So many trees/shrubs, so little room to plant them all

While teaching a class on uncommon trees/shrubs that have a place in any home landscape, it was very tough to narrow down the list to what could be talked about in an hour and a half. Very difficult.

If I had a whole day, there would still be ones left out. So here's a quick list of some that are absolutely outstanding!

1. A biased #1 -- I absolutely love this plant -- Sourwood (Oxydendrum arboreum)












2. Beautyberry (Callicarpa spp.)








3. Bald cypress (Taxodium distichum)












4. Kousa dogwood (Cornus kousa) or hybrids with our native dogwood (C. kousa x C. florida)
5. Deciduous hollies (Ilex decidua or I. verticillata)
6. Fringetree (Chionanthus virginicus)
7. Bottlebrush buckeye (Aesculus parviflora)
8. Blackgum (Nyssa sylvatica)

I'll stop there since my list would be very long if I tried to keep all the good ones on there. For a more comprehensive list, go to my website. It's a work in progress.

Please post your own favorites here. I'll warn you not to even mention ornamental pears or burning bushes -- they are not good plants...in my opinion...and overused to the point of being sickening.

A Good-looking Tree

When I came back to the office today, I told the secretary that I found a good-looking tree that I was leaving to take a picture of. She said 'Beth, you're old!'

If you don't believe me, take a look at this bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) that grows within a mile of our office. A deciduous conifer with rusty fall color. It'll only be a bit before the leaves fall off. Then you get to look at the great architecture of this plant.

When you think of bald cypresses, you immediately think of the 'knees' when the plant is near water. This plant doesn't need a flooded root zone to live and thrive! It does perfectly fine in a regular ol' soil. You won't get any knees, though.

This is a plant worthy of much more planting. Check out more information here.

Colors of the Arboretum

Berheim Arboretum is a wonderful place. I would highly, highly encourage a visit. This time of year is especially rewarding with the colors and fruits of fall.

I took 71 pictures and should have taken 171.

A plain old hickory lights up an otherwise dark area.

Beautyberry (Callicarpa dichotoma 'Alba') berries can be white!












And a pine (Pinus densiflora 'Dragon Eye') may supposed to have yellow needles -- go figure.



Go to Bernheim!

Are We Finally Done With Summer?

The freeze came. At home, on the morning of October 12, the temperature was 28 degrees. Most of the poke, pigweed, and ragweed got burned. But hyacinth bean iwll not recover. Nor will the sweetpotato vines here at the office. They are crispy. But the petunias lived.

The massive peppers near our entrance were saved by several night's lodging inside the office. They will look nice for a little longer -- or whenever I forget to drag them inside.

Waking up on Oct 12, it looked like a January morning. Everything was white with a thick frost. I couldn't imagine anything coming through but plants are amazing in their wills to live.

What do you think? Will we have another week or two with no frosts? I'm ambivalent. I'm already getting a little excited about looking through the new seed and plant catalogs for 2007.

Conspiracy Theory?

I was teaching the soils part of the Master Gardener Program here in Pulaski County yesterday. The class is a good one and asked a lot of good questions. We inevitably get sidetracked on to topics only related on the fringe.

The discussion was about fertilizers. And it turned to crabgrass control. UK recommends applying crabgrass control in late winter/early spring. Around here, that's March 15 or so. However, no fertilizer is recommended in the spring -- all fertilizers for turf should be applied in the fall and winter for our cool-season grasses.

Here's the buyer's beware: Just you try to find a crabgrass control product that has no fertilizer! It's dang near impossible! And it shouldn't be.

I'm not a conspiracy-minded person, but I truly believe that these chemical companies are in cahoots with lawn mower manufacturers. By putting fertilizer on legitimate spring crabgrass control, you are guaranteed to have to mow your lawn 2-3 times a week. Think about it. I don't think I'm that far off.

Here's another point. Several years ago, we were able to buy the crabgrass control only (with no fertilizer attached) from a dealer in Lexington KY. However, in 2005 this dealer did not carry the chemical by itself. The product they carried had 7% nitrogen! I asked them why? why? why?

The answer was that their lawn care guys (their customers) were demanding a crabgrass product WITH FERTILIZER! You make your own mind up. I have.

The picture above is 'Fireworks' goldenrod. A welcome splash of color this time of year.

Neglect is A Good Thing?

When it comes to composting, I used to be religious about turning the pile. That was BK -- Before Kids. Anyhow, these days, I rarely get to turn the pile. But over the weekend, my old 2X6 boards that I had been using to contain the pile, were retired and replaced with new ones.

And having not turned the pile in many, many months, the bottom of the pile was dark and rich. I actually got to harvest some humus -- considering my lack of aeration, I thought that was a great end result. The smell was earthy, the way it's supposed to be. You can't always get away without turning the compost pile, but I had dumped many different materials in the pile, some that were great for aeration (meaning -- sticks), so I guess I'm being rewarded for being neglectful.

I can live with that.

A Few of My Favorite Things

Just a simple message today about being a good consumer. Disclaimer: UK does not endorse anything I'm about to say.

There are more choices out there in the tree and shrub world than what Lowe's (insert any big box store name here) offers for sale in its stores. There -- I said it. I can't stand Lowe's. I can't stand Walmart. You will never find me there -- except when I HAVE to buy my daughter a new dance outfit the VERY night she started her dance class and WM was the only choice at 8pm.

There are so many different, unique, beautiful, trees and shrubs in the world! And many of you end up buying Bradford pears, Taxus, dogwoods, just whatever might be in stock at the store.

Well, let me name a few of my favorites and show you a few you're missing: Fringetree, Sourwood (below left), Kentucky Coffeetree, Blue ash, Bald Cypress, Daphne (at right), Contorted Filbert, Buttonbush (at left), Serviceberry, Bottlebrush buckeye, Beautyberry, Fothergilla, Kousa dogwood, purple redbuds, white redbuds, weeping redbuds, red-leafed redbuds to name a few.

With the internet, we have no excuse for settling. Research your choices. Be a good consumer.

NC State University has a good website on various trees and shrubs with pictures.