Trees in my Landscape

As I look out my window today the ground is a tapestry of beige, green and white. The meadow grasses have died back, but the lawn is a brilliant green because it has loved this long cool, but not frozen, autumn and there are still patches, large and small, of the snow that keeps tantalizing us. Winter may be coming, but it is shy this year, stepping out and then retreating.

The winter garden can be a challenge for gardeners, but today I am looking at the trees in my landscape. Two are particularly important to me. Right next to the Cottage Ornee is an ancient apple tree. Even when we first moved here over the 30 years ago, the tree had been damaged. The main trunk had begun to rot and to hollow out. By the time we had young grandsons there was enough room to allow them to slide down the interior of the trunk from the tree house to the ground. I want you to know we did not encourage this pasttime, but their mischief did not seem to damage the tree.

Over the years it has lost two great sections to ice. Again and again we thought irreparable damage was being done, but the apple tree carries on, blooming every spring, dropping immature fruit on the metal roof of the Cottage all summer and giving me enough apples for applesauce every fall. In the winter it is a veritable sculpture.

The other tree stands alone in a field to the west of the house. This is an old yellow birch, with a graceful spreading shape. This tree is noble  in every season and every weather. I have taken hundreds of photos of it veiled with the earliest spring green, throwing deep shade in summer, nearly hidden in autumnal mists, and a crystal vision, encased in winter’s ice and frost.

October 18, 2011

We have planted trees for our daughters and grandchildren. For the girls we chose lindens (Tilia cordata) but they have not faired well. Only our daughter Diane’s linden, and her daughter Caitlin’s remain, both have suffered greatly, but so far these two are surviving. I enjoy lime flower tea which is actually made of linden flowers. Every winter I promise myself I will harvest the small fragrant linden flowers but so far I have not done so. Next spring I am sure I will absolutely pay attention to bloom and harvest time.

We planted gingko trees in the Lawn Beds for our five grandsons, in their honor, but also in memory of our China sojourns. One of the five trees did not last long, but the other four have done well over the past 13 years. The boys are growing tall, but not as tall as their trees. Those trees do remind us of how quickly time passes, and how brief is childhood.

People always ask me about the foul smelling fruit ginkgos produce. We have not had to worry about this, and probably never will. First you need to have male and female ginkgos; at the moment we do not know the sex of our trees. In addition, the female trees do not bloom or produce fruit until they are mature, which we think will be sometime after our time on this earth.

Recently I wrote about the Harvard Forest. Since then I have been paying more attention to my own woodland. At the edge of our west field is a white pine woods. I knew that the pines had crept east into a southern slope that is not really visible from the house, but all of a sudden I realize that the pines are also creeping east and north. Soon I will have an ever larger ‘old field white pine’ forest.

After getting snowed in a couple of times during our early days at the end of the road we took the advice of our elderly neighbor Mabel Vreeland and planted a snowbreak along the road. The oldest of those trees, mostly white pine, but with a few Scotch pine and balsams, are now over 25 years old. We admire them from our dining table window, and give thanks for them all winter long. The road crew appreciates them too. No longer do winters snows drift six feet deep over the road.

We purposely over planted so that we would be able to take out our Christmas tree every year. This has resulted in some Charlie Brown Christmas trees, but we think ours all have an inner beauty, even if it is not apparent to others.

I think trees are an important part of our domestic landscape. They can offer shelter and food for birds, cooling shade for our house in summer, and protection from the wind in winter. It just takes a little planning.

What about the trees in your landscape? Do you have a grove? A ribbon of trees between your and your neighbor? Do you have a magnificent specimen? Do your trees carry you back in memory, and into thoughts of a hopeful future?

Will you plant a special tree in 2012? Many trees grow faster than you think, but don’t put off planting your tree. Plant memories and hope this year.

Between the Rows   December 17, 2011

My Moss Garden

Moss on the Piazza

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Winterberry – Ilex verticillata

Winterberry 11-7-11

It was Martha Stewart who first introduced me to winterberry, a native deciduous holly. Since it was Martha who pointed it out in an arrangement I thought it must be exotic, and not something I could grow.  I was wrong.

I did buy and plant five winterberry plants this spring, four female ‘Winter Red,’ and one male ‘Southern Gentleman’, but this photo is of a clump of winterberry growing by the side of the road. Those roadside shrubs are in a damp spot which gives me hope that my new plants will survive even though the weather has been wet and strange  all this season.

It is a joy when a plant like this is a native that supports the native wildlife and is beautiful in  the garden.

A Marital Discussion

American beech

This fall I mentioned to my husband that I was amazed at how many beeches there seemed to be in the woods all of a sudden. How had I not noticed all these beeches before when so many of them grew right along the roadside and still retained their leaves when most of the other deciduous trees were bare. I knew that beeches kept many of their leaves until the old leaves were pushed off by new leaves in the spring. I wrote about beeches here last year.

My husband felt the trees I thought were beeches had simply not lost their leaves yet. Other trees that still had foliage, like the young oak trees along the roadside. He said I needed to pay attention to bark and leaf shape.

Young oak

It is true that there are young oaks along the road, but I KNEW all those other trees were beeches.  What do do? I had to prove my point. I remembered a very nice man I had met at the Conway School of Landscape Design last year, John O’Keefe, newly retired from the Harvard Forest in the eastern part of the state and a part of Harvard University. Just the expert to teach me about beeches. He said I was correct and that the beeches I saw growing in grove-like groups were probably caused by root suckers. A few years ago many beeches were afflicted by beech bark disease. The damage done to the tree caused it to produce these root suckers. He said the only tree that looked anything like the American beech (Fagus grandifolia) was the chestnut and we do not have any of those in our area.

American beech leaf and bud

John O’Keefe also said that the pointed bud is distinctive and an easy and positive identifier. The reason the trees don’t lose their leaves in fall is because they are immature, and it takes the action of a special hormone that tells a tree it is time to let the leaves go.  He said the young oaks are holding on to their leaves for the same reason. They are not mature enough to have the necessary hormones.

In my husband’s defense I have to say that halfway through our discussion I began to realize that he was thinking of the European beech (Fagus sylvatica), a magnificent tree that is the tree used for landscape purposes. We used to dine at the Copper Beech Inn and always admired the glorious tree in front of the restaurant.

I’m glad we straightened that issue out to everyone’s satisfaction.

Good Berry – Bad Berry

Cotoneaster

When I walked through the garden the other day I realized how many red berries I have in the fall. Three years ago I noticed for the first time that my holly, ‘Blue Princess,’ and my cotoneasters had finally started producing berries. That berry production has gotten more prolific and beautiful each year.

Hollies are dioecious plants, which means they need separate male and female plants to cross pollinate and produce fruits. While there are many holly cultivars I chose Ilex x meservae ‘Blue Prince’ and ‘Blue Princess’ because they are among the hardiest of the hollies and ‘Blue Princess’ is considered one of the heaviest berry producers.

Both of these hollies are hardy in Zone 5 which is winter temperatures down to minus 20 degrees. They like moist but well drained acid soil and sun, although they will tolerate some shade. Full sun will give the best berry production. ‘Blue Princess’ and ‘Blue Prince’ will both attain a mature size of about 12 feet or more with a spread of up to ten feet. Fortunately they grow slowly only about six inches a year. In six years my ‘Blue Princess’ grew to about four feet tall and three feet wide. The ‘Blue Prince’ is smaller.

I love being able to prune off a few berry-laden branches for Christmas decorations, but I planted the hollies because I wanted more shrubs in the Lawn Bed. I am not ready to give up perennials, but as I get older I am looking for ways to cut down on the labor of maintaining perennials, dividing and cutting back, and weeding. Shrubs are so various with countless foliage forms, textures and colors, and even colorful blooms and berries that I think they add great richness to the garden.

About the same time  the hollies I planted two cotoneasters as groundcovers to provide a foil for the conifers I had in the Lawn Bed. They don’t grow very tall, only one or two feet for most varieties and the leaves are small and dark green. They are hardy and very attractive in every season.  I couldn’t wait for these to cover the ground individually and planted them much too close together. They have now merged and I’d be hard put to say which is which. One of them produces large quince-like blossoms in the spring. I just learned that the name ‘cotoneaster’ comes from two Latin words meaning similar to quince.

All cotoneasters (cuh-TOE-knee-asters) produce small red berries in the fall which will attract birds, if they are very hungry. They will not attract deer which makes me very happy.

Highbush cranberry

A third red berry that attracts birds in my garden the American highbush cranberry, the native Virburnum trilobum. This shrub is about 12 feet high in my garden and gives me no trouble at all. In the spring it produces flat airy blossoms that contain both fertile and infertile flowers. It is because of the flowers that I planted the highbush cranberry next to the Cottage Ornee. It also has very attractive palmate leaves.

The berries turn red in September and they are really beautiful. The birds love them, but I recently learned that they are not only edible for humans, but that they will make a very nice jelly.The berries are easy to pick because they grow in thick clusters and there are no thorns.

The berries can be harvested as soon as they are red, even though they will be crunchy at first. Freezing them before preparing them for processing will soften them up. I have been told that they taste very much like the cranberries, Vaccinium macrocarpon, that are so indispensable on the Thanksgiving table.

The birds are certainly thankful. Most of my berries, without any help from me, are gone by Thanksgiving.

Autumn olive

While I welcome holly, cotoneaster, and viburnam berries in my garden I have other red berries that are a source of dismay and frustration. The first is autumn olive, Elaeagnus umbellata, which we bought from the Conservation District many years ago. I planted three or four at the edge of the lawn, happy that they were fast growing and produced berries for the birds. They actually produce berries for me too, but I have never used them even though many people cook them up into a jam.

It did not take us long to see that the wind, or the birds, were seeding autumn olive in the field east of our planting. Over the years our planting died out except for one remaining bush. We are trying to eradicate the autumn olives in the east field.

The other dismaying berries are hips of the pasture rose which was here before we bought our house. We are constantly removing these briary, prickery roses and it is a never ending battle. They are very pretty and I have used sprays of their small red hips in holiday decorations, but mostly I arm myself with a heavy shirt and dungarees and leather gloves and try and cut them back at the root. Again and again.

Shrubs that produce beautiful berries give our gardens a long interesting season, and may attract our beloved birds, but if we are wise, we will be careful when we make our choices. We don’t want to invite trouble when we plant for color and for the birds. ###

Between the Rows   October 29, 2011

Country Roads – and Home

And home again.

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Weeded the Piazza

All of a sudden I noticed the moss growing between the pavers on the Piazza in front of our house.

A different moss

Asters for Wildflower Wednesday

Aster patens

Right now the roadsides in our area are blooming with the late purple aster, Aster patens.  I think I have identified this aster properly, although as you can see the color of the blossoms is NOT deep blue violet. The crooked stem aster, Aster prenanthoides, has the more accurate ‘pale violet’ flowers, but not the crooked stem or teeth on the leaves. Can anyone give me a better ID?

Thank you Gail at Clay and Limestone for hosting Wildflower Wednesday.

Nasami Farm – Planting Season

Photo courtesy of Nasami Farm

Nasami Farm in Whately is a part of the New England Wildflower Society which also operates The Garden in the Woods in Framingham. Here are the greenhouses that propagate the native plants that are then sold at Nasami and The Garden in the Woods to gardeners, landscapers and towns who are working to preserve local biodiversity. I have gotten many healthy beautiful plants at Nasami and I recommend them. Barrenwort as a groundcover, pagoda dogwood as a ornamental part of the new Windbreak, a penstemon and lobelia cardinalis for the border. All beautiful.

Nasami is open now for fall planting season. Hours are  Thursday through Sunday from 10 am to 5 pm until October 2.

If the rain stops long enough to do some planting, showers and cool weather will allow new plantings to settle in nicely before the winter.

The New England Wildflower Society also offers a full roster of classes from an introduction to botany to designing a mixed border to foraging for wild food. Click here for a downloadable version of their course catalog.

Also, soon we will be thinking about the gift giving season. Wouldn’t you like a membership that will give you so many benefits, nursery discounts, reciprocal admission to other botanic gardens and more, OR do you know someone who would like a membership. For full membership info click here.

Native Buzz at NEWFS

Sometimes in the summer we are annoyed by the bugs buzzing around our heads. We swat. We worry about the bees bumbling in the flowers and move children away. We get out spray cans of insecticide. What we need to do is think about the importance of bugs, often vital pollinators, without whom we would not have beautiful gardens, delicious fruits and vegetables, and a healthy life.

Ever since honey bees have gotten so much publicity because of Colony Collapse Disorder which alarmed farmers as well as beekeepers, the general public has become more aware of the vital part pollinators play in gardens and on farms. The New England Wildflower Society has always appreciated the importance of pollinators so this year it decided to mount an exhibit at its Garden in the Woods in Framingham focusing on pollinators called Native Buzz. For the first time they invited community partners, garden clubs, Scout groups, and professionals to submit plans for three by three foot planters that would provide shelter, nectar and larval food for the pollinators in our area – along with a written paper describing their exhibit.

The most local group to respond to this challenge was the Garden Club of Amherst. Susan Sheldon and Anne Williamson set to researching local native plants as well as their pollinators in the Fort River Basin which includes Groff Park where the Garden Club has already done work. The name of their project is Fort River Love Song.

Sheldon, a landscape designer and Master Gardener who lives on Mill Lane near Groff Park, said “I love to challenge myself and learn new things. I have a tendency towards overkill, but I love research and it was a labor of love.”

Sheldon explained that the Fort River is the longest unobstructed (no dams) tributary of the Connecticut River in Massachusetts. “The river acts as a corridor for birds and pollinators,” she said.

Williamson is a retired reference librarian and brought her expert skills to the project which she said was “. . . an immense amount of fun. I learned so much.”

The result of their research was a planter arranged around a pebble ‘stream’ to stand in for the Fort River and planted with a sourwood (Oxydendrom arboreum) tree, Rhoddendron viscosum.  Leucothoe fontanesiana, Lonicera semperviens ‘Alabama Crimson,’ Carex pensylvanica, bee balm, asters, goldenrod, Iris versicolor, and Heuchera Americana. Remember, this planter has very limited space, but as the sign accompanying the exhibit says, “Our project provides: a small nest site; water; dead branches; bare, moist earth; and stones – all important elements for nesting and shelter. All of these elements mimic the pattern of the river.” Sheldon assured me that their aim was to make an arrangement that was beautiful and in bloom for most of the summer as well as one that would attract pollinators.

Williamson said she took particular pleasure in creating a ‘bee box’ made of bamboo pieces held together and covered with birch bark that would provide shelter for native bees including bumblebees and the small sweat bees that nest in the ground.  According to Sheldon these bees are even more efficient pollinators than honeybees.

There was a youth category as well. I was particularly impressed by third grade Girl Scout Troop 72498 of Sudbury that created two of the three youth exhibits. Troop leader Dawn Dentzer said, “When you have 12 smart girls they have a lot of good ideas.  It was hard to narrow it  down to one, so we got permission to enter two.”

The first was titled Sign Me Up. All recycled materials are used for this container, including a file cabinet from the metal bin at the transfer station, street signs donated by the Town of Sudbury from their pile of old signs, a used measuring stick to measure how much the plants grow, and a sign post for a climbing vine. The exhibit shows ways to reduce our footprint on the earth. This container will be installed at their school, Peter Noyes Elementary of Sudbury.

The Scouts’ second entry was named Fire and Water, making use of a fire hydrant and grasses mimicking water. White flowers, the red hydrant and blue water gave this a patriotic theme that is most appropriate as this container will be placed in front of the Sudbury Fire Headquarters.

All the plants were free and provided to the exhibitors from the Society’s nursery, Nasami Farm in Whately. It is good to know that those plants will continue to support pollinators in their new locations.

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On Saturday, August 27  I will be signing my book at the World Eye between 11 am and 1 pm. People are beginning to sigh and say “Summer’s over,” but I am ready to continuing enjoying summer until the frost is on the pumpkin. And that will be way after the Sunflower Contest at the Energy Park on September 17. Lots of summer left.

August 20, 2011