Trees in parks and gardens 2010

[TheOnionMan]

Two white flowered trees are perfuming the entire yard, and with the windows wide open on the last two very hot days (93 F, 35 C), the perfume wafts inside the house too.

The first is our native Fringe Tree, Chionanthus virginicus, in the showier male form, covered with fleecy white filamentous flowers.  It's hard to adequately capture the delightful soft "puffiness" of the thready flower masses. And we do need SRGC scratch-and-sniff technology to enjoy the enticing perfume, like cotton candy (candy floss to the UK folks), or burnt sugar... precisely the same scent that perfumes my garden each autumn with drifts of Cimicifuga simplex varieties.

The second one is Styrax japonica, covered with a million hanging white bells with yellow-stamened centers.  The flowers drip from every inch of every branch with impossible profusion, fantastic to view looking up into the tree to see the little bells, from afar the small flowers partially concealed with a canopy of green for a modest filmy green and white affair.  For years I have tried to pinpoint the perfume, rather strong, even cloying up close, of a peculiar aroma that is both sweet yet fruity, blended with a soupçon of chemical smell... I always get a sense of walking through womans make-up and perfume counters in a department store.

[Maggi Young]

Two white flowered trees are perfuming the entire yard, and with the windows wide open on the last two very hot days (93 F, 35 C), the perfume wafts inside the house too.

The first is our native Fringe Tree, Chionanthus virginicus, in the showier male form, covered with fleecy white filamentous flowers.  It's hard to adequately capture the delightful soft "puffiness" of the thready flower masses. And we do need SRGC scratch-and-sniff technology to enjoy the enticing perfume, like cotton candy (candy floss to the UK folks), or burnt sugar... precisely the same scent that perfumes my garden each autumn with drifts of Cimicifuga simplex varieties.

The second one is Styrax japonica, covered with a million hanging white bells with yellow-stamened centers.  The flowers drip from every inch of every branch with impossible profusion, fantastic to view looking up into the tree to see the little bells, from afar the small flowers partially concealed with a canopy of green for a modest filmy green and white affair.  For years I have tried to pinpoint the perfume, rather strong, even cloying up close, of a peculiar aroma that is both sweet yet fruity, blended with a soupçon of chemical smell... I always get a sense of walking through womans make-up and perfume counters in a department store.

Very smart specimens, McMark.... very light and cheery.

[Paddy Tobin]

Two white flowered trees are perfuming the entire yard

The first is our native Fringe Tree, Chionanthus virginicus

The second one is Styrax japonica

Mark, these are my type of "alpine plants". Brilliant examples. I grow the Styrax though it is a very small specimen as yet, grown from seed. The Chionanthus is one I must look out for, great plant.

Paddy

[Paddy Tobin]

To follow up on my comments above on Mark's posting, here are a few which might interest him from our garden.

Paddy

Aesculus pavia - seed sown in 2000 and planted in the garden in 2002 and full of flower this year.
Aesculus hippocastanum - this is our "native" chestnut tree and this is a big tree in the garden, about 20 metres X 20 metres
Aesculus mutabilis induta - in contrast to A. hippocastanum, this chestnut tree is less than a metre tall or wide but is covered in flowers

[Paddy Tobin]

A few more. Paddy

Aesculus turbinata - from seed, around 2000
Halesia carolina - from seed, around 2000
Malus floribunda - the absolutely best crabapple I have ever seen. Brilliant blossom though the crabapples are tiny to non-existent
Staphylea pinnate - from seed, around 2000. A very easy shrub, fast growing and very decorative in flower

Post Scriptum: I have just looked back at the photographs - this is certainly a horse chestnut theme going in the garden at the moment but they are lovely trees and it is hard not to love them.

[angie]

Really lovely Paddy...the Aesculus turbinata will it grow much taller than it is now.

Angie

[Ragged Robin]

this is certainly a horse chestnut theme going in the garden at the moment but they are lovely trees and it is hard not to love them

I totally agree, such wonderful trees and they are spectacular in flower this year, covered in candles.  Sweet chestnut is my favourite  

Malus floribunda - the absolutely best crabapple I have ever seen. Brilliant blossom though the crabapples are tiny to non-existent

An absolute beauty 

[Paddy Tobin]

Angie,

To the best of my knowledge, Aesculus turbinata grows to twenty metres or so. Mine is a very young plant as yet, about three metres tall after ten years from seed. It will outlive me.

Thank you, Robin. I had a tree of variegated Sweet Chestnut but it always struggled with me and I took it out earlier this year.

Paddy

[angie]

Thanks for the reply Paddy.. that's a shame I was hoping it would be a small tree, great to have grown it from seed .

Angie

[johnw]

Paddy - Are you sure your turbinata is not flava (octandra)?  My turbinata has very very big leaves.  We flowered flava from seed rather quickly here.

johnw

[Kristl Walek]

I have not posted here all year....just a few eastern North American woody species I am very fond of.

[TheOnionMan]

To follow up on my comments above on Mark's posting, here are a few which might interest him from our garden.

Paddy

Aesculus pavia - seed sown in 2000 and planted in the garden in 2002 and full of flower this year.
Aesculus hippocastanum - this is our "native" chestnut tree and this is a big tree in the garden, about 20 metres X 20 metres
Aesculus mutabilis induta - in contrast to A. hippocastanum, this chestnut tree is less than a metre tall or wide but is covered in flowers

Ah Paddy, here is one of my weaknesses... "ornamental trees".  I have 1.7 acres of land, but 1 acre is open and plantable, the rest is already heavily wooded, and it is all too easy to overplant with trees, particularly when growing them from seed.  I feel like I need many acres to quench my interest in trees, Japanese maples and Acer species, horse chestnuts to be sure (so many fascinating Aesculus), Stewartias, Cornus, Halesia (have 4 varieties), Betula, Staphylea (have 2 varieties), Euonymus (tree types), Magnolia, etc.  It's a bonafide disease!  But if I had to grow just one tree... that would be a VERY DIFFICULT decision, a near toss-up between Stewartia pseudocamellia (heavily budded at the moment) and Oxydendron arboreum (Sourwood)... but I think I would favor the Sourwood.

Kristl... nice Pawpaw tree, yet another tree I've wanted to plant, but haven't got around to it yet.

[Regelian]

Paddy,

thanks for sharing these Aesculus!  I adore trees, but my garden is small and I have resorted to smaller Acer species, which are still lovely, but without the opulent flowers.  Seeing these beauties really makes me yearn for a few acres of private arbouretum.

[Casalima]

Ornamental trees and shrubs are definitely my weakness. At the plant fair I went to last month, I managed to acquire 4 Acer, 1 citron (unidentified from Ethiopia), 3 Cornus, 1 Euodia, 1 Halesia, 1 Liquidambar, 2 Magnolia, 2 Malus, 3 Michelia, 1 Sinojackia, 5 Stewartia, 3 Styrax, 1 Syringa, 3 Viburnum, and a few other things All currently being looked after by gardener friends. And yes, I do have a few acres for my future garden - prospects for which are now excellent  (that ought to be in the I'm so happy thread).

These Aesculus are quite gorgeous - very tempting! And the Staphylea! And the Asimina! And everything else ...

[Paddy Tobin]

What's this?

Are some members of the SRGC secretly tree lovers?

Should we have a new branch of the SRGC - TLA, Tree Lovers Anonymous.

Here, I'll start: "Hello, I'm Paddy and I love trees."

Just joking, as I know you all grow a complete range of plants.

John, I could not argue with you over the identity of the Aesculus. I received the seed as A. turbinata and, as one does, continued to apply that name to the plant in the garden. To be honest, it is not the best of flowers, not as full as those on other horsechestnuts and the leaf is, as you point out, a little more linear in habit rather than the large lobed kind we find on other species.

Kristl, Cercis does very well here. The Calycanthus is a bit of a disappointment as the flowers "ball" - become affected by rain, the outer petals rot and the blossom fails to open. I have grown the Asimina from seed but it did not last with me. Time for another attempt, perhaps.

Mark, we obviously share a common taste in trees as I grow some species of each genus you listed though the Oxydendron did not last with me - again, one to try again.

Jamie, even the smallest garden could have A. mutabilis induta as it is only 1 metre X 1 metre and is a delightful plant, presently covered in flowers.

Chloe, I am waiting patiently for my Euodia daniellii to produce its lovely red flowers. It is a very uncommon tree here but I know one garden which has a mature specimen and it is beautiful. I failed to germinate Sinojackia. Citron are simply out of the question in the garden here for climatic reasons and I absolutely HATE syringas. Michelia is fabulous but a young plant didn't survive with me - another forum member previously commented that I was lucky as she found it a frightfully dirty tree, leaving lots of leaves to clean up.

There is a great sense of achievement in growing a tree from seed, great to see something so small achieve such size in the garden and great to grow something which will most likely outlive me.

Paddy