Trees in parks and gardens 2010

[Maggi Young]

I'm enjoying these trees and that giant Tulip tree is the biggest I've seen.
What a cracker..... I could barely spot  Mary under there!
Talk about hiding your light......

[Paddy Tobin]

A little colour. This was a brugmansia of great size and fabulous flowers. Paddy

[Paddy Tobin]

I'm enjoying these trees and that giant Tulip tree is the biggest I've seen.
What a cracker..... I could barely spot  Mary under there!
Talk about hiding your light......

It was one of those situations where it was impossible to show the size of the tree in a photograph. It needed something/someone to give it scale and Mary was on hand - there are some advantages to marriage.

The trees were amazing, fabulous growth and great bulk. Imagine tree ferns growing to ten metres.

Paddy

[Roma]

Fascinating to see these huge trees in Quinta Palheiro, Paddy.  I visited there once about 17years ago in February so the deciduous trees and shrubs were bare.  I have scanned a print of tree bark which I found very interesting.  I hope someone can recognise it. 

[TheOnionMan]

Cool bark, all squiggly, but I have no idea what it is.

[TheOnionMan]

More autumn foliage is peaking in the area now.

1     Street view in Groton, Massachusetts USA (inc 1650), with Red Maples and Sugar Maples in bright red and orange shades.

2-5  Same town center, in most years this particular old Sugar Maple turns an amazing fluorescent red.  It looked orange a week ago, but now the outer canopy is turning red, notice in the close-up photos that the leaves start taking on a black red color, glowing with a golden yellow center to the tree.

6-7  I know, I keep showing my Sourwood Tree, Oxydendrum arboreum, but the color is just so good, and with the persistent white flower pedicels, I get a strong impression of Christmas whenever I look at this superb tree.  On the "side view" photo, notice that the tree colors on the right side (south-facing side) first, still with some green leaves on the left side (north-facing side).  It's been colorful for nearly 2 months.

8    A view looking beyond the Sourwood Tree to other trees not yet colored up, but in the center is Chionanthus virginicus of Fringe Tree, taking on chartreuse color; it will turn a fairly good yellow.  I'm pleased with this tree, as I have trained as a single trunk (often Fringe trees are ungainly multi-stemmed affairs) as experimented with pruning between the long bud internodes to see if the lanky branches could be stimulated into better branches, the answer is yes.

9    Euonymus sachalinensis, after a fantastic display of red and orange capsules and seeds, this species has a nice flush of opeachy orange color.

10   Syringa meyeri 'Palibin' - such a great small shrub, I plant them strategically placed such as near my front door, to enjoy the intense perfume in late spring, but the pink-to-reddish-pink fall foliage is interesting too.

[Paddy Tobin]

Roma,
Great bark on that tree. No idea what it is. Do tell us more.
Quinta Palheiro has two outstanding specimens of aurucaria. Amazing size.

Mark,
Great colour and you cannot repeat your Oxydendron too often. It is an excellent plant. I notice you have it densely underplanted - I notice the labels.

Paddy

[TheOnionMan]

Mark,
Great colour and you cannot repeat your Oxydendron too often. It is an excellent plant. I notice you have it densely underplanted - I notice the labels.

Paddy

Oxydendron is tap or deep rooted, thus little competition for underplanting with bulb rarities, species crocus, frits, tulipa, etc. It is also so late to leaf out in spring that bulbs get all the full sun they need to flower well in spring.  Later in summer, the foliage canopy sheds water and the actively growing tree roots suck up soil moisture, so the bulbs get a good dry rest in this situation.  Supposed to have a hard frost tomorrow night, it'll crisp the sourwood foliage and the foliage will drop almost immediately, so I'll try to gander at it often today and tomorrow

[Paddy Tobin]

Mark, a good use of the space under the tree and it must be beautiful in spring.

Here is a tree photographed in Madeira last week. It is used as street planting here and was looking beautiful when we visited. In the centre of Funchal Jacaranda is the commonly planted street tree. At this time of year there was just a sprinkle of the beautiful blue flowers and I imagine it must be fabulous when in season.

Here is Spathulea campanulata Spathodea campanulata   , The African Tulip Tree.

Paddy

[TheOnionMan]

Mark, a good use of the space under the tree and it must be beautiful in spring.

Here is a tree photographed in Madeira last week. It is used as street planting here and was looking beautiful when we visited. In the centre of Funchal Jacaranda is the commonly planted street tree. At this time of year there was just a sprinkle of the beautiful blue flowers and I imagine it must be fabulous when in season.
Here is Spathodea campanulata, The African Tulip Tree.

Paddy

Beautiful bright tree, and a late bloomer too! Flowers seem reminiscent to Alstroemeria to me, but one can see the tulip shape as well.  Amazing the trees that can be grown if the zone could be moved towards the milder end of the scale  

[Paddy Tobin]

Paddy, that should read Spathodea campanulata 

Many thanks, Maggi. A slip up on my part. I've corrected the captions on the photographs.

Mark, of course there were many, many fabulous plants in Madeira and there was always the tinge of wishful thinking but then I saw that the gardeners in Madeira had all  planted hydrangeas and these were miserable, none reaching more than 40cm and none with the lushness of foliage we have here. So, it is good to be happy with what we have and to enjoy the exotics when we go on holidays or visit the SRGC site.

By the way, the plant which elicited most desire and jealousy was Amaryllis belladonna which grew in profusion in the wild and in gardens, a beautiful sight.

Paddy

[Lvandelft]

Those maple colors are fantastic!

When visiting Dawyck Gardens just before we came to the discussion weekend I made some pictures
of some interesting shrubs and trees:               
                                   
Sorbus pseudovilmorinii   
Cotoneaster moupinensis 1      Never saw a Cotoneaster with black berries before.         
Cotoneaster moupinensis 2                   
Sorbus harrowiana cl     
Sorbus sargentiana 1                     
Sorbus sargentiana cl. 

[Paddy Tobin]

Luit,

Great shots, lovely selection of sorbus and fabulous berries but aren't the black berries on the cotoneaster so unusual?

Paddy

[Lvandelft]

Maybe not unusual Paddy, but I have never seen them before. Well my knowledge of shrubs is minimal. Just know what is nice and which I want to plant in my garden 

[Maggi Young]

 I think the black berried cotoneaster must be quite unusual..... there is only ony 'stockist' listed in the RHS plantgfinder... and that turns out to be a person with a National Collection...  and the collection is "not fully listed" and there is no such plant on the nursery list. 
I'd love to know where to get one.... or seed.