Trees in parks and gardens 2010

[Kristl Walek]

some more blues on North Americans..

Nyssa-sylvatica
Chionanthus_virginicus.
Forestiera_neomexicana :  the Desert Olive, Forestiera neomexicana, native to the southern USA, ranging into Colorado is perhaps the most surprising for hardiness in the North. it has striking white bark.

Myrica_pennsylvanica
Viburnum_recognitum

[Kristl Walek]

and for sheer brilliance in autumn, i have yet to meet many plants that can compare with my favorite Sumac, Rhus copallina (Shining Sumac), with its glossy deep green summer foliage.

[Paddy Tobin]

Mark,
I am amazed at both the damage and the recovery on your birch. It really is amazing. We don't get ice storms here, thank goodness.

Kristl,
A beautiful berry. I have never seen it here. Must seek it out. Paddy

[Kristl Walek]

and for sheer variety in leaf coloration, the native Viburnum alnifolium, photographed in the wild, when i was still in Ontario, must take the prize....(although Sassafras albidum does some amazing things too)....

[Kristl Walek]

and Paddy, these two are for you....

[Kristl Walek]

the last blooming woody species of the season in this garden is not a native North American, but the Asian sub-shrub, Elsholtzia stauntonii, which flowers reliably each year, indeterred by frost, and was perfectly hardy even in much colder Ontario.

[Paddy Tobin]

and Paddy, these two are for you....

Kristl,

I enjoyed them all, berries and foliage. The viburnums are spectacular, great foliage and the blue Viburnum berries are fabulous. Presently, the berries on V. setigerum are best here in the garden, a very striking red.

Paddy

[TheOnionMan]

The color continues, and it has been terrific this year.

1-2   Acer japonicum dissectum 'Viridis', the name under which I bought this Japanese Maple many years ago.  It has finely dissected leaves that are a verdant green season long, but in October turn a deep marron red, then turn an impossibly vibrant fluorescent blazing red, much brighter color than is typical for 'Viridis', so maybe I have a hybrid.

3-5   Acer japonicum dissectum 'Viridis', just 6 days later, the color is intense red.

6-7   View of trees and shrubs with fall color.

8     View with Chionanthus virginicus (right), Magnolia stellata (center) & Oxydebdron arboreum (left).

9     The last fling on Oxydendron arboreum, incredibly bright red-orange color this year.

10    A view towards my deck, with deck stairs flanked with Acer griseum and Euonymus alatus.

[TheOnionMan]

A plant that I am always surprised NOT to see everywhere is the absolutely gorgeous
Sambucus caerulea, from western North America.
These pictures are from earlier this season.

I agree Kristl, absolutely gorgeous.  Nice series on other blue-berried plants.

[cohan]

A plant that I am always surprised NOT to see everywhere is the absolutely gorgeous
Sambucus caerulea, from western North America.
These pictures are from earlier this season.

I agree Kristl, absolutely gorgeous.  Nice series on other blue-berried plants.

me three! one for the list (actually, several) no blue berries native here, (except some actual 'blueberries'! but too small to see easily)

lots of great colours mark! are you finally catching up on precip?

[Kristl Walek]

Cohan,
I'll soon be listing some wild collected seed of the Sambucus caerulea...if you want to give it a try. I had no problems with it in Ontario (during -35/40 snowless winters).

[Kristl Walek]

Just to show that Mark's Oxydendron is not unusual in good colour---even my small 4 foot high clone (planted this summer) is blazing next to my house.

I have been driving myself crazy to find my pictures of my favorite "Japanese Maple"---Acer japonicum aconitifolium-- the deeply incised foliage turns a spectacular range of colour in the autumn, yellow, orange, reds, pinks and purples-- often on the same leaf.

It is truly a magnificent plant.

Found a picture of the Acer foliage in my files, but don't know if this is my own picture...

[cohan]

Cohan,
I'll soon be listing some wild collected seed of the Sambucus caerulea...if you want to give it a try. I had no problems with it in Ontario (during -35/40 snowless winters).

thanks kristl, i was going to check your catalogue for it..

[TheOnionMan]

Just to show that Mark's Oxydendron is not unusual in good colour---even my small 4 foot high clone (planted this summer) is blazing next to my house.

I have been driving myself crazy to find my pictures of my favorite "Japanese Maple"---Acer japonicum aconitifolium-- the deeply incised foliage turns a spectacular range of colour in the autumn, yellow, orange, reds, pinks and purples-- often on the same leaf.

It is truly a magnificent plant.

Found a picture of the Acer foliage in my files, but don't know if this is my own picture...

Looking around the area here in Northern Massachusetts, I know where lots of the special trees grow, after all, for 20+ years I traveled nearly 80 miles round trip daily to work, and a salvation of that commute is finding wonderful specimens of all sorts of trees along the way.  Knowing that many trees are seed-grown in the nursery trade, translates into trees that are extremely variable when purchased from nurseries.  The "shocker" realization came from my architectural and landscape architectural experience, when tagging trees at large-scale nurseries for some of the large construction projects I worked on, that "anything goes" in the nursery trade, and when I went to tag large caliper trees of let's say Tilia cordata 'Greenspire', the trees in the acres of tree stocks were most often seedling grown, and were wildly variable, with almost no cultivar conformity whatsoever; the seedlings were apparent hybrids with the huge-leafed T. americana that grew nearby.  That's a whole other story.  For my particular commercial planting, I selected and tagged trees with leaves of approximately the same size, among the huge variability

At any rate, Oxydendron arboreum is a rarely planted tree here, which is a shame, as it is bone hardy and probably among the top ten slow growing ornamental trees to plant in this region (if only they realized).  Not all Sourwood trees that I have seen color nearly as good as my tree.  Doing some recent research, there are now a few varieties of Sourwood selected specifically for fall color.  Yours looks to be a good form.

In some cases, during my commuting-botanizing, I have come to realize the particular tree I've planted is inferior. I love Katsura Trees, Cercidiphyllum japonicum, but here again it is invariably grown from seed here, and the variability is strong.  My tree is early senescent, with yellowing leaves in midsummer, I've seen similar examples, whereas other Katsura trees I've seen remain deep green until fall.

By the way, your Acer japonicum aconitifolium has really interesting and pretty multicolor fall foliage, one to add to ones must-have Acer list.

[Kristl Walek]

We have a wind and rainfall warning issued by Environment Canada for tonight and tomorrow, so I thought I had better spend the day outside to collect seed today that might be blown away overnight.

While out and about I also photographed another Oxydendron I had seen at the local botanic garden--also blazing this year--in fact I would say in the top 5 trees I saw in that garden for autumn colour.

Marc, have you ever tried collecting seed of this?
I assume since it is an Ericaceae, those capsules might take a long time to ripen,
and would contain tiny seed (maybe kalmia or rhododendron like?)