![]() ![]() This variety is called “Miss Grace” and it’s a weeper that I had to train up to get it to its current height of 9 feet. This is a variety of the famous Dawn Redwood, or Metasequoia glyptostroboides. This one is perhaps my favorite tree in the garden. I’d like that, but since it only puts on about a foot each year, as is typical for many mid sized dwarf trees, it’ll take another 1o years or more to get there. This tree is only 5 years old from a 5 ft tree, and it’s now over 10 feet tall and 7 feet across so it’s going to get much bigger in time. It’s one of my “pettable” trees because it’s so soft to the touch and easy to be around. It’s late to leaf out in the spring too but the foliage is such a treat it’s well worth the wait. ![]() This tree turns a lovely shade of orangish brown before it drops its needles in late fall. It also develops “knees”, or roots that come up above the water line. The wood is known for its ability to withstand rot, as is true with many plants in the Cypress family. The species tree grows to 100 -150 feet and is a valuable timber tree for commerce in its native habitat. I’ve only seen them get to 10 feet or so myself so we’ll see how it goes. This is a dwarf form of the tree that will only grow to 10-20 feet tall, depending on which web site you read. This is the Taxodium distichum variety called a “Peve Minaret” for the developer of it in Holland. It’s a variety of the Swamp Cypress that inhabits the swamps and wetlands of that area. This tree in the Cypress family, or Cupressaceae, is well know in the south eastern parts of the US. They’ll come back in the spring all feathery and bright green and new. So don’t be shocked when that lovely conifer you have in the front yard loses its leaves in the autumn. It’s not a true larch but sure does look like one. This tree is in the Pinaceae, or Pine family, along with another of these deciduous conifers called the Pseudolarix, or Golden larch. We won’t get much shade from this tree but its form and texture makes up for that quite well. It turns an amazing golden yellow in fall and can be seen from the house it’s so bright and clear in its color. It’s a uniquely contorted form that bends and twists as it grows fast to a small tree of maybe 30 feet tall, in not much time, given that it’s grown 3 – 3 1/2 feet for the last two years I’ve had it and it’s still growing this year. The one I’m showing you here is a form of the Japanese Larch, Larix kaempferi, called “Diana”. There are some 11 species of it that grow from the Western US across the to the Atlantic seaboard and others that grow across Europe to Siberia and into the Himalayas and beyond to China and Japan. Of the few deciduous conifers that exist on this planet the Larch, or Larix, is probably the best known. There’s so much more going on beneath the leaves… ![]() It’s a lot harder to do, but totally worthwhile to try to learn them. It takes practice, and I’ve personally found that the aspect is an easier way to identify them then the buds are, but that’s just because I haven’t learned the buds as well. It’s a true art to learn to identify them by their buds and growth habits, without the leaves to guide us. I hope this little story has given you a different idea of a new way to look at trees when they don’t have their leaves on them. Red Fox Katsura (Cercidiphyllum japonicum “Rot Fuchs”) Weeping Purple Copper Beech (Fagus sylvatica “Purpurea Pendula”) Miss Grace Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides “Miss Grace”) Waterfall Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum dissectum “Waterfall”)ĭwarf Swamp Cypress (Taxodium distichum “Peve Minaret”)īloodgood Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum “Bloodgood”) Korean Butterfly Maple (Acer tschnoskii ssp. Red Pygmy Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum “Red Pygmy”)ĭiana Japanese Larch (Larix kaempferi “Diana”)Įddie’s White Wonder Dogwood (Cornus florida x nuttallii)Ĭoral Bark Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum “Sango-Kaku”) Vanessa Persian Ironwood (Parrotia persica “Vanessa”) Jade Butterflies Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba “Jade Butterflies”) It’s something that’s so much harder to see when they’re in full leaf. They’re still beautiful to look at now, and you can see how I’ve pruned them to attain their current shapes. I’ll show you a few of the deciduous trees in our garden so you can see this structure and appreciate the trees from a whole new perspective. They look so different without their clothes on and you can really see how the buds look and the ways they grow. You can finally see the structure of them. It’s always fascinated me to look at the trees in the fall and winter when they’re bare of leaves. But it’s Winter and there isn’t much lushness around now. I usually like to showcase lush green gardens or individual plants in this blog, with some miscellaneous posts here and there. Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick (Corylus avellana “Contorta) ![]()
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