Plant Lovers' Almanac: The gift of trees
August has brought us quite a spell of moderate weather with enough moisture to keep the grass mostly green; and enough moisture to encourage a stinkhorn mushroom to ooze forth in my lawn, fed by organic matter in the duff. My current obsession with hydrangeas continues, with the early white panicles turning to pink, now turning to reds and magentas on selections such as Berry White at the Secrest Arboretum trials in Wooster. The seven-son-flower trees (Heptacodium) are now sporting white petals, destined to bloom for three weeks or so, then to be followed by the main attraction, salmon-colored sepals behind the petals, that may reign for two months are more.
Let’s turn now to consideration of a tree selection celebration following a less felicitous tree happening in July. The summer windstorms in Northeast Ohio definitely affected many, including my friends and colleagues. One Wooster-area colleague lost so many trees that she reported their home-scape seemed unfamiliar, so much more open than the wooded haven they loved. Since her birthday had arrived, friends bought her a tree, to be planted in October, to partly amend the loss. Here are some suggested selections.
Baldcypress (Taxodium distichum)
This deciduous conifer is a versatile tree, tolerant of reasonably dry conditions (I have seen it growing in tough Fort Worth, Texas, strip mall plantings) yet thriving in swampy sites. It has verdant, scale-like green foliage in spring and red-brown color in fall. Yes, it loses its leaves each year and is thus a deciduous conifer. Mature baldcypresses can grow quite tall, even 70 feet tall, but there are many cultivars available, including dwarf weepers. Try "Cascade Falls."
Black gum (Nyssa sylvatica)
Its flowers are the source of tupelo honey. It is perhaps the greatest of our fall foliage trees, with intense burnished scarlets if your soil is right. It has alligator-like bark, glossy green summer leaves and small bluish fruits and is native to the south (also known as tupelo and sour gum), growing up to 50 feet and higher. Many new cultivars include "Autumn Cascades" weeper, "Wildfire" with some reddish foliage starting in spring, and "Zydeco Twist" with an interesting distorted growth habit.
Sweet gum (Liquidambar styraciflua)
Sweet gums or gumball trees are highly adaptable trees, growing as far south as Florida and high-altitude areas of Mexico, and northward into Ohio and beyond. Their five-part, star-shaped leaves are a glossy green, which become a rainbow of oranges, yellow, reds and purples in fall. "Slender Silhouette" is a narrow cultivar, which even at a height of 50 feet will be only 5-10 feet wide. And for those who hate the “gumball” mace-like prickly fruits, it produces far fewer fruits and those it does fall far less afield. There are also variegated cultivars of sweet gum, which add creams, yellows and pinks to the foliar palette.
Yellow magnolias
Magnolias are among our most beauteous flowering trees — from the multi-season pleasures of sweet bay magnolia to the springtime pleasures of star and saucer magnolias — that, when spring frosts are not too late, provide lovely open large pink, white and magenta blossoms. Lesser known but quite dramatic and lovely are the yellow-flowering magnolias.
There are many yellow-flowering types, such as "Butterflies," "Yellow Bird," "Elizabeth": all delightful. One of the loveliest is "Koban Dori," a cultivar of Magnolia acuminata, the cucumber tree magnolia. Cucumber trees may be very large; for example, the largest is in Stark County at 79 feet tall, with a circumference of 288 inches. "Koban Dori," though, is diminutive, maybe 20 feet tall and 12 feet wide after 15-20 years. The early May blossoms have a pleasing fragrance, a light, yellow buttery color and a cup-like shape. Though it will not be a titan, it will be a delightful, sunny presence of renewal in the wind-damaged renewal-scape. And, it is the winner! To be planted in a few months.
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From my experience the natural disaster of a windstorm is erased in time: The 2010 tornado at Secrest is becoming harder to imagine even though we lost thousands of trees, yet more than those lost have now been replaced. I will always remember the horticulturist at the Biltmore Estate and Gardens in Asheville, North Carolina, saying that the devastation by inland effects of Hurricane Hugo of more than a quarter of the forest on the Biltmore grounds in 1989 was the best thing that ever happened there: It allowed long-needed renovation in the damaged area.
Birthday Trees bring a warm feeling to my heart, starting with my Tolkienesque favorite, the Party Tree from “The Fellowship of the Ring.” Hobbits give elaborate parties on their birthdays, none more spectacular than Bilbo Baggins’ 111th. He built a giant party pavilion with the tree inside, and whenever I see a lone tree in a field I think of the tree; I wonder what type of tree it was?
Trees play a towering role in the J.R.R. Tolkien legendarium: from the environmentalist Ents, the tree shepherds, to the mythical silver-barked yellow-blossomed mallorn trees of Lothlorien, to the apple tree whose fruits gardener Sam Gamgee beaned Bill Ferny with as the hobbits left Bree, to the Twin Trees of Valinor, Telperion and Laurelin, that are about to play a major role in the tale of ancient times in the upcoming TV “Lord Of The Rings” prequel series in September. And the White Tree of Gondor and the marriage of Aragorn and Arwen Evenstar after the fall of Sauron and return of the king.
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Hobbits have a lovely tradition, giving presents to all those who come to their party instead of the reverse for our Age of Men and Women parties. So in my birthday month of September I shall endeavor to give as many of those I can a tree seedling or at least a seed or fruit in September — buckeyes, anyone? — including at our September OSU Secrest diagnostic seminar.
Tolkien loved his trees, always wanting to draw the perfect tree. This is from his short story “Leaf by Niggle,” a lovely evocation of his artistic sentiment:
“He was the sort of painter who can paint leaves better than trees. He used to spend a long time on a single leaf, trying to catch its shape, and its sheen, and the glistening of dewdrops on its edge. Yet he wanted to paint a whole tree, with all of its leaves in the same style, and all of them different.”
Jim Chatfield is a horticulture educator and professor emeritus at Ohio State University Extension. If you have questions about caring for your garden and other topics, write to chatfield.1@osu.edu or call 330-466-0270. Please include your phone number if you write.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: A look at trees, their foliage, height and growing conditions
