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How to Choose a Shade Tree

When you move into a new home, especially a newly-built home, the garden is often left, while you settle into the house. That is only naturally, but there are two things that you should try to do as soon as possible. One is planting hedges, and the second is planting one or more shade trees. Why? Simply because these garden features take time to grow, so when you do get around to working more intensively on your garden, they will already be doing their job. A lot has been said about hedges, so let’s look at that second matter, planting shade trees. There are several factors to consider, and since a mistake takes years to fix – while a new tree grows – and can involve expensive tree-removal too, here are some considerations that will help you make the right decision.

Deciduous or Evergreen?

For most gardens, this decision is an easy one, and as attractive as that big spruce might look in the middle of your yard, it doesn’t make an ideal shade tree. Unless you live in the hottest states, you almost certainly will appreciate the sun in winter. So will your garden, with many spring-blooming plants depending on spring sunshine to grow, before summer shade slows them down. An evergreen tree will limit what you can grow in its 365-day shade, so deciduous makes sense. You too will enjoy that late fall sunshine, and the early warm days of spring, if the sun is shining through a scaffolding of branches.

In summer too, the shade from deciduous trees is brighter, and not so dark as evergreens. That dappled shade beneath a maple is inviting, and the faster rate of water-loss from the leaves of deciduous trees works to keep the air beneath them a little cooler too – something that is often not considered.

So unless you specifically want winter shade, among the deciduous shade trees is going to be the right place to start looking.

Look for Flowers or Fall Color

While shade is the main purpose for a shade tree, the added bonus of flowers is always worthwhile. Especially if you have a small garden, some of the larger flowering trees make terrific shade trees. Among the best is the Mimosa Tree, or Persian Silk Tree, which has broad, spreading branches, and one-of-a-kind pink flowers in summer. It gives a wide spread of shade, even though it only grows to 20 feet or so in height.

As for fall color, we have so many choices, it’s hard to know where to begin. Sugar Maple and Red Maple are popular choices, especially in cold areas, and don’t forget the larger Japanese Maples for a small garden. With some pruning they can be turned into beautiful small shade trees over a table and chairs.

What is Your Soil Like?

A key thing to consider about your soil is how well it drains, and if there are periods when water comes right to the surface. Most trees like good drainage, so if your garden is low-lying, and the soil is wet almost all the time, then your shade-tree choices are more limited. A great tree for damp soil is the Tulip Poplar, which thrives in ordinary garden conditions, growing rapidly, but also tolerates damp soil and periods of flooding. This tree also has extraordinary flowers, that look like green and pink tulips, and clear yellow fall color, so it is something special that grows easily and is not planted as much as it should be. Another good choice would be the Pin Oak, which enjoys heavy, wet soils, and is fast-growing, even in urban conditions. It has fascinating fall colors, in bronzy reds, and a wide-spreading form, ideal for casting plenty of shade. Willows are often suggested, but some have extensive root systems, and they should only be planted well away from foundations, drains or septic systems.

If your soil is acidic, then oak trees are the ideal choice, as they will sometimes grow poorly in alkaline soil. On alkaline soils, all the cherry and plum trees thrive, as well as Flowering Pear and tough trees like Silver Maple. If you do have acid soil, then adding a little garden lime when planting your tree will be a big help if you have chosen something not specifically adapted to acid soil conditions.

Get the Position Right

The sun is always to the south, so it’s important, if you want good shade, that the tree goes to the south as well. Since the hottest time of day is afternoon, the sun will also be in the west at that time. So place your tree to the south and/or west, of the spot you want to be shady. If you have an area of lawn where you want the shade, then putting the tree in the right place may often mean not planting right in the middle. You might get more use from planting closer to the roadway, or to one side or the other. Don’t automatically put the tree right in the middle – look at a compass, or you may be disappointed with your tree.

This is especially true when trees are younger. A mature tree will usually be wide enough to sit underneath, but a small tree will throw useful shade long before that – just as long as you position it in the right place. After all, why buy a tree to shade your neighbor’s yard?

Allow Enough Room

This is something that is often not done, and we see lots of trees that are too large for the lot they are growing on, or too close to a building. Planting too close to your home is especially dangerous, as many trees have roots that can, in time, damage the foundations. Rather than looking at the height of the tree you are planting, look at the mature width. Allow at least half that distance from buildings or property lines, when choosing the place to plant your tree. For example, a Sugar Maple may be 40 feet wide when mature, so plant it at least 20 feet from the house. I know – it looks small right now – how could it possibly get that big? Don’t worry, it soon will!

Whatever choice you make, give your new tree plenty of water during the first and second growing seasons. That way you will develop a strong, deep root-system, and make your tree tough and hardy, for a long and happy future.

How to Choose a Shade Tree syndicated from https://www.thetreecenter.com

[mpullmanlaw]

Modern Twists on the PG Hydrangea

If you live in colder parts of the country, the chances are good that you have seen the PG Hydrangea, even if you didn’t know what it was. This plant is a true garden classic anywhere winter temperatures fall below minus 10, the limits of zone 6. In these colder areas the ‘ordinary’ hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla) doesn’t flower, because it needs some branches from the previous year to develop flower buds. Old wood is killed to the ground in colder weather, so they will grow back, but rarely flower. Today there are some excellent new varieties, like the Endless Summer Hydrangea, that will bloom well even when grown in zone 4 and 5. There, with temperatures in winter falling to minus 30, you can still have beautiful pink blooms. However, if you want larger shrubs for height, and easy care, then the PG Hydrangea is still your best choice in cold areas, and a great shrub to grow even in warmer regions.

This plant, known as Hydrangea paniculata, flowers in big conical clusters at the ends of new branches produced from hardy stems that overwinter easily, even when the mercury falls to minus 40. It is a large shrub, coming originally from China and Japan. An American called George Hall, a pioneer trader in Yokohama with a company called Walsh & Co. introduced it to America. In the 1860’s he sent over several new Japanese plants, including a garden form of this hydrangea, called ‘Grandiflora’ because of its large flower clusters. It soon became known as the ‘pee gee’ hydrangea, as the full name was rather long! This is also often written as PG Hydrangea – take your pick.

When it was discovered how hardy, and how easy to grow this plant was, it was soon in every garden. No wonder! With its huge conical flower clusters atop every stem, this plant really stands out in any garden. The flowers begin green, and as the clusters expand and grow they turn white. From midsummer into early fall, this lovely shrub brings interest at a time when few shrubs are flowering. Then in fall, as the cooler weather arrives, the flowers turn first rosy pink, and then rich red, creating a spectacular display.

For gardeners, this hydrangea has many advantages over ordinary hydrangea plants. It is more drought-resistant, an important feature in these times of water conservation. It will grow well in both sun and shade, so it can be placed almost anywhere in the garden. It does not mind if your soil is acid or alkaline, and its white flowers will be pure white in any soil. All it asks for is a well-drained soil, and perhaps some mulch over the roots in spring.

Since that first introduction, there have been many new forms of this beautiful plant created. Variations in size and flower color, as well as richer fall colors, have all been developed. The new PG Hydrangeas are definitely worth choosing over the standard form, so let’s take a look at some of them.

Tardiva White Hydrangea

This is a greatly improved form of the original pee gee, and it is identical to the variety ‘Floribunda’. It has longer, narrower flower clusters than the pee gee, so they are don’t bend over, and flop, a big fault with the original pee gee hydrangea. They remain beautifully upright and arching, making a great backdrop to other shorter plants. In fall, the flower clusters turn from white to shades of pink, taking on the tones of the season. Remember to cut some while the color is still strong. Strip the leaves away and hang them upside down until they dry. Placed in an empty vase they will bring color into your home all through the winter months.

Little Lime and Limelight Hydrangeas

These beautiful newer PG Hydrangeas have very modern looking lime-green flowers, rather than the traditional white ones. This stunning effect brings a very different look, and it is loved both by gardeners and flower arrangers. The main difference between these two varieties is size. The Limelight Hydrangea grows to between 6 and 8 feet tall, depending on how hard you prune it. The beautiful Little Lime Hydrangea only grows between 3 and 5 feet tall, making it perfect for a smaller garden. Since it grows smaller, less pruning is required, unless you want a very compact plant.

Both of these lovely varieties turn rose-pink in fall, and because they are small they make perfect plants for containers – so you can decorate your sunny or shady patio with beautiful flowering shrubs in large pots – a wonderful decorating look.

Colorful New PG Hydrangeas

If you want more color, then consider growing the bright pink Sunday Fraise Hydrangea, or for a powerful end to the season, plant the Fire and Ice Hydrangea, with its amazing flowers that start white, turn pink in summer, and then deep crimson in fall – a stunning kaleidoscope of color changes.

Pruning PG Hydrangea

Left to grow naturally, most PG Hydrangea bushes will reach perhaps 12 feet tall and 10 feet across – a size suitable for a large property. In most gardens, especially if you have not chosen a smaller variety, you will want to prune it, and keep it more manageable.

There are three levels of pruning suitable for these plants, and all are done in late winter or very early spring, before any new growth is seen. The lightest pruning is simply to remove small, weak and crowded branches, and cut off the old flowers, back to the first buds you can see. If any branches have died, you will be able to tell them – and remove them – because the bark will be wrinkled and darker in color. Live branches have a thin green layer beneath the bark.

Harder pruning begins the same way, by removing weaker branches, but then the flowering stems are cut back to leave 4 buds on the stem. The third method is very similar, but this time you cut back to just two buds.

Each method gives different results. The fewer buds you leave, the later the flowers will form in the season, but the larger the flower clusters will be. The choice is yours, and if you have several bushes you can even prune them in different ways, depending on how soon you want to see flowers.

As well, you can prune for the shape of your bush. You can have one or just a few main stems, like a small tree, by removing most of the lower branches completely, or leave several strong stems low down, to produce a bush that is leafy right to the ground. Trained in different ways, these great shrubs bring so much to any garden, they should be planted everywhere.

Modern Twists on the PG Hydrangea syndicated from https://www.thetreecenter.com

[mpullmanlaw]

Top Drought Resistant Trees and Shrubs

With summer in full swing, and many people on holiday, plants in the garden can suffer in the typical dry conditions at this time of year. This may not be an exceptional summer for heat and drought, but even in normal years plants can be affected by dry soil and hot weather. Plants that are lacking water will stop growing, and they may lose leaves. The younger growing tips may die too, reducing even the modest amount of growth made earlier in the season. You may spend summer away from home, or simply not have the time or inclination to water. You may live in a part of the country where water conservation is an issue, or where summer watering restrictions are common, and need xeric plants, as these drought-resistant trees are often called.

Whatever the reasons, planting drought-resistant trees and shrubs makes sense. These plants are often beautiful too, so you don’t have to have a garden of cactus bushes to reap the benefits of plants that remain healthy and attractive through the driest and hottest weeks of the year.

5 Top Drought Resistant Trees and Shrubs

Italian Cypress – thrives in hot, dry areas

Arizona Cypress – the most drought resistant of the evergreens

Wax Myrtle – tough enough to grow well even at the beach

Blue American Agave – striking plant for totally arid locations

Crape Myrtle – beautiful blooms are most profuse in hot, dry spots

Italian Cypress

A classic image of the Italian countryside is the clusters of pencil-thin, evergreens thrusting into the deep blue sky. These Italian Cypress trees have been grown since the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans, and today no Italian villa would be complete without them. The climate from Spain to Greece is well-known as dry, with long, hot summers. These trees are well-adapted to such conditions, and their tough foliage will remain fresh and green throughout the longest dry spells.

If you live in warmer areas, from zone 7 to the hottest parts of the country, then this tree can be planted wherever you want a strong vertical accent plant, or lined-up to make a dense and bold hedge. Available in the natural deep-green color, or in the rare blue-green form called Blue Italian Cypress, this tree is sure to attract attention. Two slender fingers on either side of a doorway, or framing an entrance drive, scattered in clusters across a large lawn, or clipped into a wall of rich green – no matter how you use it, this is one drought-resistant plant you are sure to love.

Arizona Cypress

If the Italian Cypress is too narrow, or you want a truly blue evergreen, then the Arizona Cypress has to be your number one choice. Renowned for its resistance to heat and dryness, and even sold simply as the Drought-resistant Evergreen, this tree, which really does come from Arizona, is even tougher than its Italian relative. Known correctly as Cupressus arizonica ‘Carolina Sapphire’, this tree is a special selection of the wild tree that was found in South Carolina, among some seedlings. The foliage is much finer and the color is a brilliant steel-blue, creating a stand-out specimen, or striking hedge. Since it grows wild throughout Mexico and the south-west, this tree is no stranger to drought, heat and then more drought.

If you garden in areas with watering restrictions, where your plants will have to survive on their own, with no help from you, then the Arizona Cypress is your friend. If you need some screening, or a clipped hedge, it will grow to 40 feet tall if you need that kind of height, or clip to any height at all, from just a few feet to a towering barrier. Once established, you really will not need to water, even after weeks and weeks of dryness. For toughness and resistance to the hottest and driest conditions around, this tree cannot be beaten.

Blue American Agave

Not all drought-resistant plants are trees, and although the American Agave can grow to be 25 feet tall when in bloom, it is mostly a much more modest 3 to 5-foot plant. Not a woody plant at all, the Agave is a striking cluster of dramatic leaves rising from a dense center. Each leaf is thick and fleshy, and edged with spines, and the surface is a waxy blue color, creating a striking architectural element in the garden, or when planted in a large pot. If you love modern design, or the traditional colonial architecture of California, then you will love this plant, which has ‘presence’ is spades.

You may need to wait a while to see the dramatic flowering, when a single stem thrusts up as much as 25 feet into the sky, carrying hundreds of creamy-white flowers. Also called the century plant, it doesn’t actually take that many years to flower, but the plant needs to be fully mature before it happens. Until then, enjoy the bold, blue leaves, and don’t bother too much with the watering can. A true desert plant, the Blue American Agave will live for years in dry soil, putting on bursts of growth when a little water is available. If you like ‘different’, then this is the drought-resistant choice for you garden.

Wax Myrtle

Not all drought-resistant plants have tight needle-foliage, or look like cacti. When you first see the Wax Myrtle, you see an attractive bush, with regular-looking glossy leaves in a rich green color. They may feel a little leathery, but otherwise you would never suspect that this plant will thrive in pure sand, and resist ocean spray as well. That glossy look comes from a thick coating that retains moisture inside the leaves, and protects them from salt too. The ‘wax’ part of the name comes from the clusters of small, blue-gray berries that form in the fall. Perfect for the holiday season, you can make your own bayberry candles, by boiling these berries in water and collecting the wax that is released. Planted as a bushy specimen, or as a screen against wind and salt-drift, you will love the Wax Myrtle for its drought-resistance and over-all toughness in the most difficult locations.

Crape Myrtle

We don’t usually associate colorful blossoms with drought conditions, but the Crape Myrtle, available in many sizes and colors, certainly proves that dryness and flowers can go together. In fact, shade and too much water will reduce flowering in this tough shrub or small tree, which is ideal for bringing vibrant color to hot and dry gardens.

One last thing. . .

Although all these plants are very drought resistant, they still need some attention during the early years of growing. For the first season or two after planting, regular watering will encourage deep rooting, and establish your new plants well, so that they will be fully drought-resistant in the years to come.

Top Drought Resistant Trees and Shrubs syndicated from https://www.thetreecenter.com

[mpullmanlaw]

Butterfly Bushes for Every Garden

The Butterfly Bush, once a favorite plant with children for the hordes of beautiful butterflies it attracts, has had some bad publicity in the last few years. Beautiful as it is, these plants produce a lot of seed, and this will easily spread and grow just about anywhere. In some parts of the country it grows where it is not wanted, and interferes with the natural ecology of the surrounding countryside. In the last few years there has been a lot of concern with this issue, and in some states, most notably Oregon, the sale of these plants has been stopped, because the invasive habits of the plant have caused such problems. To be clear, there is nothing harmful to humans or pets about these plants, and many biologists recognize that they can be a valuable food source to lots of different species of butterflies and moths. It is just that when they escape by seed into natural areas, they prevent the normal development of native plants, including forest trees in areas which have been logged. They also grow along rivers and streams, again interfering with the growth of native plants.

Can you Grow these Plants Safely?

Since the Butterfly Bush can only escape into natural areas as seed, then one clear way responsible gardeners can prevent that spread is by removing flowers heads as soon as they have faded. Even if you don’t get to them right away, most if not all the seed is released in winter, so as long as you cut down your plants in fall, and destroy the seed heads, they cannot spread. It is however better to remove the flowers earlier, so that there is no seed inside the heads, which could be spread from compost, for example.

If you are a responsible gardener, and conscientious about removing flower heads promptly, then you can continue to grow all the traditional varieties of butterfly bushes, such as the popular red variety, ‘Royal Red’, or the rich purple ‘Black Knight’. For large pink flower heads, the variety ‘Pink Delight’ is sure to please. If you live in a state that has no banned these plants outright, or if you live in the central and northern mid-west, where it is too cold for these plants to survive a winter outdoors, then if you dead-head, you can grow these plants with a clear conscience.

By the way, if you do live in an area which is too cold, you can lift the plants in the fall, place them in a pot, and once early winter has arrived, and the plants are fully dormant, simply store them in a cold place – it doesn’t have to have any light, as the plants have no leaves in winter – and bring them out and re-plant in spring. They will quickly sprout and be blooming in no time at all. The storage place can be a few degrees about freezing, or well-below it. Anything from zero degrees to 40 degrees will be fine. Keep the soil just barely damp, and the plants will survive perfectly.

Seedless Hybrid Butterfly Bushes

Even if you feel you can reliably remove the old flowers, you may still be reluctant to grow these plants. Many of us want to send the message to our friends and neighbors that we care about the environment, so we just won’t grow at all any varieties that could produce seed. You might live in Oregon, where there is an outright ban on these plants, so the option of growing them, even if you do remove seeds, is not available to you.

In that case, you will not want to grow the traditional varieties, but there is good news. Not wanting to lose these plants in gardens, several colleges and private plant breeders have set about producing new varieties that do not produce seed. That’s right – Butterfly Bushes that produce no seed and therefore cannot spread into wild places. These plants are perfectly safe to grow. In fact, they are so safe that even in Oregon, the state authorities responsible for the environment have agreed that they can be safely grown and sold. To avoid confusion, they are sold in that state as ‘Summer Lilac’, because the flowers look a little like the flower spikes of lilac bushes. Often the colors are lilac, blue or purple, very similar to the colors we find in varieties of the true lilac. The name ‘Nectar Bush’ is also used for some varieties, in tribute to the copious quantities of nectar produced by these plants. It is this sweet nectar that makes them so attractive to butterflies, and means these plants help many of these gorgeous insects to survive.

Summer Lilacs come in a dazzling array of colors. There is bright blue, in the variety ‘Blue Chip Jr.’ There is bright pink, in the lovely ‘Miss Molly’, and there is rich purple-red in the charming ‘Miss Ruby’. These are just a sample of the best varieties, but in total there are currently18 different varieties permitted in Oregon, the state with the strongest controls. These come in many colors, from white to purple, in many shades of blues or pinks, and in peach and orange shades too. Further new varieties are sure to follow over the next few years.

Names to Look For

The varieties already mentioned are perfect choices for a ‘safe’ Butterfly Bush, but other ones you will know are safe, if you see them available, could include the word ‘Miss’ in the name, or the word ‘Chip’, or they may be sold as part of a series called Flutterby Grandé. Most of these were produced by breeders at North Carolina State University, in Raleigh. Gardeners who love Butterfly Bushes owe a big ‘thank-you’ to these hard-working professionals, who have solved the problem of the spreading Buddleja. They have brought us all, wherever we live, a way of growing these sweetly-scented, charming plants. We can continue to feed our local butterfly populations, and at the same time protecting our local environments. A new generation of children can grow up playing in gardens where these plants attract such spectacular insects, and help teach a new generation about the wonders of nature – and also that we can garden responsibly, without giving up beauty.

Butterfly Bushes for Every Garden syndicated from https://www.thetreecenter.com

[mpullmanlaw]

Some Interesting Evergreens for Gardens

Gardeners fall into two camps when it comes to evergreens – those that love ‘em, and those that hate ‘em. Some people find them boring, since they don’t flower, and mostly keep their leaves all year, with little color change as the seasons pass. Others love them for exactly the same reasons – they give permanent privacy, and provide a stable backdrop to the seasonal comings and goings of flowers and fall leaves on other plants. While it might not be possible to change their minds completely, if those ‘haters’ saw some evergreens that didn’t fall into the typical mold, they might at least partially move into the ‘lovers’ camp for a while. So with that in mind, let’s look at some interesting evergreens that bring something different to the garden, and don’t resemble the typical arborvitae, juniper or spruce tree.

Dawn Redwood

Now here is a tree that stands out among evergreens for lots of reasons, but the most interesting reason has to be that it isn’t – evergreen that is. Yes, it certainly is a conifer, like a spruce or pine, and it is a close relative of the famous Giant Redwood trees of California, which do keep their leaves all year round. The Dawn Redwood sees things differently, and belongs to an elite group of conifers that shed their foliage in winter. The others are the Larch (Larix), the Swamp Cypress (Taxodium), and the critically endangered Water Pine (Glyptostrobus) which grows in China and Vietnam. Being deciduous is enough to make the Dawn Redwood of interest, and of course it means it does not throw that dense winter shade that some people do not like, and that prevents many plants growing under evergreens.

The Dawn Redwood tree has the tongue-twister botanical name of Metasequoia glyptostroboides, and until 1947 it was only known from 50-million-year-old fossils. Now there is a talking point when showing visitors your garden! The tree was discovered in China by staff of Harvard University’s Arnold Arboretum, and caused a media sensation when they brought it back to America. If its ‘living fossil’ status was all it had, this would probably not be a tree of long-term interest, but it is undoubtedly also one of the most handsome trees around, and certainly therefore a top-choice tree. It is also a gift if you garden on damp or wet soil, since it will grow happily in exactly those conditions. There, solved that problem for you.

This is not a small tree, as it will grow to 50 feet in height, with an attractive conical form, and a spread of 20 feet or more. It will hold it lower branches for many years, so plant it where you don’t need to trim them up – it looks very handsome with branches reaching almost to the ground. The foliage of the Dawn Redwood is a little like that of a Yew tree, with soft, flat needles in two rows. They are a rich green, turning a dramatic rusty-red in fall. Use this tree as a unique specimen, or as a beautiful screen. It also clips easily into a magnificent hedge. The Dawn Redwood – an all-round winner.

Virginia Pine

Coming from much nearer home, this interesting native pine tree doesn’t have the usual pine tree look. The short needles are twisted in bunches at the ends of the branches, and the tree is broad and spreading, with a lot of ‘character’, even when young. There is a lot of talk and interest in growing native plants these days, but some are either hard to grow, or simply not very interesting in a garden. The Virginia Pine, Pinus virginiana, is certainly not hard to grow, in fact if you have poor, dry soil, and even clay soil, this tree will be right at home. Those are exactly the conditions it grows in all the way from Long Island to Alabama, and it will grow well for you in similar difficult spots on a larger property. Often dismissed as a ‘scrub pine’, in reality this is an interesting tree that is also so easy to grow that it’s a great choice for any low-maintenance garden. If growing native plants is something that appeals to you, then for ease of growth, this tree is a perfect candidate.

Although when crowded in a forest this tree grows tall and upright, when planted in a garden with space around it you will see a broad, irregular tree develop. If you have an Asian-themed garden, this tree has just the right rugged look, and it is also popular for growing as a bonsai tree, because the short needles look perfectly in scale.

Bruns Weeping Serbian Spruce

Say ‘spruce’ to an evergreen hater, and they will immediately picture the classic, and over-planted Blue Spruce, and lose interest. Show them a Bruns Weeping Serbian Spruce and they will sit up and take notice. No one could ignore this remarkable tree, and a mature specimen, once seen, is never forgotten. Picture a slender column, but one that cannot find it way, and instead meanders and turns in random directions. The central leading shoot adds 12 to 18 inches a year, and from it, becoming longer and denser lower down the tree, are pendulous branches that hang straight down, adding 6 to 8 inches to their weeping form each year, until they reach the ground and spread out around the base of the tree into a skirt of green. You can attach your specimen to a tall stake – it will reach 30 feet or more in about that many years, so make that a very tall stake – and keep it more-or-less upright, or you can just let it free and allow this unique tree to do its own thing and twist and turn as it will. Whatever you do, every specimen of Picea omorika ‘Pendula Bruns’, to use its full name, will amaze you, your neighbors, and everyone else who sees it. The tree is named after the Bruns Nursery, Bad Zwischenahn, Germany, where it was found in 1955. It is hardy to zone 5 and easily grown in full sun in any well-drained soil. In 2007 the American Conifer Society selected it as their Conifer of the Year, and if they don’t know a unique and novel evergreen, then who does?

Some Interesting Evergreens for Gardens syndicated from https://www.thetreecenter.com

[mpullmanlaw]

Summer Care of Japanese Maple

Everyone loves Japanese maples, with their diversity of leaf color and form. Some are upright, some weeping, while some cascade elegantly over rocks and walls. Leaves may be green, or the coveted rich-reds that are always so popular. Their fall coloring is also varied and spectacular. Some have attractive seed clusters hanging from their bare branches, or brightly-colored twigs glowing in the winter sunlight. A keen gardener could almost build a whole garden around them, the range of varieties is so great and the diversity is so rich.

Keep Japanese Maple Healthy in Summer

Keep them moist – don’t forget to keep the soil damp, with mulch and regular watering

Give them afternoon shade – when planting your tree, arrange for afternoon shade in summer

Choose a suitable variety – some forms resist burning better than others

Keep them red all summer – plant a newer variety that doesn’t fade to brown

Use nutrient-rich mulch – this feeds the plant as well as keeping the soil moist

It doesn’t take long for the new gardener to buy their first Japanese maple, since they are so enchanting and appealing. Sadly, some new gardeners are disappointed, finding that their plant does not thrive, and that although they begin the year with glorious spring foliage, as summer arrives the leaves scorch and brown. They then often fall and leave a bare tree just when you want it to be leafy, and of course meaning that those fabulous fall colors are nowhere in sight. With this in mind, let’s lend a hand and give you some tips on how to get your maples through the summer in good health, looking gorgeous and ready for that fall show to come.

Why Does My Japanese Maple Burn in Summer?

There are several interconnected reasons why Japanese maple foliage often dries up and burns in summer. The main reason is lack of moisture. These trees originate in Japan, and there the summer climate is very damp, with high humidity and frequent rain. If you live where summers are dry, the soil and root-ball can dry out, quickly causing the leaves to brown and scorch. As well, these trees grow naturally in the shade of larger trees, so they do not enjoy hot sun, which is most pronounced in the afternoons. Also, some of the varieties with very finely-cut foliage are especially prone to drying, since the leaves are so thin and delicate.

Lack of Water

This is the primary reason for leaves burning. In hot weather, to keep the foliage cool, water evaporates from the underside of the leaves. This must be replaced with water drawn up from the roots. Some garden plants have thick, leathery leaves that only lose a little water by evaporation, so when the soil is dry they are still fine. In contrast, Japanese maple leaves are thin and delicate, so they cannot stop losing water. If that water is not replaced from the roots, the leaves dry out, turn brown, and shrivel up. While this usually doesn’t harm the tree itself much, it certainly makes the tree look bare and it loses much of its appeal too early in the year.

To protect your tree from drying, add plenty of rich organic material to the soil when planting. Dig deeply, and mix that material well into the ground. Digging deeply will allow your tree’s roots to get into the damper soil down below. Add a layer of that organic material over all the roots, to conserve the moisture (and prevent weeds growing too). Water well throughout the spring and summer, letting the water soak down into the ground. A slow trickle for an hour to two is always better than a quick, heavy spraying, which often doesn’t go deep into the soil at all. Don’t rely on rainfall, especially once summer arrives. In a thunderstorm, a lot of the water simply runs off the surface, and bigger trees very quickly suck up any that does go into the ground, so that your Japanese maple may get nothing at all. A long soak once a week – or twice a week during very hot weather, especially if your soil is sandy – will keep up the moisture levels.

Hot Afternoon Sun

Even if you water thoroughly, you might still find that your Japanese maple is scorching, even if only at the tips of the leaves. If this is happening, you might have your tree in the wrong place. While these trees thrive with some direct sunlight, especially in spring, by summer they need protection from the hottest rays between noon and four in the afternoon. When choosing a planting spot – or where to place your tree if it is in a container – find somewhere where there is afternoon shade, but ideally some morning sun. This will keep your tree growing healthily, while keeping the leaves fresh and colorful all summer long.

Growing a more sensitive variety

The size of the leaves of Japanese maples is very variable – this is a large part of their appeal. Those that are often called ‘dissectum’, with deeply divided leaves in thin, narrow lobes, are much more likely to scorch than other varieties with broader leaves. If you don’t have much time for your garden and can’t be sure that sufficient water will be available, or you want to place a plant in a sunny place, then choose a broader leaf form. This is especially important if you live in warmer zones, where it is hard to keep those leaves from scorching. Generally, varieties with broader leaves are much less prone to scorching. The Coral Bark Japanese Maple is often recommended for hotter parts of the country, as with its broader leaves it resists drying well.

Choosing an older red-leaf form

Some of the older types of red-leaf Japanese maples are subject to color-fading, after the glory of their spring display. As summer comes, that brilliant red can turn a less attractive greenish-brown. If you want strong color all summer – and who wouldn’t – then choose a more modern variety like the Purple Ghost Japanese Maple, which can be relied on to hold its color well.

Starving your tree

If your tree is low in nutrients, the leaves will be smaller, so they will be more prone to drying. Keep your tree well fed, by using a rich mulch, and putting down some fresh, new material each fall. Garden compost, or rotted animal manures, like sheep or cow, are much better than bark chips, or shredded bark, which add nothing to the soil. As well, especially when your tree is younger, some feeding with liquid tree food is very beneficial.

  Japanese maples are glorious trees, and every garden should have some. If you attend to these simple things, you can enjoy them without the frustration of scorching and burning foliage in summer. It’s easy to get it right.

Summer Care of Japanese Maple syndicated from https://www.thetreecenter.com

[mpullmanlaw]

Tips on Placing Shrubs in Your Garden

Planting shrubs is the best way to create form and structure in your garden, and working with a selection of different ones, both evergreen and deciduous, and large and small, is the way to create variety too. Getting the balance right, between mass planting and individual specimens, using different heights, and with different foliage types, is the key to creating a garden that looks good all year. We want a garden that is both calm and interesting. There are some basic ideas we can follow, that will help us get it right, and create the garden of our dreams, so here are some tips on selecting and placing shrubs in your garden.

Tips for Placing Shrubs

Plant in Groups – don’t just plant a collection of individual plants

Use Repetition – put the same plant in several spots, it brings harmony

Use Accents – upright or spreading, choose a variety of forms

Scatter the Planting – don’t plant in rows, let sizes flow in and out

Plant for Every Season – select plants with different seasonal features

Don’t Buy ‘One of Everything’

When we first discover the amazing variety of shrubs available to us, all with interesting features, the temptation is to want them all. Since our gardens are limited in size, it is very easy to end up with a collection of many individual plants – ‘one of this, one of that’. This is fine if you want to grow many different things and become a collector, your garden will inevitably look a little chaotic and disorganized. The choice is yours, but if you want a beautiful garden, resist that temptation and limit your choices to plants that work for structure and appearance, and be willing to use plants in groups, and repeated them around the garden.

Groups or Specimens?

Knowing how many of each plant to buy can be tricky, but there is a simple way to approach it, that works most of the time. Basically, the larger the shrub, the less likely it is you will want to plant it in a group. Plants that are more than 6 feet wide or tall will be big enough to stand alone, in all but the biggest gardens. Usually a large shrub 10 or 15 feet tall is going to make a statement all by itself, and unless you have a lot of space to fill, or want a screen, one in each location will be fine. Smaller shrubs, under 3 or 4 feet tall, will usually be lost in all but the smallest spaces, so they look best planted in groups. The ideal number for groupings is always an odd number – 3, 5, 7, or even more. This allows you to space them more naturally. Remember too that a group should look like a unit, so space the plants a distance about 65% of their final width, so they grow together a little and make a solid mass.

Repetition Brings Harmony

Repeating the same plant, alone or in groups, around the garden, is an easy way to create harmony, and tie the garden together. You may not have room for more than one example of a large plant, but medium-sized and small plants can be scattered around, just as we see in nature, where plants are usually numerous at any one location. If you have a few favorite plants, then use them around the garden as your ‘signature’. This will make the garden uniquely your own.

Choose a Variety of Forms

Most shrubs are basically rounded – usually a little taller than they are wide. But some have been selected to be narrow and upright, and others low and spreading. Plus, there are shrubs that are pendulous or weeping in habit. Up to a quarter of the area you plant can have unusually shaped plants, but don’t get carried away with this. Too many and you lose their purpose – to emphasize and accent the plants around them. Low, spreading forms are especially useful in the foreground of your beds, but remember when planting them to allow room for their spread, especially if the bed meets a lawn. Otherwise you will find them growing over the grass, and killing it. On the other hand, if you have paved areas, letting low plants spread across the paving is an effective way to soften the stiff, linear edges. That works well at the tops of walls too, where spreading plants will cascade down and soften those hard edges.

Don’t Plant in Rows

When you come to place your new shrubs in beds, obviously those that will grow taller should be further back, but don’t make the mistake of planting three rows – tall at the back, medium in the middle, and small in front. Create a more natural arrangement by planting some taller plants near the front, especially if they are narrow accents, and push some lower plantings further back. That is where groups are useful, as a group of low plants can flow inwards in one area, and a group of medium-sized shrubs can flow to the front in another place. This way you will create flow and harmony, and an ever-changing picture in your garden beds.

Consider the Flowering Season

When laying out those shrubs, taking into account when they flower is important. In any season, you want the interest spread around – although in larger gardens it is also possible to make season areas. In these, the focus is on planting for one season, and creating a powerful display. For the rest of the year you use other parts of the garden.

In most gardens though, spreading the interest around is the best approach to take. Plants that have both flowers and fruit, or fall color, are very useful in smaller spaces, as they bring interest to more than one season. Scatter the spring flowers around, and do the same for summer ones, and for the fall too. If you have a part of the garden you use most at one season – perhaps the barbeque area for summer – then focus appropriate seasonal planting in that area.

  Planting shrubs in your garden is an on-going adventure. Something new is always catching our eye, and we want to use it in our gardens. If you have a good basic layout established, new plants can be slipped in, or used to replace something that hasn’t been a big success, without upsetting the overall look of your garden.

Tips on Placing Shrubs in Your Garden syndicated from https://www.thetreecenter.com

[mpullmanlaw]

Time to Prune Spring-flowering Shrubs – Part Two

Last week I started discussing the pruning of spring-flowering shrubs and trees, but after diverting into the choice and use of pruners, delayed finishing the conversation till now. So let’s get back to the topic, and investigate how to do the important job of pruning plants that flower early in the year. Many gardeners plant something new, and for the first few years it does well, flowering abundantly, but after a time the plant becomes large, too bulky, and flowering is reduced. Too many people take hedge shears to everything in the garden, ‘trimming’ instead of pruning, and as a result the quality of their plants deteriorates over the years. Regular annual pruning is a much better choice, giving you control over the size of your plants, and stimulating them to give the maximum flower-display possible.

The purpose of pruning is to keep plants young and vigorous, and this is especially important for spring-flowering plants, where flowering takes place on older shoots, so a hard cut-back will eliminate it entirely for at least a year. To keep flowers coming, without your shrubs getting old and ugly, is the goal. So how to achieve that? First, a reminder of the basics.

Prune Spring-flowering Shrubs in Summer

Timing is important in everything, and it is important with your shrubs too. The best time to prune plants that flower before June is immediately after the flowers have faded and fallen. This leaves the longest possible time for new growth to mature and ripen, and so maximizes the likelihood and intensity of the flowering display in the following spring. If you didn’t do it at that time, or realize that you didn’t do it properly, it is not too late to get out your pruners and set to work. Then you can get closer to the ideal timing next year.

Remove Dead Flower Clusters

We did get as far last time as discussing removing dead flowers, and giving some tips on how to do it with plants like lilacs and rhododendrons, which don’t need intensive pruning. The purpose of removing those flower clusters is to prevent energy going into fruit and seed production, and divert it instead into flower-bud formation for the next year. In a sense, dead-heading sends a message to the plant that their reproductive efforts didn’t work out well, so best to try harder for next time. Of course, this doesn’t apply to plants where the fruit is attractive, and part of the pleasure of the plant, and clearly not to plants we grow for edible fruit, like apples or peaches.

Remove Older Wood

While dead-heading may be all some plants need, a fundamental step in pruning most spring-flowering shrubs is the removal of old wood. We consider wood to be old if it is, in most cases, 3 to 5 years old. By that stage branches will be thick, and very often they have lost some vigor, so they produce fewer blooms, or the blooms are smaller. Each year, when you prune, remove the oldest branches by cutting them back as low as possible, and certainly to a younger stem that is growing out low down. If there are several newer stems, they will often be in a cluster at a low point. Remove the branch directly above them. If the new stems are scattered all along the branch, then try to find something sturdy about two-thirds of the way down the old branch, and cut back there. Lilac is a good example of a plant that benefits from this approach.

If you haven’t prune the plant much for several years, it may be all ‘old-wood’, so in that case remove about one-third of the old branches completely, and do the same in the next two summers. That way you will allow your plant to replace its branches gradually, so you won’t be sacrificing all the flowers, or giving it a big shock by cutting it back too harshly.

Remove Flowering Wood

This is the second stage of pruning your spring-flowering plants, and how much of this you do will vary from plant to plant. If you look at the structure of most of these shrubs, you will see shorter branches coming from older stems, and these shorter branches will have had flowers on them. In some cases, such as with the spring-flowering spireas of the ‘Bridal Veil’ type, an established plant can replace many branches, and you will get superior results with them by removing almost every branch that has send out flower-shoots. The plant will look a little thin for a few weeks afterwards, and you may think you have gone too far, but when you see the result the following spring you will know you did the right thing.

In other plants, taking out all the branches that flowered is not the ideal approach. With forsythia, for example, this can result in very long, vigorous shoots forming, which grow a lot, but don’t flower much the following year. With plants like that, we want to avoid over-stimulating them, and this will also be the result if we do neglect pruning for a few years, and then do a drastic cut-back. Some plants – and this is true with crab-apples, flowering plums and cherries, and other related plants, flowering mostly takes place on what we call ‘spurs’. These are short side-shoots on older branches, and even forsythia will have these too. We can encourage spur-development by trimming back new stems that have flowered for the first time. Once the flowers fade, cut those stems back to a few lower leaves, and the plant will respond by sending out a cluster of short shoots at that point, giving even more profuse flowering the next year.

Side-shoots that didn’t flower also respond well to this treatment. Trimming them back to a few leaves will encourage them to switch to flowering-mode, and after a few years you will see profuse blooming, on a nicely structured plant. Once the stem carrying these spurs is a few years old, you may see some loss of vigor, and reduced flowering. That is the signal to remove the whole branch, but by then you will have developed plenty of replacements, and the plant will benefit from the more open structure you create by removing the oldest stems.

Good pruning makes all the difference in keeping plants simultaneously neater and more prolific in their blooming. Rather than let nature take its course, we can control the plants we grow, and divert them into giving us the best garden display possible. Careful pruning is the best tool we have to achieve that goal, and create an outstanding garden.

Time to Prune Spring-flowering Shrubs – Part Two syndicated from https://www.thetreecenter.com

[mpullmanlaw]

Time to Prune Spring-flowering Shrubs – Part One

Now that spring is behind us, and summer has officially begun, don’t leave the pruning of your spring-flowering shrubs any longer. Ideally it should be done immediately after they flower, so for next year, make a note. However, ‘better late than never’, so if you didn’t do it yet, bring it to the top of your list.

There is often confusion about pruning, and many inexperienced gardeners just do one major trimming of all their shrubs and trees in late winter, which is a mistake. It is best to divide your plants into two groups, based on when they flower. The first group is all those shrubs that bloom early, either before the leaves emerge, or immediately after. This would include Forsythia, larger Spirea, Lilacs, and all the Rhododendrons and azaleas. The second group are those plants that send up new shoots, only later developing flower buds on them, and blooming in summer and fall. Top of that list would be hydrangea, but also crape myrtle, and roses. The pruning of this second group has already been discussed in a recent blog, because that is the group you prune first, usually in late winter, before any new growth is seen.

Prune Spring-flowering Shrubs in Summer

In this blog we are going to look at the pruning of those shrubs and trees that flower in spring. They should be pruned more-or-less immediately after they finish blooming. Not all need a lot of pruning, and we will look later at some specific examples, but first, some general principles. The flower buds of spring flowering plants form as the new growth from the season matures. In some plants, these can be seen developing on the stems as the season progresses – in camellias for example, the flower beds are already noticeable as the new shoots begin to mature, because they are slightly larger than leaf buds. By fall they are already very large, and easily seen. In other plants, they will not be that visible, but they are there. Our goal is to have as much bloom as possible, and to achieve that we need to leave all that growth, from the summer before, intact. If we also want to control the size of our plants a little, and shape them, it is obvious that we need to do that before the new growth has formed, not after, or we will reduce the amount of growth ready to flower.

Remove Dead Flower Clusters

Spring flowering shrubs and trees produce their flowers when there are no, or just a few, leaves visible, so by pruning immediately after they flower, we allow a full season for new growth to develop untouched, and we maximize flower production. The amount of pruning we do will depend on the plant, and the most basic and limited is simply to remove the finished flower clusters. Gardener’s may ask, “Why bother?”, and of course they are partly correct – the plant won’t mind if we leave them. However, if they are left, they will often produce fruit and seeds, and the resources of the plant will go into that, rather than into making flowers for the next year, which is what we usually want. Obviously if the tree is a fruit tree, we do want the fruits, but for many ornamental trees and shrubs they are unwanted, and can even become a problem, creating weedy seedlings all over the garden.

For those reasons, and for general tidiness, removing dead flower clusters on plants like rhododendrons and lilacs is a very worthwhile activity.

For rhododendrons, the best way is by hand, simply snapping off the stalk that holds the flowers, once the petals have fallen. Don’t be afraid – just bend the stem above the first leaves, and it will snap off. With a bit of practice you will become quick at this, and it is a simple and pleasant job. Soon you will be rewarded by seeing several new shoots come from buds among those uppermost leaves, with the promise of next year’s flowers in them.

Choose the Right Pruners

For lilacs you will probably need to use a pair of hand-pruners to remove the old flowers, and that brings us to consider what kind to buy. There are two main types of hand-pruners available, called ‘anvil’ and ‘by-pass’. Although often sold, anvil pruners are not recommended, and a by-pass pair is best. These have a type of scissor action, with a sharp, curving blade that slides past a second blade that is broad and curved, to hold the branch while you cut it.

Anvil pruners have a straight blade that presses down against a flat second blade. They work well when new, but even the smallest damage to the blade means they don’t cut cleanly through the bark. The cut will tear the bark, and that leaves the stem damaged and more likely to die back, or become diseased. Save any anvil pruners you already have for picking flowers, and invest in a quality pair of by-pass pruners. Some brands allow you to buy replacement blades, and that is always helpful, as simply changing the blade will give you a brand-new pair. Cheap pruners are always a bad investment.

Use Your Pruners Correctly

If you look at your by-pass pruners, you will see that when you cut a stem, the flat blade presses in the wood as the cut is made. This crushes the bark slightly, and can cause die-back. Notice that the other side of the blade has a clean cut. When cutting, always hold the pruners so that they clean cut is on the part of the stem remaining on the plant, and the crushed part of the piece you cut off. At first turning them around will feel awkward, but soon it will become second-nature, so persevere – it’s worth it!

It looks like that is all we can discuss here, so in the next blog we will continue with this important topic, and look in more detail on selecting the branches to remove, and how much pruning to do.

Time to Prune Spring-flowering Shrubs – Part One syndicated from https://www.thetreecenter.com

[mpullmanlaw]

Bring Lots of Color to Your Summer Garden

It sometimes seems that garden writers are obsessed with the ‘off’ seasons in the garden. There are endless blogs on flowers for spring, color in fall, how to have winter interest, but summer seems to be forgotten. Yet that is the time when almost everyone is in their garden, enjoying a vacation at home, barbecuing, throwing parties, and having family gatherings. So surely that is the time when we want our gardens to look their best? It might seem easy, surely everything blooms in summer, doesn’t it? Well no, most blooms are in spring, which makes sense from the plant’s point of view, and having a vibrant, colorful spring garden is the easy part. Since many of the most popular flowers – cherry trees, magnolias, azaleas, for example – all flower then, it is almost a given that if you plant the things you love, you will have a wonderful spring garden.

Summer Color in the Garden

Choose shrubs with colored foliage – Lots of easy-to-grow choices

Plant summer bloomers – Crape Myrtle in sun, Hydrangea in shade

Grow roses that bloom all summer – plant the Drift and Knockout roses

Bring out your houseplants – they bring a tropical feel to any garden

  In many places spring is an uncertain season – warm and inviting one moment, showery and colder the next. Because of this, we don’t always get out and enjoy our gardens at that time, Instead we wait for the warmer, more stable weather of summer, by which time lots of our flowers are finished blooming.

The usual solution is to plant annual flowers, but that takes time, can quickly cost a lot of money, and then needs be done all over again the following year. Shrubs and trees offer a lot more, and once planted they get better and better every year, with very little extra effort from us. Let’s look at some uncomplicated ways to bring summer color into our gardens with trees and shrubs – just when we need it most.

Grow Shrubs with Colored Foliage

There are a sizable number of easy-to-grow shrubs that bring bright color as long as they have leaves. One of the easiest and most popular is the Gold Mound Spirea. Hardy in zone 4, this reliable plant has leaves in that perfect acid yellow that compliments so many other colors in the garden. It starts out in spring that way, and unlike some other shrubs with colored leaves, it stays that way till fall. Growing just a couple of feet tall, it is perfect for the front of a border, or even for growing in a planter box, and since it grows easily almost anywhere, it is impossible to have too many of these around your garden.

At the other end of the spectrum, rich crimson reds are always a stand-out, and for that color in the background, or as a specimen on a larger lawn, you can’t go wrong with the Smoke Tree. In the varieties ‘Royal Purple’, and ‘Grace’, this hardy shrub gives us vibrant purple coloring that brings a punch to spring, and carries on through summer. In fall the colors turn vivid red, and there is a great summer bonus in the sprays of rose-colored fluffy flowers that float like smoke over the bush. Allow plenty of room for this beauty, it can reach 10 to 15 feet tall, and almost as wide, but to fill a larger space effectively with all-season color, nothing beats it.

Plant Summer Bloomers

There are some terrific shrubs that bloom all summer long, and very few can beat Crape Myrtles. Although usually only hardy to zone 7, some varieties do well in zone 6 too, but that still makes these great shrubs available to many gardeners across the country. Shrubs and small trees, they come in a wide range of vibrant colors covering the whole spectrum of purples, lilacs, reds and pinks, plus white, and they bloom continuously from the beginning of summer to the first frost. There are very few plants you can grow that will give you as much flower-power as Crape Myrtle.

Crape Myrtles love heat and sun, but if your garden is shady, then fill it with Hydrangeas. These revel in those shadier spots, and they enjoy damper soil too. With huge heads of bloom in pinks or blues, depending on your soil, they fill all those awkward, shady corners with beauty. Even if you live in cold areas, the panicle hydrangeas, with their cones of white blooms that turn pink and red in fall, are tough and hardy in both sun and shade right into zone 3. Newer varieties, like ‘Ruby Slippers’, are rich red all summer, and bring a real punch of color just when you want it most.

Grow Roses that Bloom All Summer

Everyone loves roses, and many put on a great show in late spring and early summer. When the hotter weather comes, however, most give up, and wait until fall arrives before putting on a second show. At least thats how it used to be, but no longer. Breeders have been at work, and now we have the Knockout Roses, which bloom continuously, and are so tough and disease-resistant they make rose growing suddenly easy for everyone. If your garden is smaller, you need color in the front of your beds, or perhaps spilling over a wall, then plant the Drift Roses. These beauties come from France, and they capture the old-world charm of bunches of miniature flowers on sprawling bushes. They are completely modern, though, in their ability to resist diseases and keep on blooming all summer long.

Bring Out Your Houseplants

Sitting in the garden on a hot summer’s day can feel like a holiday in the tropics, and you can enhance that feeling by bringing your houseplants and palm trees outdoors, to give a tropical feel to your terrace or patio. With their big, bold foliage, houseplants of all kinds outdoors will make you feel you have moved to an island paradise, and your plants will thank you too. While there is no risk of frost, an outdoor vacation for your house-bound plants will revive them after a winter indoors, and allow birds and larger insects to clean up any pest problems for you too. Give them regular fertilizer while they are outside, and when it comes time to bring them in again, you will be amazed at how strong and healthy they have become.

Bring Lots of Color to Your Summer Garden syndicated from https://www.thetreecenter.com

[mpullmanlaw]

Dramatic Vertical Garden Accents

When organizing the layout of plants in your garden, making the best and most exciting arrangement you can is the key to making the ordinary look extraordinary. Most plants are basically rounded, and the eye tends to pass quickly over them. What gets our attention is vertical lines. There are quite a few plants that are upright, and even narrow, but there are some that are incredibly narrow – exciting accents that really lift your planting arrangements. These powerful verticals stop the eye, and make us take more time viewing the garden. When we take time, the experience is more satisfying, we find the garden more interesting, and judge it as high quality. So adding these strong verticals to your garden is an important way of lifting an otherwise ordinary planting to another level.

These narrow plants are also excellent ways to fill awkward corners of the garden – those small spaces that need something tall, but where there is little room for width. Rather than plant some unsuitable tree, choose a very narrow plant, and you will never be faced with constant trimming and a plant that is always in the way.

Another valuable place for these plants is on either side of doorways and entrances, or lined up along a driveway. A pair or an avenue of vertical accents brings class and quality to the simplest yard, and makes the potentially ordinary suddenly very special.

The classic way to make verticals is through clipping plants that are already upright, into even tighter forms. But that takes time, and the look is more ‘formal’, not necessarily the casual look we often try achieve today. There are however some plants that are naturally very upright, and that fill the need for dramatic verticals, so let’s take a look at some of the best ones.

Plants for Vertical Accents in the Garden:

Skyrocket Juniper – hardy, drought-resistant, and a strong vertical line

Blue Italian Cypress – great choice in warmer areas for a classic exclamation-mark tree

Sky Pencil Holly – a perfect narrow evergreen that grows well in shade and is ideal when you need something smaller

Weeping Giant Sequoia – a powerful vertical tree. Weeping side branches make every tree is a unique individual

Weeping Alaskan Cedar – remarkable cascading branches from a cold-hardy tree with a super-narrow profile

Skyrocket Juniper

When the Skyrocket Juniper, Juniperus scopulorum ‘Skyrocket’, was first made available to gardeners in the 1960s, it caused a sensation, and its popularity has never diminished since then. Growing 10 to 20 feet tall, it never exceeds 2 or perhaps 3 feet in width, without any clipping needed at all. With an annual trimming, 12 inches wide and 10 feet tall is easy. This powerful garden exclamation mark has dense foliage in a beautiful silver-blue color, and it is not only winter hardy to minus 30, it is drought and heat resistant too, so it grows almost anywhere. It also works well in a large pot, so it can be used on a terrace or patio. This plant is the simplest way to create an eye-catching accent in your garden, and with its rapid growth, it has to be the number one choice.

Blue Italian Cypress

This rare blue version of the classic Italian cypress is a knockout tree that brings a powerful vertical into any garden in warmer regions. Hailing from the Mediterranean, the Blue Italian Cypress, Cupressus sempervirens ‘Glauca’, may one day reach 80 feet, but it will never be more than 6 feet wide. Drought-resistant and tough, this is a ‘no problems’ way to make a strong vertical statement, or frame an entrance with classic beauty.

Sky Pencil Holly

Many vertical trees grow tall, too big for smaller gardens, but the Sky Pencil Holly is more modest, while still making a bold vertical statement. This selected form of Japanese Holly, lex crenata, found on a sacred mountain in Japan, grows just 8 or 10 feet tall, but it is never more than 2 feet wide. It can easily be clipped to keep it smaller, and it has the added bonus of growing well in partial shade. As a single specimen, as a pair flanking an entrance, or planted in a row as a brilliant narrow screen, this versatile and easy to grow plant should be in every garden.

Weeping Giant Sequoia

While the plants we have looked at so far give us a clear vertical, there are other trees that are vertical, but with additional features, like weeping side branches. The Weeping Giant Sequia, Sequoiadendron giganteum ‘Pendulum’, is one of these, and this really is a ravishing, stand-out tree that will turn heads. It grows to about 25 feet tall, and has a strong central trunk, with a long curtain of weeping branches cascading from it. They fall directly downwards, so even at full height the tree is never more than 3 or 4 feet wide. A tree with personality in spades, each one is unique in the way it grows and develops. You can help give it even more character with staking and selective pruning, but it will always stand out as a dramatic vertical. This is an easily grown tree that certainly looks very special. It is a unique form of the remarkable California Redwood, or ‘Big Tree’ – which makes it an even more interesting talking point when your friends come around to admire it.

Weeping Alaskan Cedar

While the California Redwood needs milder conditions, there is another vertical tree that combines cascading branches with a narrow, upright form. This is the Weeping Alaskan Cedar, Cupressus nootkatensis ‘Green Arrow’, which is hardy right the way into zone 4. It will grow 20 to 40 feet tall, yet it stays just a few feet tall. Over time it develops a broader ‘skirt’ of weeping branches, which can be left to spread outwards if you have room, or trimmed as needed to keep that narrow shape right to the ground.

In Closing. . .

By adding one or more of these strongly vertical trees to your garden, you will be growing a unique specimen, especially if you choose those weeping vertical forms of Sequoia or Alaskan Cedar. These trees make all-important accents, that turn your ordinary planting into something special. Leave them out, and your garden will be less than it could be – and we always want to strive for the best.

Dramatic Vertical Garden Accents syndicated from https://www.thetreecenter.com

[mpullmanlaw]

Hydrangea – Queen of the Shade

Almost every garden has shade – and even if it begins as sunny, once trees and large shrubs develop, shady areas are almost inevitable. We can treat shade in two ways, as a problem, or as an opportunity. Once we see it as an opportunity to grow plants that prefer or even require shade, a whole world opens up to us. Once we start looking for shade-loving plants, hydrangeas immediately stand out, not just for shade tolerance, but for spectacular and colorful late blooming, when many other plants have finished flowering, and the garden has taken on the green tones of summer. There are several groups of hydrangeas, to suit our needs and particularly where we live. Some lucky gardeners can grow them all, so let’s take a look.

Mophead Hydrangea

Mop Head Hydrangeas are classic shade-loving plants, extensively bred from a Chinese species called Hydrangea macrophylla. Most of them grow to a decent size of 4, 5 or even 6 feet tall, and the same across. Some varieties are smaller, especially those that grow and flower in colder areas, but all are worthwhile shrubs for those shady parts of the garden. With their spectacularly large flower heads in shades of red, pink, white, mauve or blue, they bring rich colors to the garden just at the time when other plants have finished flowering, and the heat of summer draws us into the shade – where we find our hydrangeas in full fancy dress. These easy to grow plants are attractive for months on end. As soon as the buds open in spring, there is something very satisfying about the large, rich-green leaves, and the rounded structure of the bush. It is not long before we see the first signs of the year’s floral display, as dense clusters of pale green baby flowers start to show at the ends of the developing stems. These steadily expand over late spring and early summer, in shades of fashionable pastel green, until they are the size of an outspread hand. If this was all they did we would be satisfied with these elegant domes of pale green.

Of course, that is not where they end, because soon we see the first hints of color around the edges of the petals in these clusters of many flowers, and soon enough, now that summer is well-developed, they transform into hemispheres of deep, rich color, depending on the varieties you choose to grow. The exact color varies with the soil they are growing in, but with most hydrangeas the colors are always beautiful. On alkaline soils, choose pinks, reds and white, like the Cardinal Red Hydrangea. On acid soils you can grow blue hydrangeas, and the best all-round choice is Nikko Blue, which is the most reliable one for keeping its special color in a wide range of soils.

By the time that first color appears, the domes of flowers will be a full 8 inches across, and often larger, and they cover the bush, at the ends of almost every branch. These mounds of beauty bring glorious color to the shady parts of the garden, and continues right into early fall. As the color fades, the flower clusters still remain, turning back to green, and ultimately a soft, pale brown. In milder areas, these heads remain attractive well into winter, before it is time to prune our bushes in preparation for the next year’s glorious display.

Panicle Hydrangea

The big limitation with mophead hydrangeas is that most are only hardy to zone 6, so that leaves a lot of the country outside their territory. For those who live in colder areas, the best choice is Endless Summer, which will be pink or blue, depending on the soil. It flowers late in the season, on new shoots that grow even when the main branches are killed by frost.

For a bigger range – and bigger shrubs too, the panicle hydrangea, Hydrangea paniculata, has a lot to offer, especially since breeders in recent years have extended the range of colors available. These hardy plants will grow happily in chilly zone 3, so there are few places they won’t thrive. Even if you live in zone 8, you can enjoy them alongside your Mopheads. They will grow into tall shrubs 8 feet or even more in height, and their size can be controlled by pruning. Since they flower on new shoots, then can be pruned as hard as you want, and they will still produce their spectacular cone-shaped flower clusters over summer and into fall. The traditional color was only one, white, which is still a great option, but breeding has brought us attractive lime-greens, such as Limelight, and dusky reds, like the gorgeous Ruby Slippers. If such a large shrub is too much for your garden, then consider the Little Lime Hydrangea, like a miniature Limelight, and more suited to smaller spaces, or as a gorgeous low hedge.

Annabelle Hydrangea

If you live in cold places, but hanker after that classic mophead shape, rather than the cones of the panicle hydrangea, then the Annabelle Hydrangea is for you. This plant, hardy to zone 3, is a selection of another species called Hydrangea arborescens. It is best pruned to the ground each spring, and it will rapidly come back to 3 or even 4 feet tall, topped with snow-white balls of blossom, that color as the cold arrives, turning beautiful shades of pink and then red. Cut while still colorful, and hung up to dry, they hold their color indoors all winter – a reminder of the beauty of the summer garden.

Blue Hydrangea

If you feel overwhelmed by a shady garden, take heart in the wonderful range of hydrangeas you can grow, no matter where you live. If you hanker after blue, but don’t have acid soil, you can still enjoy them by growing in pots. Large tubs of hydrangea are great for decorating a shady terrace, and with the use of the right types of special fertilizers and water treatments, which you can pick up at any garden center, it is easy to keep the flowers blue, and enjoy that stunning color, no matter what kind of soil you garden on.

Hydrangea – Queen of the Shade syndicated from https://www.thetreecenter.com

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Basic Care of Houseplants

Bringing living green inside your house is a great way to improve your indoor space. Not only do plants add that special something to your rooms, softening the sharp angles of furniture, and filling corners effectively, but multiple studies have shown their amazing ability to remove polluting chemicals from the air. With plants in it, the air inside your home will be cleaner, and be more humid, so that causes of allergies and asthma are removed. All your family will enjoy the healthier environment houseplants create.

Sometimes people are put off the idea of growing plants indoors, but it is not difficult. If you match the plant to the spot you want to grow it in, and give them some very basic care, plants will respond by thriving indoors, and you will easily enjoy all the benefits they bring. So here are some basic principles to follow that will make houseplants a joy to share your space with.

Basic Care of Houseplants:

Match the plant to the light

Use a suitable container and growing medium

Give the right amount of water

Remember to feed your plants

Watch for pests

Match the Plant to the Available Light

Light is a basic requirement of plants – their green leaves make food for them when they are in light – but plants vary in how much they need. Consider the light levels in the spot you want a plant before you buy it – this is much easier than trying to find a suitable location for a plant you already have. We can divide houseplants into three broad groups, depending on how much light they need.

Some need direct sun for at least part of the day, for example, the Ponytail Palm, which is also very drought tolerant. Because these spots are not very common in many homes, most plants grown indoors prefer bright, indirect light, and the majority  thrive in those conditions, so your choices are wide open. Areca Palm and the Weeping Fig Tree are both plants that do best in bright light, but not in direct sun. Our choices are more limited when we have darker corners, but plants like the Dwarf Date Palm, or the Madagascar Dragon Tree are good choices for those spots. Read the descriptions of the plants carefully, and choose accordingly.

Use a Suitable Container and Soil

The most important single thing to get right for your houseplants is to use a container with at least one drainage hole. It can be plastic or clay, plain or decorative, but that drainage hole is vital. If water cannot flow out of the pot, your plant can easily drown, and even if you do manage to avoid that, the minerals from water and fertilizer will gradually built up, making it harder and harder for the plants to take up water, and causing the tips of the leaves to wither and brown.

Every time you water, give enough so that some flows out the drainage hole – this prevents mineral build-up. Except for a few water-loving plants, like Papyrus for example, never leave a plant sitting in a saucer of water. If the pot you want to use has no drainage, no problem – find a plain plastic pot that will fit inside it and plant in that. If you put a couple of inches of gravel in the bottom of the outer pot, the drainage water will go there, meaning you don’t have to keep emptying the outer pot. As that water evaporates, it makes humidity around the plant (and in your home) which is always a good thing.

Always use a prepared potting soil for your plants, not garden soil. These soils are designed to both hold water and let air into the soil – garden soil is too heavy and dense to do that when put into a pot. If your plant needs to dry out between watering, a soil for Cactus and Succulents can be an appropriate choice, otherwise use one for indoor foliage plants.

Give the Right Amount of Water

Most houseplants suffer or die from too much water, not too little, so always be cautious about watering. This doesn’t mean just give a little. You should always water thoroughly, until some comes out of the drainage hole, every time you water. No, the secret is to let the soil dry enough between each watering. As a general rule, let the top quarter of the pot dry – the upper few inches. Look carefully at the directions for growing your chosen plant, because some plants like to dry out more, perhaps for three-quarters of the pot, and for some, letting them dry completely is best. If your plant is one that needs to dry right out, then using clay pots rather than plastic will speed up the drying, so they don’t sit in wet soil too long. Using that Cactus soil will also benefit plants that prefer to be mostly dry.

In winter light levels are lower generally, so plants will grow very little. While in this state they can’t use water, so always keep your plants drier in winter than at other times. If a plant normally needs water when the top couple of inches are dry, then in winter make that the top 5 or 6 inches instead.

Remember to Feed your Plants

Just because houseplants might grow more slowly than those outdoors, doesn’t mean they don’t need some feeding. Many plants languish in a corner, with yellow leaves, because they don’t get enough to eat. Use a general-purpose liquid fertilizer for foliage houseplants, and only feed in spring and summer. Unless you are watering more than once a week, use fertilizer at every watering, but make it half the recommended strength. Don’t overwater just because you think it is needed – always fit it into your regular watering routine.

Watch for Pests

Most popular houseplants are relatively pest and disease-proof, and almost all the problems that might develop are from light or watering issues. But pests can sometimes develop too. Regular misting with water, and washing the foliage, are good ways to reduce the risk of pests – taking your plants into the shower, and giving them a good cold wash is a great thing to do every few weeks. Learn the early signs of the most likely pests, as they are much easier to control early on, than if you wait for them to reproduce and spread.

  Houseplants are always a splendid feature in a room, and if you follow these basic rules you will find them easy to grow. Once you get hooked you will find you are soon living in an indoor jungle of your own creation!

Basic Care of Houseplants syndicated from https://www.thetreecenter.com

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Where Do New Plant Varieties Come From?

When we look at the huge range of different trees and shrubs available for our gardens, we take it as a given that something new is always coming along – the latest variety of rose, like the arrival of the Knockout Rose, or the exciting twice-blooming Encore Azaleas. Like the latest models of our phones and computers, we see this as a normal thing, and rarely ask ourselves where these plants come from. Unlike that new phone, almost all were certainly not invented and developed by applying the latest technological thinking – although a few do involve innovative techniques. The vast majority of new plants we have came about in exactly the same way they always have, by the careful and time-consuming process of searching for variations among many individual plants.

What is a Plant Variety?

Even this term can cause confusion. All living things on the planet belong to individual species – natural groups of similar individuals who breed together, or at least could do so. These are the things that have those double-barreled names in Latin, like Quercus rubra, for the red oak. Species can cover large areas of a country, or even of the globe, and of course the individuals closest together are the ones breeding together. This can lead to local variations in size, leaf color, flowers, and other minor changes that may lead botanists to call one of these different local groups a variety. These names have the abbreviation ‘var.’ in them, like Quercus rubra var. ambigua. This is a local, slightly different red oak growing wild in the north-east. Occasional individual plants found with some minor difference are sometimes called forma, abbreviated to ‘f.’, such as Quercus rubra f. juvenilis. Many of these variety and form names are today considered confusing and unnecessary. Often they have been absorbed back into the main species name. All 29 different varieties and forms of red oak that have been named are now generally considered to just be the one, same species – red oak.

What is interesting about these botanical varieties is that they show us how different one individual plant can be from another. Gardeners may not notice this, because when we buy a dozen of the same plant, they are often literally the same plant, just turned into new individuals by growing them from cuttings or grafting. Seedling plants, on the other hand, are always going to be different from their parents, just as our children are different from us. That natural variation is the source of almost all of our ‘garden varieties’ of plants, which we should, to be precise, call a cultivar. This useful term makes it easy for us to distinguish natural, botanical varieties from specially selected garden forms, and is the word used by most professional landscapers and designers. Cultivar names are those names in single quotes after the Latin name, like Quercus rubra ‘Splendens’, a tree with exceptional fall color.

Finding New, Interesting Plants

When we look closely at many plants, all of the same species, grown from seed, we see these individual variations. Some might be interesting enough, a different flower color for instance, that we want to grow them in our gardens. Almost every garden variety is just that – an unusual individual picked out from a large group of seedlings. These might have come to us by several different routes:

Found growing in the wild – if you spend a lot of time wandering the hills or forests, looking at plants, once in a while you will find on that is interestingly different. Bring it home, grow some new plants from it, and you have a new cultivar you are free to name after your spouse, your dog or yourself. If other gardeners agree with you, it could go on to be widely grown.

Found in a batch of seedlings – this is probably the most common way cultivars come about. Someone grew some seedlings of a particular plant, and one individual plant stood out as different, and was ‘taken aside’, reproduced, tested and named. This could have been a deliberate attempt to make something new, but often it is just chance – and a sharp eye.

Increasing the Chances of Variation

These natural variations are very rare, and hard to find – you might need to grow thousands and thousands of plants to find just one. So to increase the chances, plant breeders create hybrids. These are plants that come from the transfer of pollen to seed between two plants of two different species, almost always between plants of the same genus. The genus is the first word of the two-word Latin name, for example, Quercus. In animals this is very rare, but in plants it is much more common, so for example there is the Bimundors Oak, a hybrid between White Oak and English Oak, grown for its profuse acorn crop for wildlife. It has an ‘x’ in the name, to show its hybrid origin, so it is Quercus x bimundorum, although it might also have been called Quercus alba x robur.

Once you hybridize two different species, you release a flood of variation, and every seedling from the same cross is often different and interesting enough to end up being a new cultivar. These hybrids could be accidental, such as the cross that gave us the Leyland Cypress, or it could be deliberate, from the hand of an amateur or professional plant breeder.

Sometimes, to increase the chances of getting something specific, breeders use already-existing cultivars, and they can get several worthwhile new plants from the batch of seeds from a single crossing. For example, in the Girl Series of Magnolias, six of the eight cultivars in the series, all with differently colored flowers, came from a single cross between a flower of Magnolia liliiflora ‘Nigra’ and a flower of Magnolia stellata ‘Rosea’. Mind you, the breeders still had to grow hundreds of seedlings to flowering size – a wait that typically takes about 10 years for magnolias. If not happy with the results, its back to the greenhouse. No wonder we value our magnolia cultivars!

Now the Ball is Rolling

Once you have a supply of different cultivars and hybrids to work with, you can really go to town, as for example rose breeders do. By making many different crosses between existing interesting plants, and maybe bringing in some new, rare species as well, breeders get hundreds of different new plants. A good ‘eye’ is important, as a seedling with its first bloom can be unimpressive, but if potential is seen it will be grown for a few years to test it out, and could soon be for sale on a website near you. After a while, showing in the name where it came from gets too complex, so with groups of plants that have many different cultivars involving many species, we keep it simple and just call the new plant Rosa ‘Peace’, or whatever name it has been given. Hopefully somewhere there will be a record of the details.

All this work by dedicated plant breeders over the last decades and centuries has given us thousands of plants to choose from. When we grow them, let’s spare a thought for those breeders and selectors, and the legacy of their work to bring so much beauty and joy into our gardens.

Where Do New Plant Varieties Come From? syndicated from https://www.thetreecenter.com

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Understanding Shade in the Garden

When choosing plants for the garden, the words shade-tolerant, or grows in shade are regularly seen. The true situation with shade is a little more complicated than that, and a better understanding of the various kinds of shade found in gardens is helpful in making good choices, and avoiding costly failures. Let’s think about the different kinds of shade, and their impacts on the growth of plants.

The Different Kinds of Garden Shade

Shade from Buildings – supports a wide range of plants

Shade from Deciduous Trees – easier place to grow many plants

Shade from Evergreens – too dense and permanent for most plants

Deep, Dry Shade – hard for almost all plants to survive in

Shade from Buildings

This kind of shade is the most forgiving, and the easiest to find plants for. A wide range of plants will grow well in areas shaded for all or part of the day by a shadow from a house or taller building. The primary reason for this is that the sky overhead is not obstructed, so plants still receive a full spectrum of light, containing all the wavelengths needed for growth. The only difference is that the light is less intense, so some plants will grow more slowly, or with more open growth and fewer leaves, as they adapt themselves to the lower light levels.

When looking at the areas in your garden that are shaded by buildings, it is important to look at the right time of year. The critical periods for most plants are equinox to equinox – March 21 to September 21. This is the growing and flowering season, and shade when they are dormant, and probably with no leaves, is not very important. As the year progresses to the mid-summer solstice, the sun rises higher in the sky each day. The length of a shadow at noon becomes shorter and shorter. So if you can, notice where the shade reaches to around one or other of those dates – it will be the same for both. Anywhere inside that area should be considered partially-shaded, although in June some of it will be in full-sun. Any plant that needs sun or partial shade will thrive in that zone.

Shade from Deciduous Trees

For many gardeners, these areas have a lot to offer, particularly in the trees are mature, with high branches, and spaced widely apart. Although you will need to do some good soil preparation, and attend to watering in the summer, with that done you can grow a wide range of shade-loving plants. From Japanese maples to camellias, and including all the different rhododendrons and azaleas, many shrubs and smaller trees that naturally grow beneath larger trees will love this area. Because the big trees leaf-out a little later, there is a sunny window of opportunity for short-lived spring plants, and early-blooming shrubs, to flower and grow before the full shade of summer arrives.

The shade from deciduous trees has been filtered – some of the wavelengths needed for plant growth has already been removed when passing through the leaves. This gives the light that magical ‘woodland’ quality, but it does make it harder for plants not adapted to woodlands to survive. Because of that, plants chosen for these areas need to be shade-loving, or enjoy dappled shade, and while many sun-loving plants will survive in building shade, they usually won’t in the shade beneath trees.

Shade from Evergreens

Evergreens, like Spruce, Fir, or large evergreen trees like southern magnolia, all present gardeners with more problems. Because they throw shade all year, that spring window of opportunity is gone, and the shade itself is often much denser, making the light-levels very low. Some evergreens, particularly most pine trees, do cast much lighter shade, and many plants that grow beneath deciduous trees will also grow beneath pines. They are much more ‘garden friendly’ than most other evergreens.

If the evergreens are some distance away, so that the garden area is open to the sky above, then it will be much the same as building shade, and allow a broad range of plants to grow. It is when the area is directly underneath the branches that problems arise. Some plants, like Japanese holly, Oregon grape, cherry laurel and sacred bamboo will grow in these locations, and are some of the best choices to go directly underneath those evergreen trees. Plants need to be described as grows in full shade to do well

The best approach is to keep evergreens with their branches right to the ground for as long as possible. Plant them where you won’t need to trim them up for access, and trim some of the upper branches so the lower ones stay alive. That way you won’t have the problem of planting beneath them to deal with at all.

Deep, Dry Shade

Here we are talking about those areas where thickly branched evergreens come down to within a few feet of the ground, yet the soil beneath is bare of anything green. Because of the overhead coverage, a lot of rain never even reaches the ground, so the area is both dry and dark. This is the hardest location to successfully plant, particularly if you cannot keep a steady supply of water coming. The best choices are periwinkle, big-root geranium and Japanese spurge, planted in big groups to fill the spaces, especially close around the tree trunks. Further out you will be more successful with a wider range of plants. Some gardeners just screen the area off with some taller shrubs planted further away, and hide the gap altogether.

  You may think you have a shady garden, where not much will grow. Now you can go out and analyze that shade more carefully, taking note of what kinds you have. With that knowledge, you can make good choices of plants, and you will probably find you have a lot more options that you thought. A lot of very attractive plants grow best in certain kinds of shade, and without it our gardens would not be so varied and beautiful.

Understanding Shade in the Garden syndicated from https://www.thetreecenter.com

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Fir Trees – An Attractive Alternative to Spruce

In colder areas, spruce trees are a common sight, and they are widely used in landscaping. Despite their beauty, the fact that they are so widely used can make them slightly boring options. Their value as screens or specimens can certainly not be underestimated, but sometimes we yearn for something different. If you are looking for a hardy, attractive specimen evergreen for a lawn, or something tough to make a privacy screen or wind-break, and spruce leaves you cold, consider the fir trees, a group that contains some magnificent evergreens every bit as useful as the common spruce.

Get to know Fir Trees

Fir trees are conifers – needle trees that are almost all evergreen. They can be found all around the Northern Hemisphere, usually in colder areas, and on mountain slopes. They typically have a strong central trunk, with branches radiating out all around the trunk, and many can potentially grow to great heights, well over 100 feet tall. Since it takes many decades to reach such heights, in practice in gardens they are often much smaller than in the wild, and many selected garden forms stay usefully small enough to fit medium-sized gardens.

It can sometimes be difficult at first glance to distinguish fir trees from other similar conifers – like spruce trees. If the tree you see has cones on it, then the task is made very easy indeed. Fir trees are unique in having cones that sit upright on the branches, not hanging as they do in all other similar trees. They sit proudly upright, even when they are large, sometimes 6 or 8 inches long. They are also often attractive colors – green, brown, purple or blue. As well, behave differently when they ripen. Instead of falling to the ground intact, they break up on the tree into flat, scaly seeds, which blow away in the wind.

If there are no cones, it is still pretty easy to decide, ‘Ah, fir tree.’ Take a look at the needles on the stems. In fir trees they are always flattened, not round, and they usually end in a notch, not a point. They are also commonly, but not always, arranged in two rows along both sides of the stem, in the manner of a double-sided comb. Even if that is not very obvious, the lower needles often curve upwards, so that they do not radiate out uniformly around the stem. Looking for these things will usually give you a good idea if a certain tree is a fir.

Fir Trees for the Garden

There are around 50 species of fir trees, but only a handful are commonly found in gardens, and many of the species differ only in ways a botanist would find interesting. They are grouped together based on where they come from, with an important group from Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, another from North America and Asia, and another from the western USA, Mexico, and in mountains into Central America. Let us look at some of the more interesting ones for gardens.

Balsam Fir

This tree, called Abies balsamea, is the work horse in the group, and it is sadly overplanted as a rather dull, dark-green screening plant. As a garden feature we can quickly pass it by, even though if you want a tough, cold-resistant screening tree, and don’t care much about appearance, it certainly fits the bill.

Spanish Fir

This tree tells a very different story to the Balsam Fir. Coming from southern Spain and northern Morocco, this handsome tree, Abies pinsapo, has been developed for gardens into several different attractive forms. It rapidly grows into a beautiful, densely-clothed upright tree of perfect conical form. Older trees have large cones of a rich purple color, and best of all, there is an award-winning blue form, ‘Glauca’, called the Blue Spanish Fir.  It is hardy from zone 6 south, and is far superior in every way to the common Blue Spruce. Its rich blue foliage must be seen to be believed, and the tree will stay clothed to the ground in a full circle of branches for decades. If you have a good-sized lawn needing a specimen tree, you cannot go wrong with this selection.

If blue is not your thing, then consider the golden form of this tree, the Golden Spanish Fir, Abies pinsapo ‘Aurea’. Unlike most other conifers with golden foliage, this tree holds it golden color all year, never turning green, which makes it very special. It is also much smaller than the blue form, only reaching 15 feet, or eventually 25 feet in height. If you have a smaller space to fill, give this one some serious thought.

Korean Fir

From a different group of fir trees from Asia, the Korean Fir, Abies koreana, stands out. This one is much hardier, all the way into Zone 4, and it revels in snow and cold winters. It has the added benefit of also growing well in partial shade, unlike almost all other conifers, so it is very versatile around the garden. An outstanding smaller form is the Silver Curls Korean Fir, with the tongue-twisting name of ‘Horstmann’s Silberlocke’, which is one of the richest blue conifers available. It is also special among firs for producing its purple cones from a very early age, when just 3 or 4 years old. So even a very young tree will show them, contrasting beautifully with the rich blue foliage.

Colorado White Fir

This all-American tree hails from the Rocky Mountains and through the western ranges. It is widely considered to be the most elegant and dramatic of all the larger fir trees, growing 40 feet tall or more in time. For a larger garden, as a specimen, or to plant along the boundary of your property, this outstanding tree is an excellent choice. Known as Abies concolor, because the needles are the same color on both sides, it is hardy even in bone-chilling zone 3, making it an excellent choice if you garden in the Midwest or the north. In fact, it will not grow well south of zone 7, so you can only see it in colder areas – a special treat for northerners.

  All in all, fir trees have a lot to offer, with remarkable foliage color and dramatic cones. If you are looking for evergreens to bring something different from the usual choices, then one or other of these interesting trees will certainly bring you just what you need.

Fir Trees – An Attractive Alternative to Spruce syndicated from https://www.thetreecenter.com

[mpullmanlaw]

Plants for Early Spring Blooming

At this time of year, we look anxiously for the beginning of spring, especially those of us who live in cold areas, where April is merely the month when all the snow finally disappears. We might take a walk around our neighborhoods and see plants in bloom, but when we come back through the gate our own gardens can be sadly lacking. If that sounds like you, then some inspiration is needed, so here are some ideas for plants you can use to get the season off to a flying start.

A key method to getting the best garden is to systematically choose plants for different seasons, not just the ones that catch your eye at some moment. It is easy to ‘do’ late spring and early summer – that time has the greatest number of plants blooming, and we are all enthusiastic to get into our gardens. The garden centers are packed with plants, but they choose mostly those in flower at the time, because they sell best. If we do the annual shopping spree, and stop there, then we will inevitably end up with a garden that is wildly colorful in May and June, and plain green the rest of the time.

A much better approach is to stand back a little, and deliberately look for plants that bloom very early, as well as ones for summer and fall. Do that, and you will always have something interesting and colorful going on in your garden – adding to the pleasure and enjoyment you get from your private space. So here are some shrubs that bloom early in spring – in March or April mostly, depending on where you live. These are roughly in order, with the very earliest first.

Shrubs for the Earliest Spring Blossoms

Redbud – spectacular purple-pink early flowering

Forsythia – a garden classic in yellow, that never lets us down

Serviceberry – a pure-white beacon among the sleeping trees

Magnolia – giant blooms on bare branches

Redbud

There are two redbud trees – the Western Redbud, Cercis occidentalis, and the Eastern Redbud, Cercis canadensis. Both look very much the same, but the Western Redbud grows best in drier, warmer places, and the eastern one grows best in cooler, damper areas. The flowering of these small trees is nothing short of spectacular, and they bloom very early, usually while the rest of the trees are still bare. Their brilliant purple-pink flowers glow in the spring sunshine, and really turn heads. For the rest of the year they have attractive, heart-shaped leaves, and in winter the graceful, twisted branches bring beauty too.

Forsythia

In colder areas especially, this plant is well-known for heralding the spring. Before anything else has begun to grow, the clusters of buds along the bare stems of Forsythia are swelling and bursting, pushing bright-yellow blossoms out until the whole bush glows with gold. It will grow well in partial shade, and in any kind of soil, so this is also an effortless way to start the season with a bang. If you live in zone 4, choose the Lynwood Gold Forsythia, as this is the hardiest. With some others, the flower buds can be killed in the winter months. The plants themselves still grow well, but you rarely see blooms, which can be confusing. Stick to a reliable, cold-hardy variety like Lynwood Gold, and you will never be disappointed by non-flowering Forsythia. If you are in zone 5 or warmer, your choices are greater, and the Show Off Forsythia is an especially good pick. Unlike other varieties, that can grow very large, this one never grows above 6 feet tall, and it is always covered in bloom from top to bottom.

If you become too impatient by February or March for a taste of spring, venture out into the garden and cut a few branches from your Forsythia. Indoors, in a vase of water, they will quickly open their flowers and give you a brilliant taste of what is to come.

Serviceberry

This tree, Amelanchier, is another super-early bloomer. On this upright, vase-shaped shrub or small tree, trusses of white blooms will quickly come out as soon as the coldest weather is over. They glow in the spring light, and set against the smooth, pale-gray bark, they are a vision in white. Later the berries themselves will develop, and these make excellent pies and jams. This is a real two-for-one plant that should be in every northern garden.

Magnolia

Close behind these early harbingers of spring are the magnolia blossoms. There are two kinds of magnolia, the southern evergreen one and the deciduous ones. While the southerners wait for summer, the others are so eager to go that the blooms come out before the leaves, smothering the branches of these wonderful trees in huge, cup-shaped blooms in pink, white and purple, often with several shades on a single flower. Depending on where you live, your trees will start to bloom in February, March, April or early May, but they will always be among the earliest flowers in your garden – and among the most spectacular too.

There are many to choose from, but northern gardeners will be very interested in the ‘Girl Series’, developed at the National Arboretum specifically to flower well even in zone 4. They all have girl’s name, and ‘Jane’, ‘Betty’ and ‘Randy’ all bloom in shades of pink, with the Randy Magnolia the most purple, while the Betty Magnolia is more reddish. Magnolias are surprisingly fast growing, and they soon make good-sized small trees, so allow enough room for them to develop. Ones planted on the south-side of your house will bloom about a week earlier than ones in the open garden, and the leaves will shade your windows in summer, which is always a good thing.

  Whatever early blooming trees and shrubs you choose – and maybe you will plant them all – remember to keep them regularly watered during the first season or two. Mulching with some rich organic material in spring will conserve moisture and also feed the plants, knowing they will look more and more beautiful as each spring arrives again.

Plants for Early Spring Blooming syndicated from https://www.thetreecenter.com