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A Dwarf Conifer Garden

I made my first visit to this garden in 2006.  My clients-serious gardeners.  Ray is first and foremost a rock lover.  He collects little rocks, big rocks, boulders-like I said, he loves rocks.  He built a waterfall and pools in their backyard-I was impressed by his efforts.  Janice-she is a committed science teacher, and horticulturally adept.  She is a player.  The two of them asked me to intervene in their efforts.   In 2007, I planted a group of dwarf conifers for them.   

The pond bridge, the waterfall, the pools,the deck, and the perimeter plantings were largely in place when I got there.  I assembled a group of dwarf evergreens I thought would soften Ray’s rocks, and provide year round interest.  They live in a neighborhood; the views to the neighbors-not so good.  They needed a landscape that addressed their sophisticated tastes in plants, that also screened out untoward views. A private garden oriented around interesting and unusual plants.

Proper planting means big spaces in between.  Dwarf conifers grow slowly, but they grow. Some so called dwarf confiers actually attain considerable size when they age. I am by no means an expert on the topic, so I studied up on those evergreens that interested me in terms of shape or needle texture or color.  A few key or central plants, and a supporting cast for each.  The first year-there is lots of bark in evidence. 

My visit today, some three years later-a different story.  They are great gardeners-every conifer has grown, and looks healthy.  I could barely believe I was visiting the same garden.  Dwarf evergreens of contrasting forms, colors and textures had covered the ground.  It may be tough to spot, but my arrangement of dwarf conifers took into account a view of a blue spruce on a community berm at a distance. Blue evergreens-they look their best far away. Study this picture.  That blue spruce far away adds visual depth to what is a small garden. Placing blue needled evergreens far and away adds great depth to a landscape.  Though this spruce does not belong to them, it is part of their garden view.   

The varying textures and colors of greens are very pleasing to the eye.  I would imagine this garden is lovely with a dusting of snow, or on a rainy day.  The best part of evergreen plants is how weather changes their appearance.  No doubt there will be some sort of weather, every day.  Planning a landscape to take advantage of  all of the seasons is worth the challenge.  A good landscape design takes the predictable growing, the weather, and the unexpected issues into account, and still reads strongly.  How this garden looks today pleases me.     

Ray’s bridge has settled down-it reads as part of a whole now, given its green company.  Goldfish swarm the pool.  There is a water lily blooming.  Most everything I planted is growing vigorously.-no garden is without loss and disappointment.   These clients have an oasis of their own making.  They have done all the work of the watering, the pruning, the feeding, the nurturing-the fussing about.  I spent two days there.  They have done four years worth of work.   

I do not mind visiting some projects, years later, with enchantment on my mind.  My favorite clients-those gardeners that scoop up the idea and the installation-and go on from there.  How I admire those clients who understand what it means to take up the reins, and go on. A Princeton Gold maple planted outside the fence, and as far away as possible, lights up the foreground planting.  It was mrecilessly hot and sunny yesterday, but the look here is lush and refreshing.     

This conifer garden-I would have it.  They have looked after it in such a way that they deserve a prize.    I do my share of the work-but a committed steward is everything to a garden.  Some days I would just as soon give away my garden as have it.  Then I have lucky days.  Yesterday Buck accidentally locked himself out of the house an hour before I got home.  All the watering chores got done.  I was only adrift for one second- I got in the fountain, and had a glass of wine.    

Their garden-beautiful.  I love going back, and seeing a project that has no further need of me.

Posted on: June 22, 2010 3 Comments
Filed Under: Woody Plants, Garden Design, Landscape Design Tagged With:

White Trees

 

Some years ago I landscaped a gated community in our area.  I put all my visual bets on groves of scotch pine, and Himalayan white-barked birch.  Pinus Sylvestris and Betula Jacquemontii-sounds like an engagement announcement to me.  Both trees like sun, and perfectly drained soil.  The birch likes cool moist soil; a placement in a lawn panel that gets regular water.  The Scotch pine-placed ever so slightly out of range of the overhead irrigation-in drier locations.

Both species are doing just fine, but no doubt the Himalayan is the looker of the pair.  The whitest barked of all the birch, that white bark is evident at a very early age-unlike other species that have to grow up into the white. The striking color of this bark puts it on my dance card of white trees I  like to waltz around with.  Very susceptible to the bronze birch borer, they need care-just like everything else that is so worth the trouble.  

White flowering trees make the spring landscape spectacular.  The magnolias first up, the apples, the Bradford pears, the crabapples-the list of white spring flowering trees is considerable.  They bloom before they have foliage.  Take a minute to think about that phenomena.  Asleep all winter, they burst forth with their show like they have 10 minutes to live. This year the blooming was especially heavy.  I am not a big fan of Bradford pears, but my favorite thing about them is when their topmost branches start to green up, while the rest of the tree is still in bloom.  A gorgeous spring phase.

My dogwoods are coming on strong now. Cornus Florida-when they are good, they are excellent, and when they are bad, they are horrid.  I have one tree in the grove with 2 flowers-go figure.  They fade from fungus over the summer. They perpetually look wilted, and unhappy.  But today, I have no complaints.  The flowers keep me coming back for more. 

I have a particular interest in single flowers, for whatever reason.  Bloodroot, white hellebores, dogwood, white annual phlox, white pansies, daisies, Peony Krinkled White, white poppies, Nicotiana alata, Japanese anemones-you get the idea.  White single flowers are especially beautiful.  So simple, elegant, and satisfying to the eye.


The Venus dogwood is no doubt the most spectacular white flowering tree on the planet.  A cross between the Pacific dogwood, Cornus Nuttalli, and Cornus Kousa, it has the great characteristics of each, in addition to great hardiness, a fast growth rate, and the most spectacular white flowers I have ever seen.  The trees at the shop were in bloom a full month last year, start to finish.


The foliage is large and lush.  They do not fruit to speak of, which doesn’t turn me away from them much.  I like that I can place them in full sun in my zone, and see them thrive.  You can see the size of the trunk in this picture; even an immature tree puts on quite a show.

I typically buy them as 1″ or 1.5″ caliper trees in 25 gallon pots.  This makes it easier for a home gardener to plant them-although  those pots are terrifically heavy.  Even at this early age, each tree will sport upwards of 300 flowers.  Though magnolias can be every bit as willing to bloom, they are fussy about weather conditions.  In a warm year, they may drop their flowers in an instant.

The willingness to grow vigorously and bloom heavily for a long time makes “Venus” my favorite white tree. The trees at the shop are small, and quite green right now; they have inherited that later bloom characteristic from the Kousa parentage.  If you like dogwoods, a Venus will greatly extend the spring bloom season beyond Cornus Florida time. The Venus season is just about to begin.


This was my red white and blue view the other day.

Posted on: May 7, 2010 2 Comments
Filed Under: Woody Plants Tagged With: , , ,

The extraordinary Mr. Phil Savage

I have a big love for magnolias; I would have any and all of them, if I could.  I admire their big glossy leaves, and pale grey bark.  Most zone 5 hardy magnolias top out at 25 feet; they are a perfect tree for a small property.  Their spring flowers are strikingly large-and simply beautiful.  Some years our spring is so short they might be in bloom only a few days; I do not fault them for this.  Write a protest letter to Ms. Nature-should you have an inclination-but do not expect an answer.  Zone 5 gardeners-we ought to be used to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune-I am quoting Shakespeare here. No matter how many years in a row I would need to live through a late season killing frost, I would still plant magnolias.  Magnolias are so beautiful in every other regard, I have no problem recommending them.

Magnolia Stellata, or star magnolia, and the saucer magnolia, Magnolia Soulangiana, are common to my area. They, and their progeny and hybrids, grace many a spring landscape in my city.  Wada’s Memory, a hybrid of Magnolia Stellata, is a particularly beautiful white cultivar.  Ivory Chalice, bred by Dr Leach from the species Magnolia Denudata, is exceptionally striking in a good year.  It blooms early, and the blooming can be damaged by unexpected cold.  Should you have Ivory Chalice on your property this year, I am sure you are dancing with delight.  Plant this tree if you are a trouper gardener.  Do not plant this tree if you live by your expectations.

But by far and away, my favorite magnolia is Yellow Butterflies.  Bred by Phil Savage, a world renowned magnolia hybridizer, its fragrant pale yellow flowers are the best part of my spring landscape.   He lived on a large property right on Woodward Avenue in Bloomfield Hills for many years.  I met him in 1987 courtesy of Al Goldner, a noted landscape designer who mentored me for some years.  Al was very interested that any designer first and foremost needed to learn as much as possible about plants.  He was forever hauling his group to see this breeder, or that farm.  It was an education bordering on priceless; I understand that now.

I have no photographs of Phil Savage’s property, but I can describe it.  Magnolias towering at the better part of 50 feet tall were everywhere. Some were white, some were pink.  Others were peach, or yellow, or bordering on orange-colors I had never seen before.  Some trees with trunk calipers approaching 40 or 50 inches-magnolias grafted onto ash tree rootstock. The grafts were giant and incredibly sculptural.  Visiting his property was like visiting another planet. 

Just a few years ago, I visited his property again-courtesy of his niece-a client. He had passed away, and the property was for sale.  She thought I might like to see the magnolias in bloom.  What I saw there took my breath away.  A lifetime devoted to growing trees was in evidence everywhere. Magnolias, and more magnolias.  The size of his trees-like nothing I had ever seen. A giant forest of magnolias-imagine it. Most of these trees have never been introduced into commerce; the scientist and the dreamer had grown trees like I have never seen before or since.  The property is pure magic. 

The property was purchased from the family by a group intending to build a facility for the aged.  His niece was concerned that many of his trees would be felled, destroyed, in that process. I did have GP Enterprises, who successfully moves big trees, look at the property.  So many of the big trees were much too big to be moved. This was not so much comfort for her-she felt her Uncle’s work should be looked after, not cut down.  I was powerless to do anything-this felt so bad.

Phil Savage’s most beautiful and well-known cultivar-Butterflies.  This clear pale yellow flowering magnolia -I planted ten of them on either side of a walk to my back yard, and underplanted them with boxwood.  They have been in 6 years now; this spring their blooming is heavy and gorgeous.  A cross between the cucumber magnolia-Magnolia Acuminata, and Magnolia Denudata Sawada’s cream-it is exquisite in bloom, in leaf, in bark, and in habit. Every day for the last week, I pull up in front with the corgis in tow-and get out to take photographs. They lean out the rear window as if to ask-what are you up to?  I am up to trying to capture the color, the shape, the fragrance-all those things that defy recording.  No photograph could possibly do justice to how beautiful they are right now-come by if you can. 

I know I posted a few days ago about how I wish Detroit had a botanic garden, and that in the event I decided for the first time to buy a lottery ticket, and won, I would put that money towards a botanic garden for my city.  I could refine that dream.  The group that bought the property-they have no plans to build over Phil Savage’s magnolias right now; their project is on hold.  If I could, I would write them a check, and wave them off.  I would make a botanic garden-presided over by the most singular and amazing magnolia grove it has ever been my privilege to see.  I have my dreams, yes I do.


Wish me luck.

Posted on: April 22, 2010 16 Comments
Filed Under: Woody Plants, Garden Stories Tagged With: , , , , ,

Beloved Boxwood

 


I can think of few plants that have a better service record than my beloved boxwood.  Properly cared for, they are very long lived.  Old boxwoods have an aura of age which only adds to their beauty.  They demand little, and give much.  Few broadleaved evergreens can tolerate our cold winters.  Though our nurseries are stuffed with blooming Catawbiense hybrid rhododendron in the spring, it is a constant battle to keep them happy and healthy.  They simply like Philadelphia better than Detroit.  Ilex, kalmia and the like suffer here as well.  The boxwood-they thrive.  I plant the very hardy Buxus microphylla hybrid Green Velvet; the winter color is as richly green as the summer.      

This giant untrimmed ball of buxus microphylla koreana has lived in this French terra cotta pot for 5 years.  We wheel it into the garage for the winter-to protect the pot, not the boxwood.  The garage has neither light nor heat-not a problem.  In March we wheel it back outside for another season.  Boxwood can be quite hardy in pots or windowboxes outdoors all winter; the container needs to be frostproof, and the maintenance thoughtful. The buxus microphylla which forms the hedge outside my shop will take on an orangy-olive color in the winter; this winter color is typical.  The front of the shop is a southern exposure.  The hedge has been there 12 years, and has yet to burn over a winter. Most of the hybrids of boxwood hardy in zone 5 come from this species.

Buxus Sempervirens, commonly called European, or Southern box, is the boxwood variety of my dreams.  Lush and large growing, they adapt easily to any sculptural pruning you might dream up. They can grow to twenty feet tall.   If you have seen the boxwood planted by Beatrix Farrand at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, you know how a boxwood planting can be sculpture.  Pruned into undulating cloud shapes, this planting is a showstopper.  I have seen this boxwood planted in ground in my zone, but a particularly vicious winter has the power to kill them. They are rated for zones 6-8; this rating means what it says. I therefore recommend using them in pots, and wintering them in an interior space. They only need an unheated space; you want them to go dormant, and only wake up when the worst of the winter is past. 

I rarely see boxwood topiary of size grown from a zone 5 hardy boxwood.  Boxwood is a relatively slow grower; it might take 7 years to get a cutting of Buxus Green Velvet” to 24″ tall. Boxwood in general are expensive.  Southern box grows faster in a mild climate, such as the Pacific northwest; they routinely flush growth twice there in a single season. As southern box is a big plant when mature, large scale topiaries such as these are usually grown from this variety.  A topiary this size, with a trunk caliper this large-very pricey.  But priceless in its return.  While it is an investment, your investment will grow and prosper over the years-what gardener could ask for more?   

This boxwood sphere with its attendant topknot/hairdo-what a great looking and very special plant.  You might grow topiary boxwood yourself from cuttings-it just takes years.  Any grower of nursery material-how incredibly patient they are. They can see the potential for a decently sized plant in a cutting.  But very large specimen boxwood such as these do not come along so often; most growers like to sell their material in a shorter time frame.  Now and then we will find a grower who has a love for growing unusually large or largely unusual plant material; these growers interest me. 


Boxwood is as happy in a supporting form as it is being the star of the show.  Their tolerance for clipping and shearing makes them an ideal formal evergreen hedging material, when a small hedge is desirable.  These large circular beds beds planted with tulips have a drama that would not be possible with tulips alone.  Their geometry and symmetry is an organizing metaphor for this particular garden.  The loose growing tulips have an excellent visual partner in the boxwood.

This is not to say boxwood is without its problems. The boxwood at the Chicago Botanic garden suffered terrible damage after last year’s winter-as the sign says. The boxwood in the front of my shop sustained damage much like this. In my case, huge snow loads, as well as freezing and thawing, weighed the plants down such that stems split, and allowed a fungal infection to invade.  Heartbreaking. 

These boxwood in my garden suffered similar damage-but I would not for one moment consider not growing them.  They are beautiful year round.  Gorgeous in growth.  Beautiful in the rain, or with fall leaves dusting their tops.  Beautiful as a topiary or a hedge.  Spectacular in pots.


They are a quietly handsome groundcover, under my Yellow Butterflies magnolias.   The day the petals fall to the boxwood-one of my favorite days of the gardening year.

Posted on: April 20, 2010 6 Comments
Filed Under: Landscape Design, Woody Plants Tagged With: , ,