More and more, homeowners are searching for small-scale flowering trees since space on most suburban lots today is limited, and there is little room for oaks, beeches, and maples. Cornus Kousa Almost every gardener is familiar with our native flowering dogwood, but few know the gracefully-branched Cornus kousa with its creamy-white bracts, which appear in … Read more
A specimen of the dove tree, Davidia involucrata, a native of Western China, grows on top of Bussey Hilt at the Arnold Arboretum in the rather poor, stony soil of a well-drained area. This handsome tree has large, bright-green leaves and hears conspicuous flowers with beautiful, creamy-white bracts that look like petals. Since there is … Read more
How well it is named, this tree with an unbroken lineage of two hundred million years! It once formed vast forests around the northern hemisphere—forests in which the dinosaur roamed and in which the early birds learned to use the air as a means of transportation. This tree left an abundant fossil record in the … Read more
A chapter excerpt from a forthcoming new book by Jean Hersey, “Two Hundred WildFlowers to Know, to Crow, to Protect” (to be published by D. Van Nostrand Co., Inc.) Spring is imminent, and the time for our favorite pastime is at hand. Collecting wildflowers from woods, roadsides, fields, and stream banks is a delicious occupation! … Read more
Multiple-stemmed trees are gaining in popularity. When I look out the window at the seven-stemmed catalpa breaking the view of the garden shed at the back of the yard and adding to the interest of the gate leading into the garden, I understand why. Though I would not deliberately choose a catalpa as a lawn … Read more
With building lots growing smaller and houses shrinking closer to ground level every day, it’s time the Japanese lilac tree (Syringa amurensis japonica) came into its own. This little-known member of the lilac family has everything to recommend it to suburban homeowners—outstanding flowers, medium height, and rapid growth. Blooming in Late June or Early July … Read more
Among the small secondary trees, few, if any, bloom in as great profusion as the redbud. The best-known species is Cercis canadensis, native from southwestern Ontario to New York, New Jersey, and Florida, and west to Texas, eastern Kansas, and Nebraska extending northward to north central Illinois. It may grow to 30’ feet or more, … Read more
If you want a graceful, lacy tree festooned in midsummer with great sprays of yellow flowers, choose the golden rain tree (Koelreuteria paniculata) for your lawn or parkway. It is the ideal ornamental tree, not only for summer but for each month of the year. When red-buds, wild plum, and forsythia bloom, the China tree, … Read more
Erythrina is a genus of plants with over 130 species of shrubs, herbaceous plants, and red flowering trees distributed in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide. It’s a member of the Fabaceae, also called Leguminosae, but most commonly known as the bean, legume, or pea family. The Fabaceae family comprises about 20,000 species and 700 genera … Read more
Seventy years ago, the crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia) was practically unknown north of the Southern states, and a narrow strip of land in the southern part of those states bordered the “Old South.” If it was grown farther north, it was a “tub” plant or in a greenhouse. Today the crape myrtle is found growing and … Read more