of a field track or the area behind the platform of a small halt, where it takes the place of a backdrop. The heights can also be used another way: the tallest piece at the front and the other two in the background suggest that the row carries on farther than the board reaches.

Under poplars, thin dry grass and fallen leaves hold on in summer, which is a rewarding detail for the terrain right beneath the trunks. The size chosen suits buildings in HO and N, and in smaller scales it will serve as a full-grown tree.

When building a belt of greenery it works to plant the trees only once the terrain is finished, so that the surroundings can be sprinkled without regard to finished crowns. The holes for the trunks are therefore best prepared in advance and plugged with a wooden stick until planting time.