Hello GPODers,
Right now I wished to dedicate the GPOD to a kind of plant everyone knows, love, and depend on—however typically deal with as “background surroundings” slightly than as important gamers in a terrific panorama: timber! Gardeners can have a love/hate relationship with them. We love timber as a result of…nicely, how might anybody not? However for these of us gardening below heavy shade on wooded tons, an abundance of timber can generally really feel like each a blessing and a problem.
Considered one of my earliest recollections is receiving a small evergreen—don’t ask me what variety—from my preschool and strolling up the hill behind our home with my dad and mom to plant it. I keep in mind being amazed that I might plant a tree and it might merely…develop. We moved just a few years later, however I typically wonder if that little tree survived and the way tall it could be now, forty years on.
(By the way in which, when you’re taken with studying extra about rising conifers, you’ll positively need to enroll in the free Conifer Q&A webinar this Friday with Mark Dwyer.)
In early spring, the star magnolia (Magnolia stellata) in my dad and mom’ yard is at all times one of many first indicators that hotter days are coming. Many beautiful meals and lengthy conversations have occurred below its spreading branches.
One other favourite from their yard is the horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum), which flowers superbly in late spring and sprinkles petals everywhere in the floor. When the wind catches them and sends them swirling across the yard, it appears like a celebration of the season—springtime confetti!
Pines (Pinus sp.) could be polarizing, I do know, however there’s nothing fairly as majestic—or peaceable—as a pine forest. The gentle carpet of needles and the hushed quiet of that panorama make strolling by way of it a real delight.
I completely adore the sculptural branches of the Southern dwell oak (Quercus virginiana). These timber even have a particular place in my coronary heart as a result of they are usually glorious climbing timber. One promise I’ve made to myself is to by no means cease climbing timber—and as I enter my 40s, the simpler the climb, the higher! These oaks have been photographed in Savannah, GA, a spot well-known for its breathtaking timber and gardens. The Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides) draped from their branches softens the entire scene and provides an exquisite sense of thriller.
This sapphire berry tree (Symplocos paniculata) stopped me in my tracks on the Arnold Arboretum this previous September. Of all of the beautiful timber we noticed that day, this was the one one which made me shout for the golf cart to tug over so I might take a better look. I don’t know if everybody has a “unicorn” plant they dream of rising, however this one is mine. The depth of the blue berries was completely jaw-dropping.
A detailed-up solely made me like it extra. With my birthday in September, sapphire is my birthstone—so I suppose this tree and I have been meant to be.
I’ve at all times cherished timber with pale bark, reminiscent of white birch and aspens, however for some cause beeches could be my favourite. I particularly love how they maintain onto their leaves nicely into winter. The American beech (Fagus grandifolia), sadly, is now below critical menace from beech leaf illness—a really unsettling actuality. This fall, after I visited the Arnold Arboretum with just a few colleagues, we spoke with their horticulturists about what could be executed to protect our native beeches. We’ll be sharing a video on that matter early within the new yr.
My now-husband and I got here throughout this subsequent tree on one in every of our first hikes collectively. I had by no means seen a tree with yellow needles earlier than—and I’m unsure I’ve seen one since (at the least, not within the wild). It should have escaped from a close-by backyard. I later discovered it was possible a tamarack, or American larch (Larix laricina). These timber lose their needles in winter, then re-emerge vibrant inexperienced in spring earlier than slowly turning golden in fall. It’s turn into one other must-have on my future tree checklist as soon as we’re extra settled in our house.
I might simply preserve going—or dedicate a complete week of GPOD to timber. Just a few extra favorites I don’t at the moment have good images of are bald cypress, white oak, weeping Alaskan cedar, and river birch. And one tree I’m dying so as to add sometime is a ‘Merlot’ redbud.
What about you? What are your favourite timber?
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Corona E-Grip Trowel
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