Japanese White Pine
…the white pine that stands by the lake. Tall and dense, it’s a whistling crest on windy mornings. Otherwise, it’s silent. It looks over the lake and it looks up the road. I don’t mean it has eyes. It has long bunches of needles, five to each bundle. From its crown springs a fragrance, the air is sharp with it. Everything is in it. But no single part can be separated from another…
-Mary Oliver
Whenever I think of or hear the name Japanese White Pine, Pinus parviflora, an immediate image is of one with a great blue heron resting on a long horizontal branch spanning above the placid water of Auburn Lake, which created a mirrored reflection.
(more…)Horticulture Highlight: Striped maple, Moosewood
A striped blouse in a clearing by Bazille
Is, you may say, a patroness of boughs
Too queenly kind toward nature to be kin…
-Richard Wilbur
Acer pensylvanicum, Striped maple, Moosewood is a small tree or a large shrub which in changing phases of youth may display attractive green bark with white or pale striping. These most striking colors will evolve with age to green or reddish-gray bark with black stripes. Occasionally there may be individuals with dark-reddish-brown bark and black stripes. While this bark is not as eye-catching as some of our paperbark maple, stewartia, paper birch, river birch, lacebark pine or lacebark elm, it’s subtle interest is still worth a moment’s contemplation and perhaps a photo to share.
(more…)Autumn Joy Sedum
No spring, nor summer beauty hath such grace,
As I have seen in one autumnal face.
-John Donne
Expected autumnal beauty is usually delivered with striking leaf colors as with our tupelo, Franklin tree, fothergilla, Virginia sweetspire, and of course maples to cite just a few. Herein however we sing our praise for a late-bloomer with reliable deep-red or raspberry flowers amongst the surrounding cornucopia of fall foliage.
Autumn Joy Sedum, Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ is a lovely, award-winning (Royal Horticultural Society) herbaceous perennial. This is a hybrid originated in Germany between Sedum spectabile and Sedum telephium, which had the original name of ‘Herbstfreude’.
What’s in Bloom 2021
What’s in Bloom: Week of November 8, 2021 [Final List of the Season]
Chrysanthemum, Chrysanthemum sp., many locations
Witch hazel, Hamamelis virginiana, several locations
Panicle hydrangea, Hydrangea paniculata, several locations
Ladies tresses, Spiranthes sp., Beech Ave.
Aster, Aster tartaricus, Asa Gray garden
Aster, Aster ageratoides ‘Esa Murasaki’, Asa Gray garden
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