Trees

We're always on the lookout for unique and interesting trees and shrubs, and it always pleases us to find a quality plant that will really stand out in your landscape.  Our Korean Fir 'Horstmann's Silberlocke' (Abies koreana 'Horstmann's Silberlocke') is definitely one of those plants.  Korean Fir is a real show-stopper, featuring dark green needles that are recurved back to show the bright, silvery-white undersides, making the irregular branches almost seem to glow.  It produces many cones that sit upright on the branches and are an eye-catching steel-blue with hints of violet.  These cones take several months to mature, meaning you get these interesting accents on your tree for much of the year.  This particular selection of Korean Fir is exciting, because, as natives of the high mountains of Korea, most Korean Firs do not do well in warmer climates.  Horstmann's Silberlocke, on the other hand, is noteworthy for its ability to tolerate the heat all the way to zone 9.

If you are looking for a quick growing tree, Korean Fir is not for you.  It is an unusually slow-growing conifer.  However, the beautiful growth of this unusual plant is more than worth the wait for a majestic tree, and it is stunning almost from day one.  Several of my coworkers are already finding planting spots on their landscapes for this exciting Abeis koreana.

After years of badly wanting to go, I finally got a chance to attend the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C.  We left on a last-minute (and poorly-planned) whim Friday evening and returned Sunday night.  We were extremely fortunate to have had a free weekend just when the blooms were at their peak, and it was absolutely amazing.  It’s kind of hard to imagine without being there, but for a few days out of the year, a huge portion of our Nation’s capital turns pale pink.  Hundreds of thousands of people come to the festival each year (more than a million by some estimates).

The Japanese Cherry Trees (Sakura trees) in Washington were a gift in 1912 from Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo to celebrate the friendship between Japan and the United States.  The initial gift was of around 3000 trees and was reciprocated a few years later with a gift of flowering dogwood trees.  The festival was first held in 1935, but it was suspended just a few years later during World War II.  It was restarted in 1947, once America’s relationship with Japan had improved.  More trees were given to the US in 1965.  The US was able to return the favor in 1981, when a flood destroyed many of Japan’s Yoshino Cherry Trees.  Cuttings were taken from the cherry trees in Washington and taken back to be planted in Japan.  These Cherry Trees are an important symbol of femininity, beauty, and the fleeting nature of life in Japanese culture.  They are not, however, fruit trees, as are the Cherry trees that most Americans think of.

The festival is absolutely amazing.  Not only were the cherry trees in full bloom, but so were the daffodils, some of the tulips, magnolia trees, and apple trees.  While it rained all weekend here at our home in Hodges, South Carolina, it was a beautiful weekend in Washington.  It was a little overcast, but the bluer light just highlighted the sea of white and pink blossoms surrounding the entire tidal basin.  I’ve never seen so many kites as there were flying above the Mall.  While we didn’t have much time to visit the museums, spending a beautiful day walking around Washington in the peak of the Cherry Blossoms just can’t be beat.  I’m putting a few of the pictures I took up here on the blog.  Be kind, though; I’m a writer, not a photographer!

We don’t all have the good fortune to live in Florida or Southern California.  Some of us have to get our limes, lemons, and avocados the hard way: from the grocery store.  However, there is another option for growing warm-climate fruits in not-so-warm areas.  Some smaller varieties of fruit trees do very well in containers, and even produce fruit.  Just because you live in zone 4 doesn’t mean you can’t have a little zone 10 fun.

I love avocados.  They’re extraordinarily healthy, full of all sorts of amazing good-for-you fats and nutrients and such.  But really, it comes down to the very simple fact that they’re absolutely delicious.  I love avocado on just about anything (except for cake), and I’ll rarely turn down guacamole.  The problem is that avocados are pretty expensive, and the ones you find in the store are often second-rate.  Nothing compares to fresh, home-grown avocados, and that’s why the Avocado Don Gillogly is such a great plant.  It doesn’t just survive when grown indoors, it thrives and produces amazing avocados year-round in two crops, right there in your living room.  It will produce its first crop in around a year, which is unusually quick for a fruit tree.  It’s a beautiful, easy to grow plant even without the fruit, and can be left on the patio in warmer months to liven up your garden.

Mexican Thornless Lime

Of course, you wouldn’t want to have those fresh avocados around all the time and not make some great Mexican food, and no Mexican feast can be complete without limes.  The Mexican Thornless Lime tree is another fruit tree that does fantastically indoors, is easy to grow, and produces lots of fruit.  Even better, the blossoms that precede the fruit are both beautiful and carry a lovely fragrance.  The fruit ripens from late summer to early winter, but the evergreen foliage makes this citrus tree a wonderful houseplant year round.

Lemon Meyer Improved

The Meyer Improved lemon tree is a prize as an ornamental houseplant.  A prize that just happens to produce armloads of fantastic, juicy lemons.  The lemons grow in huge clusters of six lemons, which are best thinned to three per cluster, to allow them plenty of room to get big (though those early lemons that you thin can certainly be used in your cooking, too).  Check out my friend (and Master Gardener) Anne Moore’s article for tips on growing Limon ‘Meyer Improved’.

I was at my mother’s house this weekend, and I couldn’t help but notice that the backyard fence seemed a bit more exposed than usual.  I could easily see out the back window all the way to the road.  It seems that my father’s late-summer yard cleanup exposed a bit more than he’d expected.
This isn’t uncommon at all.  People often get overzealous with trimming or even eliminating trees and shrubs when they are lush and covered with leaves, only to discover come winter that they’ve cut away much of their privacy.  Winter, then, is the best time to plan where you’ll be planting fast growing evergreen trees and shrubs to serve as privacy hedges.  Evergreens are best for privacy because they maintain a mostly uniform level of screening throughout the year (plus they certainly liven up the yard in the bleak winter months).  Thujas are some of the most popular privacy evergreens, as they grow as much as three to five feet in a single year.  They have thick, dense foliage year-round, so they provide great privacy as soon as the first winter after planting, and they require little or no pruning to keep a wonderful conical shape.  Wayside Gardens carries both the classic Thuja ‘Green Giant’ and the newer, denser Thuja ‘Steeplechase.’  For faster growth, be sure to water thoroughly for the first year or two, and keep in mind when planting that it will need either room to grow to more than 25 feet tall or trimming in a few years.

Fruit trees are always popular, but often it takes several years before a tree produces a substantial amount of fruit. But there are a few fast-growing fruit tree varieties that allow you to be growing your own fruit within a couple seasons.

Dwarf citrus trees are small, and mature very fast, but you can only grow these in containers unless you live in a very warm place. Trees from the genus Prunus, like cherries, apricots, plums, and peaches, all grow fairly quickly, and they are so diverse that any gardener will be able to find exactly what they need.