Bringing Tallamy Home to Peterborough

I have finally, after years of hearing about it, read Douglas Tallamy's 2007 book Bringing Nature Home. I have felt that I have been doing my part to help the environment in my public and private gardens. I have planted native as well as exotic plants in my gardens but have been careful to remove invasive plants like barberry, burning bush and bittersweet from the gardens. I have tried to plant trees and shrubs to provide food and shelter for birds. What I didn't understand was the importance of the foliage of native plants, in particular woody plants, as a source of food for insects which, in turn, supply food for birds, reptiles, amphibians and small mammals.

Tallamy has shown that most insects will only eat the foliage of trees and shrubs (with the exception of crabapples and several other exotic species) which they have evolved with for thousands of years. So my beautiful Katsura tree, Cercidiphyllum japonicum or the trifolaite maples, Acer triflorum and A. griseum x 'Gingerbread', that I adore, are not contributing to the food chain and biodiversity which is so important to our ecology. The good news is that oak trees are the number one woody plant to support Lepidoptera (bird food) and "serve as a host plant for 534 species of moths and butterfles." The two red oaks in my garden are making a huge contribution to biodiversity.

Tallamy maintains that "woody plants support much more biodiversity than herbaceous perennials and annuals. So, being creative with alien herbaceous plants is less harmful than using woody aliens. The number one herbaceous genus is Solidago, the goldenrods, but they only support 115 species. That is still a lot of biodiversity, but it is nearly five times less than oaks".

So it turns out, I haven't been doing as badly as I thought. All the public gardens have numerous crabapples which provide 311 species of Lepidoptera. The river birches, Betula nigra 'Heritage' that Gordon Hayward recommended at Depot Park support 413 species. The sugar maples at Teixeira Park provide 285 species and the beech trees at Putnam Park support 126 species.

My New Year's Resolution is to continue to pay attention to native plants in my public and private gardens. I love to experiment with exotic plants, but if I pay particular attention to the woody plants and make sure I have plenty of native asters, goldenrods, milkweeds and Joe Pye weeds, maybe I can have the best of both worlds.

Acer triflorum at the Arnold

Here are a trio of Acer triflorum trees in their blazing fall foliage glory at the Hunnewell Visitor Center at the entrance to the Arnold Arboretum. When I was searching for trees to plant in my garden, I thought it would be a good idea to see what trees and shrubs were chosen by the Arnold Arboretum to be placed in such a prominent location on their grounds. I selected Acer triflorum after seeing these trees a dozen years ago. It is a decision I don't regret.

Two Hardy and Beautiful Trifoliate Maples

Acer griseum x 'Gingerbread'

Acer triflorum

The trifoliate maples, Acer griseum, Acer mandshuricum, Acer nikoense and Acer triflorum, are refined 20-30 foot tall trees that originate from Japan, China and Korea. They offer varying degrees of exfoliating bark and excellent fall color. Acer triflorum is used as a street tree in my garden and is past peak but some of the bright burnt orange foliage, which rivals the best sugar maples cultivars, remains.

Acer griseum x 'Gingerbread' is a cross of the best known trifoliate, Acer griseum, and the less common Acer nikoense. It is the last of this family of trees to color. It will peak in a week or so and will climax with a pronounced russet-red color. 'Gingerbread' has the increased vigor of a hybrid. It is a much faster growing tree than Acer griseum and is a full zone hardier to Zone 4. I have used 'Gingerbread' as a patio tree near the terrace. Even after I planted the 10 foot tall gangly sapling in 1998, the terrace was compltely sunny. Now, twelve years later, the ugly duckling has turned into an elegant swan, and I have to limit the plants on most of the terrace to shade/part shade lovers.

I chose the trifoliate trees for their scale (they will never become too large for my small garden) and their distinctive characteristics which feel entirely at home in New Hampshire. The orange and red foliage are indistinguishable from the autumn hues of the red and sugar maples that are so common here.

Wave Hill and the High Line in March

Structure in the Flower Garden with views of the Palisades

Formal Obelisk in the Flower Garden

Evergreens and gazebo in the Wild Garden

Rustic Obelisk in the Wild Garden with a glimpse of the Palisades

Garden Path on the High Line

Railroad Tracks

Gridded Grove of Acer Triflorum

Garden View: Frank Gehry building and Jean Nouvel residential tower

I had an optometry symposium in New York City this weekend which gave me the opportunity to visit some public gardens in the Big Apple. On of my favorite gardens is Wave Hill, often called one of the most beautiful places in New York, which is in the Bronx. It is right off the Henry Hudson Parkway just north of the George Washington Bridge. It is one of the most southern of the great estates along the Hudson River and has magnificent views of the Palisades across the Hudson River. It became a New York City Park in the 1960's. The High Line is a brand new park on the West Side of Manhattan. It was originally an elevated railroad that was built in the 1930's to keep dangerous freight trains off the city streets. During the 1950's the trucking industry eclipsed rail traffic and the ultimately closed the High Line. In June, 2009, it became an elevated public park. Last Friday was my first visit to the High Line.

Late March is a great time to travel south when you live in New Hampshire. While we tend to remain blanketed in snow, spring is sprouting in New York City. Wave Hill and the High Line both offered excellent examples of public garden design. While they are very different, they have many similarities. The both have excellent structure which can be easily observed before the plantings emerge.

Wave Hill's Flower Garden is formally designed and is enclosed by a cedar fence which has a benches on two ends. It has what they call lozenge-shaped yew domes flanking the brick pathway. Later in the season, the garden will be full of an informal array of vintage and modern shrubs, perennials and tantalizing tender exotic plants.

The Wild Garden is inspired by William Robinson's writings in the early twentieth century. It contains plants from around the world and is planted in a "planted-by-nature effect." It has an antique gazebo, meandering gravel pathways and many varieties of evergreens which provide a backdrop to the elaborate plantings.

The High Line feels extremely modern, urban and gritty. Many of the plantings were designed by Dutch garden designer, Piet Oudolf. Oudolf specializes in perennial gardens that are influenced by the American prairie. The plantings were inspired by the self-seeded grasses and perennials that established themselves on the obsolete railway. The concrete plank pathways have a very contemporary feel to them. Sections of the rusted railroad tracks remain in their original location and are integrated into the plantings. The Asian tree, Acer triflorum, and our native grey birch, Betula populifolia, add bark interest and winter structure.

When I return from visiting inspiring public plantings in late winter, I try to take a hard look at my personal garden and the public parks that I work on in Peterborough. I ask myself what changes could be implemented to make the garden picture more beautiful and interesting in the winter and early springtime. I make every effort to visit excellent and diverse gardens and public places at different times of year for inspiration. Wave Hill and the High Line have a spirit of their own place and marry strong structure with unique (and in the High Line sometimes common) plants combined in very interesting ways.

Both Wave Hill and the High Line have plant lists on their websites that I found very helpful when I was studying their designs.

Their bark is better than their bite (Part 2)

Cercidiphyllum japonicum

January is a great time to think about interesting trees and structure in the garden. When I began making my garden, one of my first objectives was to select trees that would have beautiful characteristics in all four seasons. Gardening in New Hampshire makes the structure of the trees very important because there are no leaves on the trees from October to May.

In 1996, I took a propagation class at the Arnold Arboretum. The instructor, Jack Alexander, led us around the grounds collecting seeds from some of the most beautiful trees that are hardy to New England. One of the trees that he chose was Stewartia psuedocallia. I had six seeds germinate and become viable seedlings. I selected the two plants that seemed the most alike because I intended to plant my two trees symmetrically behind a granite bench in the garden. My trees are now about ten feet tall and are beginning to show fantastic bark that looks like camouflage or perhaps a muscular boa constrictor. When they are placed in front of a dark background the bark is a stunning feature for half the year. They also have camellia-like showy white flowers blooming in early July. Finally, they boast gorgeous autumn foliage with red and orange coloring.

The trifoliate maples, Acer griseum , Acer triflorum and Acer nikonese are all trees that are magnificent features for the winter garden. These maples mature into small trees about 25 feet tall. They have no flowers to speak of but have spectacular red and orange fall foliage. Acer triflorum, is the hardiest of the three and is robust growing in Zone 5. The bark is tan and exfoliates with age. Acer griseum , also known as the paperbark maple, has the most exquisite bark. It has beautiful reddish brown bark that exfoliates in large ribbons. It is slow-growing and takes many years to become an impressive specimen. However, Acer griseum crossed with Acer nikonese, has the unique bark of the paperbark maple with increased vigor. My first experience with the cross was a magnificent specimen along Meadow Road not far from the visitor center at the Arnold Arboretum . Acer griseum x 'Gingerbread' is an excellent hybrid. I finally tracked it down at Twombly Nursery in Monroe, CT. I rented a Uhaul truck and brought a small tree home in 1998. My tree is now over 20 feet tall and lightly shades our terrace.

Heptacodium miconioides, also known as seven sons flower, is a large shrub growing about 15-20 feet tall and is quite hardy. It is a relatively new plant to cultivation. It has white flowers that bloom simultaneously with my sweet autumn clematis vine. After the flowers fade, it has a second "bloom" of reddish purple drupes crowned with showy calyxes which elongate after the flowers bloom. The bark is whitish gray and peels off in long strips.

Cornus officinalis is a little known member of the dogwood family. It is closely related to Cornus mas and has yellow flowers around the time the forsythias bloom in April. The have large red edible fruit in autumn. The tart fruit can be used to make a delicious jelly. My tree is just taking off and I look forward to the year when I will be able to harvest enough berries to make preserves. The bark is considered more handsome than that of Cornus mas. It has a mixture of oranges, grays and browns and slowly exfoliates in small curlicues.

Their bark is better than their bite (Part 1)

Acer triflorum

Acer griseum x 'Gingerbread'

Heptacodium miconioides

Stewartia pseudocamellia

Cornus officinalis