Trees in parks and gardens 2011

[Gail]

Beautiful Giles.  Is it fragrant?

[Giles]

..smells of Ralgex I'm afraid, Gail...
here M.obovata - emerging leaves like parasols - I guess a frost now, and it's curtains...

[David Nicholson]

..smells of Ralgex I'm afraid, Gail...

Should be OK to bend down to smell it then

[David Nicholson]

I wonder if anyone can help with this:

Looks to me like a Birch (but I only have one tree book and that isn't very good) and, as can bee seen in picture 2 the leaf edges are very hairy (my book doesn't mention this at all). It's presently growing in a small pot about 9" wide and 12" deep and the tree is about 2' high, and as long as I keep it well watered in hot weather it doesn't seem to mind.

Here's where the memory plays tricks! I think that about ten years ago whilst on holiday in Montecatini, Tuscany, I collected some seed, brought it home and sowed it, and this is the result. Maureen thinks it's something the local squirrel left in my garden and I just dug it up and grew it on. Quite frankly either of us could be right-but I hope it's me . Can anyone put any logic to the quandry?

[Maggi Young]

A lovely little Beech tree, David. My container grown copper beech has its leaves at very nearly the same stage.

[TheOnionMan]

I agree with Maggi, it's a beech tree.

[Regelian]

Definitely a Fagus sylvatica, common beech, probably the most common tree in Germany, if not most of Europe.  Magnificent is the word for a forest of these towering beauties.  We have them planted all along the green belt ringing the city of Cologne.  In Spring, it is like walking through a cathedral of bright green and shimmering light.  If you haven't guessed, one of my favourite trees, although much to grand for my garden.  I live about a kilometer from this green cathedral, so no problem.  I've tried them in a pot, but, frankly, not a winner.  Better as a bonsai, then.

[Paddy Tobin]

Jamie,

Mary and I visited a large garden yesterday and, while there were many beautiful and eye-catching trees in flower, it was the young emerging foliage of the beech trees which we most admired. They are truly beautiful at this time of year. It must be wonderful to walk among them in the green belt around Cologne.

Paddy

[Kristl Walek]

Giles,
Were your Magnolia amoena and zenii raised from seed?

Having seed-grown all my Magnolias, I am always amazed at how easy to please & straightforward they are & how relatively quickly they bloom from seed. The M. kobus gang is of course very precocious---I have had them blooming at year 4.

However, of all the species I have grown, M. amoena has given me the only seedling-grief I have ever experienced with any member of this genus with high first year seedling mortality, premature drying/dropping of leaves etc. etc. Not quite sure if it was weakness in the seed batch I was working with, or if this species is known to have "issues" with soil/culture, etc.

Any comments?

Also, is there any chance of even a few seed of your M. zenii (which I have been wanting for a long time)?

Currently nursing some 300+++ Magnolia seedlings (half of which are M. macrophylla).

Kristl

[David Nicholson]

I wonder if anyone can help with this:

Looks to me like a Birch (but I only have one tree book and that isn't very good) and, as can bee seen in picture 2 the leaf edges are very hairy (my book doesn't mention this at all). It's presently growing in a small pot about 9" wide and 12" deep and the tree is about 2' high, and as long as I keep it well watered in hot weather it doesn't seem to mind.

Here's where the memory plays tricks! I think that about ten years ago whilst on holiday in Montecatini, Tuscany, I collected some seed, brought it home and sowed it, and this is the result. Maureen thinks it's something the local squirrel left in my garden and I just dug it up and grew it on. Quite frankly either of us could be right-but I hope it's me . Can anyone put any logic to the quandry?

Thank you Maggi, Mark and Jamie. So I was wrong on the species, looks as though Maureen was right on the squirrel. I can't see they will have many beeches in Montecatini. I'll have to go back and take a look

[Knud]

Two trees flowering in our garden now often evade my attention, because of their small blooms in a season filled with large colourful flowers on much smaller plants. The larch we have had in a pot for 8-10 years, and it started blooming two years ago. It is probably a common european larch (L. decidua).

The dwarf birch (Betula nana) was taken as a small plant (5 cm or 2 inches) in 1995 from mountains in central Norway at an elevation of about 1000 m. Now it is 50-60 cm (just under two feet) tall, and this is the first year I have noticed it blooming.

The last three pictures were taken early to mid April last year in Frontenac Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada. Even though the individual maple flower is small, there was no missing the masses of red and yellow in a woodland still brown and bare after a long winter. I am not sure which maples they are, maybe Kristl can help? Some early flowers were to be found among the trees, among them Hepatica (acutiloba?) and Claytonia virginica.

Knud

[Kristl Walek]

Cork or Rock Elm, Ulmus thomasii is a little-known North American elm, not native to Nova Scotia. It is a very long lived species with extremely hard wood.

Here in Annapolis Royal, I have run into a planted clone of it in a public area; quite surprisingly, as most tree plantings here tend towards the common.

Today I paid the tree a visit & it was just at that perfect pre-leaf stage where one can see its beautiful twisted shape, furrowed bark with craggy, corky ridges, from which it gets its common name. This is a fascinating, picturesque tree, that is also, unfortunately, susceptible to Dutch Elm Disease, although I have seen many healthy, huge, old specimens in the wild in Ontario.

Like all Elms, the seed is *very* short lived (a few weeks), and is an immediate, warm germinator. It can be frozen once fully dried to preserve viability.

[arillady]

Must ask a question on this thread. When I was in Texas a number of years ago I was shown a small tree. A companion suggested I bite a leaf - it makes your mouth a little numb which was quite a different sensation.. Might be good if you had a toothache. Anyone know the name of this tree?

[David Nicholson]

Pseudodentistensis

[Lvandelft]

Must ask a question on this thread. When I was in Texas a number of years ago I was shown a small tree. A companion suggested I bite a leaf - it makes your mouth a little numb which was quite a different sensation.. Might be good if you had a toothache. Anyone know the name of this tree?

Pat, please don't listen to David 
It was just ONE Google click. Have a look here if this is what you mean:
http://www.answers.com/topic/toothache-tree