Trees in parks & gardens 2018

[François Lambert]

In the park of Enghien, and in fact in the entire surroundings there are wonderful linden trees filled/covered with mistletoe.  Only during the winter when the trees have no leaves it becomes visible how much mistletoe is growing on them and one might be tempted to think these are some evergreen trees from anther continent.

It's the most spectacular on the linden trees, some are almost entirely covered, but many poplars nearby have also dozens of mistletoe plants per tree.

Pictures were taken on 2 different days, which is why one has a blue sky.  In January we barely had any sunshine at all.

[Maggi Young]

Not exactly a tree - but this shrub  is worth a look, I  think?!

Carlo Balistrieri  in the US of A  took the photo and wrote:

This relative of witchhazel is such a showstopper up close that I didn’t even put it through my standard post-processing routine. This photograph is #untouched and straight from my phone.
Loropetalum chinense ‘Chang Nian Hong’      He adds: you’ll find it as “Ever Red”(trademarked).

[Gabriela]

Not exactly a tree - but this shrub  is worth a look, I  think?!
Carlo Balistrieri  in the US of A  took the photo and wrote:

This relative of witchhazel is such a showstopper up close that I didn’t even put it through my standard post-processing routine. This photograph is #untouched and straight from my phone.
Loropetalum chinense ‘Chang Nian Hong’      He adds: you’ll find it as “Ever Red”(trademarked).

It is worth many looks Maggi! Too bad is not hardy enough (for us); OK for zones 7 and up.

[Jacek]

I wouldn't try it here in Poland either. It is sold here. There are so many local dealers that sell plants that are absolutely not for our conditions.

[François Lambert]

I'm really impressed by the size of the 'heads' of my pollard willows.  They are probably more than a century old Salix fragilis, and some heads are so big that you could easilly camp on the top.  When pollarding these trees I can just walk, sit on the top once I cleared a first part.

What also caught my attention is that some of them are multi-headed or have a extremely large head that can't be the result of the trunk splitting open.  My best guess is that the trees have been shaped into growing more than one head or a single extremely large head to maximize wood production.  The trees are also planted just 4 meters apart which again makes sense when you need loads of wood.  And indeed, this used to be a big farm with it's own wood fueled bread oven, which still exists and it's even a twin oven.  Just to heat one oven for one bread baking you need about two full wheelbarrows of wood.  Willow wood is perfect for that because it burns fast with an intense heat.  So i'm trying to imagine how they used to stoke up the ovens for the weekly bread baking.

I have still 22 pollard willows left, and I'm planning to fill the gaps left by the dead ones to restore the full row as it once used to be.  Although I have found traces that in the past there were many more of these willows growing here as energy crop.

And in fact ... they still are an energy crop for me, I will heat my home with this year's harvest - and the quantity of wood is enough to heat 2 winters.

[Jacek]

It's interesting to learn that in Belgium you have the same traditions as we have here in Poland - pollard willows are very common sight along the small roads in the rural landscape. In the lowlands only though.

[ian mcdonald]

Pollard willows used to be fairly common in england but many have been destroyed by mis-guided agricultural government policy.

[François Lambert]

Jacek,
Ian,

Pollard willows used to be more common here also, but most farmers don't need the wood anymore so they don't replant new ones when they die.  And we also lost many pollard willows and miles of hegdes (often hawthorn) in the past century when the agricultural soils were defragmented.  Fortunately, some persons plant young pollard willows again on their land, and some farmers plant them as fence posts at the border of their pastures.  But any farmer only growing the big industrial crops (corn, wheat, barley, sugar beets, ...) wants these away because their crops don't do well in the shade of the trees.  It's a mixed picture.

[fermi de Sousa]

Chinese Pistachio is a popular tree in Southern Australia and was pushed as a replacement for Rhus (now Toxicodendron succedaneum) which can elicit a severe allergic reaction in some people.
Pistacia chinensis produces a similar autumnal effect but an added attraction is mature trees produce seeds (tiny pisctachio nuts?) in colourful bunches - this one is red but we've also seen it in a blue-black in the Bendigo Botanic Gardens.
These pics are in our garden,
cheers
fermi

[ian mcdonald]

Francois, legally protected hedgerows are destroyed in England. The government and local authorities ignore the law when "progress" is concerned.

[Gerdk]

Here are two  Cercis species - sown 2012 and flowering the first time

1. + 2. Cercis glabra (syn. yunnanensis)
3. - 5. Cercis racemosa

Unfortunately I planted them close to eachother so I will not be sure if the seeds (when they are built) are of the plain species 

Gerd

[johnw]

Gerd  - Fantastic to see these two Cercis.  Have you tried C. griffithii?  I saw it at the Arnold and was surprised that it is native to Afganistan yet hardy enough for Boston.  The propagator gave is seed from the tree, with the usual hot water treatment a few came up the first year but there was a great wave of germination.  I think by mid-summer all seeds had germinated.

Trillium and Erythronium seed sprouting like mad today.

johnw - +13c, brilliant sunshine

[Gerdk]

Thank you John!
No, I never came along Cercis griffithii - according the photos shown in the internet a remarkable species.
I am somewhat surprised by the the cold hardiness and the rapid growth of C. racemosa - which I planted
a little bit too close to the neighbouring plot.

Gerd

[Maggi Young]

Posted elsewhere by Todd Boland .... " The spectacular Magnolia 'Helen' developed by John Weagle of Halifax Nova Scotia and growing in the garden of Donna Evers in Bedford. The flowers are huge!"

[johnw]

Thank 25% campbelli genes not me and 12 tepals as in campbellii itself.

Reimer propagates it in North America as does Paul Adcock at Roundabarrow Farm in Cornwall and Luc de Jonge in Belgium.

john