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At A Glance: The Venus Dogwood

I was  fortunate to hear recently from Wolfgang Eberts in Germany; he apparently read my previous posts on the Venus Dogwood.  He tells me that this fabulous dogwood has proved to be very popular in Europe.  He accompanied Elwin Orton, the hybridizer of Venus, to the Chelsea Flower Show, where it took a well-deserved gold medal.  Wolfgang is a plantsman, and an European distributor of Venus.  His  nursery also sells other fine plants, including bamboo.  What fun to hear from him.  All of the pictures are courtesy of Wolfgang Eberts.

Wolfgang Eberts

from left to right; Wolfgang Eberts, Elwin Orton, hybridizer of Venus from Rutgers University, and Hugh Johnson-taken at Chelsea

trade show display of Wolfgang’s nursery about Venus


trade show booth

detail, Venus flower


fall color


Venus dogwood does not set much fruit here, but when it does, it is spectacular.  For more information on Wolfgang Eberts, try www.cornus-venus.com, and www.bambus.de.  What a pleasure it was for me to hear from him.

Posted on: August 29, 2010 6 Comments
Filed Under: Picture This, Woody Plants Tagged With:

Stature

 


Stature is a concept everyone understands. Any human being 6.5 feet tall gets attention-just for being heads and shoulders above the rest of us.  A physical presence makes an unmistakeable impression.  Alan Armitage has made a life’s work of studying plants.  His shoulders-a whole body of work about what plants work, and what plants a gardener might consider passing by.  His head-he writes and speaks intelligently and passionately about that human activity close to those shoulders-gardening.  You may agree or not with him, but he has stature such that any serious gardener would give pause, and consider what he has to say.

Anyone of stature has the power to give pause. That the modern world is geared towards everything running at top speed, anything that slows me down has stature.  True stature has to do with size, persistence, experience, and longevity. Trees do a good job of filling that bill. They are very large plants. I have read that the standing weight of a 26″ diameter hardwood is 4.2 tons; a mature oak tree will have close to a quarter million leaves.  Some trees live a thousand years.  Others grow to towering heights.  Some grow in wild places never having had any care, and endure. 


 This columnar beech is almost 30 feet tall, and has been growing at a tree farm a good many years.  GP Enterprises sells and transplants big trees.  This is a very specialized part of the landscape industry, as the cost of the equipment which which moves those trees safely and successfully is astronomical to buy, operate and maintain.  Not everyone needs a tree of great size, but sometimes the stature they confer on a landscape makes a lot of other work unnecessary.  What a person might spend on shrubs or perennials over the years can come to a lot more than the cost of one large tree.

Any tree has stature potential; small trees are reasonable to purchase and take hold much faster than a specimen sized tree.  That said, the most difficult part of adding young trees to a landscape is the placement.  No one wants the expense of taking down a very large tree planted too close to their house, or their sidewalk.  A properly placed large growing shade tree can look lonely before it grows into its own. These 4 inch caliper Bowhall maples pictured above will eventually tower over the ground plane.  Planted at the corners of a 12 by 12 or 15 by 15 foot space, you will have a maple tent in not so many years.  Plant 8 or 12 trees, a  pergola big enough to entertain in.  You can see the potential for a landscape feature with stature in this picture.

Columnar carpinus has a natural growth habit that reminds me of an egg with a softly rounded top.  Columnar trees do not co-opt all the available sun, and they do a great job of screening out an untoward view.  Maturing at 40 feet tall, and 30 feet wide, they have an elegant form that appeals to me.
This older multi-trunked Amur maple has an entirely different look than the carpinus.  The carpinus I would call architectural, and imposing-the Amur maple is graceful and lovely.  This insouciant amur maple meadow is as visually successful as a formal landscape-just different.  The choice of a tree or trees can influence the atmosphere of a space. 

 
Ralph Plummer owns GP Enterprises, and though he landscapes, builds retaining walls, engineers drainage and grading, he has made a life’s work of moving and planting big trees. Even if he were not 6′ 6″ tall, he would still be a person of great stature.

Posted on: August 27, 2010 Leave a Comment
Filed Under: Landscape Design, Woody Plants Tagged With: ,

Heavenly Hydrangeas

What is it about hydrangeas that makes them such a magnet for gardeners?  No doubt they are one of the showiest shrubs hardy in my zone.  They are fairly easy to care for, providing you stay away from marginally hardy varieties.  They grow fast, have big, clean, and very green foliage.  The massive flower heads speak to summer.  What could be better?  The plant hybridizing industry has focused on producing more reliably blooming “other than white” hydrangeas for the nursery trade geared to produce in cooler climates.  This “All Summer Beauty” hydrangea is more reliably blooming than its predecessors.   

The Annabelle hydrangea has been the mainstay of the summer shrub garden as long as I can remember, though I no longer plant it. Weak stems and overly large flower heads make the shrub a challenge to keep off the ground.  Given heavy rains and mid summer stormy weather, you are likely to wake up with those flowering spheres face down in the mud.  Should you have them, cage or otherwise securely stake at least 40″ tall out of the ground-in the spring.  Othereise, you will be chasing some stop the flopping solution that looks awkward and unnatural.   

This garden no doubt is the one place for 100 miles perfectly suited for Nikko Blue hydrangeas.  Once out of the nursery pot, and in the ground, they are generally known to be stingy with the flowers.  Blue hydrangeas-what midwestern gardener does not long for this plant to perform for them?  I am sure many more get sold, than deliver and please.  As no one grows hydrangeas for their shape and foliage, choose a cultivar known to reliably produce flowers in abundance in your zone. 

Flowers in abundance-perhaps this is what makes hydrangeas so attractive in a landscape.  I favor the Dutch hybrid-known as Limelight.  They are sturdy growers-there is never any need for staking.  Their hydrangea paniculata parentage is responsible for the cone shaped flowers that open green, mature white, and pink with age. The straight species hydrangea paniculata is a very wide and very tall grower.  The flowers are many, but modest, open and subtle in appearance. A hedge of panuiculata 8 feet wide by 40 feet long might make a show.  Limelight produces densely showy flower heads from a vigorous and adaptable shrub-the best of all worlds, should you be talking hydrangeas. 

Densely blooming and showy-see what I mean?  They do not ask for much-this part I am especially fond of.  They handle full sun, given sufficient water, with aplomb.  They will willingly survive part shade, and bloom better than most hydrangeas starved for sun. They grow fast.  They are fine with a serious spring pruning.  I have Limelights I prune down to within 14″ of grade-where it is my idea to keep them in the 4′-5′ tall range.   

Given a space of sufficient size, a hedge of hydrangeas provide no end of a robust visual reference to summer, lots of flowers for bouquets, screening, material for dried arrangements.  What garden shrub do you know of that delivers on this scale, and to this extent?   

Should you be thinking you might plant some limelights, I would make the following suggestions.  Locate them in as much sun as you can muster.  Do not space them any closer than 30″ on center-36″-42″ on center will fill in in no time.  They like regular moisture.  Whatever you have done to enrich your soil with compost, the hydrangeas will appreciate.  Given how fast they grow, a 3 gallon plant will catch up to a five gallon plant in no time at all.  If you plant smaller plants, be sure they get regular water to the rootball.  Potted hydrangeas become rootbound in the blink of an eye.  Lacking the water they need, the foliage will burn and drop-this is not a good look.


My landscape features 2 large blocks of Limelight hydrangeas-25 plants in each block. They are about 7 feet tall, and just coming into bloom.  In full bloom, they are glorious. In late bloom, they are beautifully moody-green, white, and white speckled with rose pink.  The show goes on for a number of months.  The limelights are just now coming on-I am ready.

Posted on: July 27, 2010 14 Comments
Filed Under: Woody Plants, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , ,

Pollarded


I am sure I have written before on the subject of pollarding. Pollarding refers to the practice of cutting back the branches of a tree to within close proximity of the main trunk.  Pollarding originally had much to do with practicality-home fireplaces needed wood to burn-for cooking, and for heat.  Americans are used to the sea from shining sea-endless land.  In Europe, space was precious.  Fuel-even more precious.  Cutting trees back to their main trunks for firewood was not an aesthetic decision-it was a life decision.  In many European countries, pollarded trees enabled large growing trees to thrive in small spaces, along narrow streets.    American gardeners are not used to seeing this type of pruning as our country is vast.  There is rarely need for any American gardener to cut trees back this hard.      

My Palabin lilacs on standard were in place when I bought my house some fifteen years ago.  For the first nine years I lived here, I did nothing to the landscape, save planting some 6 foot arborvitaes and in one moment of garden angst, 100 Hicks yews.  The Palabin lilacs on standard kept growing, despite my neglect.   

Not that I minded their growing. Every year they put on a show of pale grey violet blooms that made my heart pound.  When they are in season, they are dramatically in season. I plant Palabin lilacs regularly; they deliver much, and ask for little. But having planted a slew of boxwoods, and 11 Princeton Gold maples, the available space for the lilacs-diminishing.   


In recent years, I have pruned after their bloom, pruned again-and pruned more.  I wanted a low oval profile-not a ball shape.  In retrospect, I realize that I was bold in my mind, but timid in my pruning.  I posted about pollarded trees, and these lilacs some time ago.  A reader encouraged me to go ahead and cut them back; he was quite sure I needed a push.  He was right-I needed a push.  

The better part of two weeks ago, I cut these old Palabins back hard.  I have not heard one word from them, to date.  I am sure they are shocked, outraged, and disgusted with me.  I have not seen one bud push forth on these giant stems.  The jury is still out-no doubt. Some times I am spot on with aesthetic decisions, to the betterment my entire property.  Other moves I make that are dicey-all I can do now is wait.   Should you wonder if I am chewing my nails-pretty much.  Should they decide to leaf out around these thick old branches, I will be thrilled.

Posted on: July 9, 2010 11 Comments
Filed Under: Woody Plants Tagged With: