Masterpiece Landscaping Blog

August 13, 2010

What Catalogs Don’t Tell Us About Mature Conifer Plant Sizes

Filed under: About Masterpiece, garden maintenance, shrubs and trees — glenn @ 5:06 pm

I am looking at a nursery wholesale catalog….a guide which carries a paragraph or less to inform the unknowing a bit about the nature of the plant.  Information located there is made available by a number of sources.  It could be from the original plant propagator, a plant salesman, or a university professor in the horticultural department.

In the landscape architect’s world knowing names of individual plants is seldom important, except perhaps for billing.  Plants are know as “green statements”, or color statements……a tall statement…..or something ‘broad’.  

I happen to like arborvitaes and have often claimed to classes which I have taught, that it is the plant genus the Minnesota landscape garden could not do without.  

There are dozens of cultivars and varieties of arborvitae….(Thuja).

In my wholesale catalog I notice that the height of the Degroot’s arborvitae, one of my favorite evergreen uprights,  is stated at six feet with a width of two feet.  Height 6′, width  2′…..and that is it. 

I am looking at one of my many Degroot’s arborvitaes in my own landscape garden, one about twelve years in my possession which was about 3 feet tall when I planted it.  I am also reminded of the three or four magnificent specimens Masterpiece planted at a Riviera Road property in Sartell, Minnesota in the mid 1990s, all of them two and a half feet wide but now over twenty feet tall.

There seems to be some problem in communication here.

Why the discrepancy?

One, and a good answer, may be that no one really knows how tall a Degroot’s arborvitae might reach under ideal circumstances.   There are so many new conifer cultivars now on the market, no one has yet seen some of them as mature specimens.   

Chamaecyparis are relatively new to the Minnesota landscape plant market.   The most popular one is sold as “King’s Gold” or “Sun Gold” which closely resembles an arborvitae.   They are sold as shrubs.   

 I open my wholesale catalog to the “Chamaecyparis, King’s Gold”  page, and I am informed that the plant upright size is one to two feet and its width is 3 feet.   No further information is offered.   The purchaser, whether home owner or professional landscaper, or someone somewhere in between might not know that if a King’s Gold Chamaecyparis were left alone to grow well on a favorable site, it would become a fifteen to twenty foot tall, conifer tree with drooping foliage about eight to nine feet wide.

It is sold as a shrub for a number of reasons…..One can sell twenty shrubs of a cultivar to every tree form of that cultivar, and Chamaecyparis are slow growing.  Even though it is genetically destined to become a small tree, regular pruning can keep its size to around six or seven feet in height. 

Another example of misinformation or lack of information  usually goes with selling the Japanese Yew.   There is a spreader variety…..labeled “Taunton”, and an upright  called “Capitata”.   If neither are ever pruned, and  allowed to grow to maturity under good conditions, both will become huge…..if twenty five feet wide and twenty five feet tall would count as huge. 

The Taunton Yew is one of the most common conifers used in  foundation plantings.   One of its best features is that it not only tolerates shade including deep  shade, it flourishes in shade.  

On one property of a regular client of ours in a space of about 30 square feet in the front area of this beautiful house, there were planted 16 Taunton Yews by the Landscape Architect.   In time one plant could have covered the entire space.  To be understanding of the Architect or Landscaper, most homeowners don’t have the patience to wait fifteen years for the full character this wonderful conifer could develop. 

One of my favorite landscape trees for the Twin City scene is the Sunkist Arborvitae or  its identical twin called Yellow Ribbon Arborvitae.  Both are ’scheduled’ to reach 8 feet tall and three feet wide.  Since that is all the information catalogs offer, one assumes that that is its mature size.

It is a wrong assumption.    Three of the Sunkists on my own grounds are all over fifteen feet tall and the king of the hill in the front garden is over eight feet wide.   I prefer them to have foliage to the ground so you can see theydo take up some space which the catalogs did not include.

I have good soil and an effective irrigation system.  Both add tremendously to the healthful growth of the vast majority of trees if not all. 

If reliable watering is not available for arborvitaes, they will not reach such heights.  Generally, many of the junipers hardy in our area are more tolerant of some drought and somewhat poorer soil.  But when on good soil, fertilized and watered properly, many, both upright and spreaders are shocking (and very beautiful) in the size they  can reach. 

My favorite upright Juniper is the Hetz Columnar.  Height size is listed in catalogs as fifteen to twenty feet.  If  planted in good loamy soil and  its location is in full sun and is regularly watered, Hetz Columnar can reach double that listed height in  ten to twelve years.

A beautiful spreading juniper is Hughes.  It is marked as six feet wide and only a foot tall, which makes it  seem like a modest ground cover…..for full sun as the catalog informs its reader.  Most, if left to grow unencumbered in to space, will surpass fifteen feet in diameter and reach only two feet in height in its normal life span. 

We seldom see these beautiful conifers in their full size.  In the future perhaps those who write statistics for catalogs will  provide more accurate  information about the  adult  sizes of these woody plants, so the consumer or the consumer’s representative can make better choices for the home grounds.

July 30, 2010

Global Warming Right in My Front Grounds!

Filed under: Uncategorized, shrubs and trees — glenn @ 11:03 pm

I had a mature elm removed from the front grounds of my landscape garden last Thanksgiving weekend.    I suspect it was over 65 years old and of about the same height.  If someone wants to purchase  the trunk I have it stored away in a quonset hut.  I am not certain what I am going to do with it.

The tree did not have Dutch Elm disease, but it was afflicted with  a minor disorder…..a foliar disease in which for three or four years in a row before removal, it started to shed its leaves right about now, the first of August.

The mature elm must have a billion leaves, for I had to rake every day until late October to keep  my driveway over which the elm stood, somewhat clean.

I remember reading one time,  that if one lined up all of the roots and rootlets of a mature elm, it would reach the moon, 240,000 miles away.  I have never challenged that statistic, for anyone who gardens under the shade of an elm, maple or birch tree knows that these tightly wired roots are almost inpenetrable.  Moreover,  they seize most of  the water that comes their way. 

Nearly everything growing within the shade of this enormous elm, has thanked me for my deed except for the hostas and the brunnera, which are showing some to significant amounts of leaf burn.  The most severly suffering is Hosta, Great Expectations.   El Nino doesn’t seem to be bothered.

A special word regarding Host El Nino.  This one is unique in a hosta world populated with countless members some of which cannot be well distinguished one from another. 

El Nino in sun until about 2 PM in my front grounds has not shown signs of sun burn.   Those in the shade have such striking foliage, turquoise and a nearly white cream, and solid leaf form, the plant radiates its spot as if itself is perpetually under the spotlight.  It is unique among its relatives, both close and distant.   It blends and contrasts very well with Gentsch Hemlock, a dwarfish Canadian hemlock claimed to reach only six  feet. 

Whether in shade or sun, if well fertilized and never having to endure drought, Gentsch has a turquoise  tinge to its foliage except for the whitish new growth, which makes it pleasantly noticed especially in shade. 

They are sold as shrubs….but I have my doubts.   My second oldest Gentsch, probably six or seven years in my grounds (a purchase in a size 5 pot)  it is over 6 and a half feet already, and I have pruned in back each of the last two year by two feet. 

The oldest receives less sunlight but grows in a more crowded condition among other evergreen conifers in a group, two arborvitaes and a huge, fast growing Hetz juniper, all planted at about the same time.    This Gentsch is almost ten feet tall after about ten years in its location. 

Readers should know that there are many dwarf and semidwarf evergreen conifers which are relatively new on the market……cultivars “invented” or selected from some mistake in its heritage.

There aren’t many, or in some cases, there are none which have been grown to maturity yet here in Minnesota.   My front grounds Sunkist Arborvitae is already 15 feet in height in its 15th year in my garden.  It was a size five pot when purchased. 

The label tagged with the plant when purchased informed me it would reach 8 feet in height with nothing else added to the information.   This is not a complaint, only an observation.

It is very, very common that  heights of garden trees and shrubs as listed on labels  underestimate the heights of  mature heights of the plant.

I have excellent soil and an automatic irrigation system.

The rest of the plants in the front grounds have improved their color and appearance in general. 

Yet, Global Warming has attacked.  We do a bit more computer stuff in the evening these times since we have lost our shade cooling the second floor office.

July 28, 2010

Tree Categories: What’s the Difference Between the White Pine and the White Oak As A Shade Tree?

Filed under: shrubs and trees — glenn @ 9:46 pm

Trees are by far the most revered species of the floral world.  We believe we’ve lived in them.  We’ve  eaten  their fruit, their syrup, sapped them for their rubber,  used them for shelter,  for weapons, for comfort and for fire. 

Countless trees are beautiful with some species considerably more beautiful than others.  Many, many trees are among the landscape gardeners’ worst weeds…..defined as  plants seeded out of place. 

No matter how ugly, how scrawny  or  sick, how out-of-place or  dangerous a tree or trees might be, if they are privately owned,  homeowners will not easily, if at all,  convinced they should be removed.  For many trees are nearly sacred……

……even though, especially in older Twin City communities so many trees arrived as seedling  weeds.

I mulch my garden paths.  Nearly all of my landscape garden is in plantings, not sod.  I use no herbicides and let seed what may seed. 

All of the major weeds in my grounds are tree seedlings….elm, sugar maple, red maple, box elder, elm, Ohio buckeye, buckthorn, crab apple, oak, both red and white, pagoda dogwood, green ash, spiny aralia, and cottonwood.    If I were not vigilant with my tree cleansings, my grounds would become a baby forest in five years.   Ten years later they would be fighting among themselves for survival.

In most major nursery catalogues for climate zones three and four, trees are grouped  as Shade, Ornamental, and Fruit trees for the deciduous broadleafs, and among coniferous evergreens,  as Trees and Uprights. 

In general “Shade” trees of the deciduous, and “Trees” of the conifers  are mostly the great big dominating trees….elm, sugar maple, cottonwood, oak, buckeye,  Kentucky coffeetree, birch, and the cone bearing…..pine, fir, hemlock, spruce, and larch (the latter included even though this conifer is deciduous.   With the exception of the pyramidals and conical shaped trees, these are the trees that shade everything including smaller, understory trees in the “shade” tree category….redbud, pagoda dogwood.   (Crabapples are so many in number, they often are given a listing unto themselves.   Then there is the separate but short list of fruit trees, apples, plums, apricots, pears.

Ginkgo is a weirdo unto itself usually listed as a shade tree.

A shade tree develop a canopy which provides shade.  Upright trees do not.   These days there are “upright” oaks, beech, maple, and ginkgos, but they are still listed as shade trees.

What is the difference of habit  between a big shade tree and  a  big pine, let’s say?

None, except one has broad leaves and the other has needled leaves.

If a white pine and a white oak (both my very favorite large shade trees) were to seed themselves and grew successfully in a completely open piece of land, and were not subjected to animal pests eating their foliage, what would the trees look like in the mature state?

Well, they really wouldn’t be shade trees.    Nothing would be able to grow underneath their crown, only their large lateral branches, all the way to the ground. 

Tradition declares  one, the white pine is not a shade tree, but should look like a Christmas tree; so in the nursery they are sheared into Christmas tree shape.    White Oaks side branches will be removed at various stages of growth to look like a shade tree  from about its fifth or sixth year of life. 

Oaks drop acorns….sometimes  hard and big ones striking bald men on the chrome dome.  That smarts.

White Pine drops its oldest needles in the fall.  No one to my knowledge has ever noticed being struck by a white pine needle.

July 20, 2010

There’s a Thuja in My Garden!

Filed under: shrubs and trees — glenn @ 11:09 pm

Not all plants found in our northland gardens are equal.  Some have significantly more value than others.  One cannot rank them according to value.  So many have certain features that despite their lack of beauty, or ugly habits, are simply needed in the landscape garden for perform a special function.

Shade elms used as street trees became beautifully formed tunnels for city traffic lining the boulevard spaces in our Minnesota communities.  However, the   trees have  little value in the urban home garden of one story homes.   Yet, for years these monsters were both planted and seeded themselves as weeds to populate the  city’s landscape…..whether wanted or not. 

Worse are the Silver Maples, (Acer saccharinum) which match the American Elms in size and possess exceedingly soft wood easily damage in severe storms, summer or winter.  Planted in ones back yard not too far from your bedroom should have caused sleeplessness in Minneapolis and St. Paul when the wind and rain or sleet picked up about the time you went to bed.

Of all of the garden trees, and shrubs, for that matter, usable in the northern landscape garden, the one genus we could not do without is Thuja…..the arborvitaes….or as the old timers called them, “White Cedars”.

But even among these Thuya, not all varieties and cultivars are equal.  And landscape gardeners can differ on which are more needed or more beautiful than others depending on their features. 

One local landscape wholesaler has nearly twenty varieties or cultivars listed in their catalog.  Over a ten year period they could have listed thirty different looks of arborvitaes at one time or another, for what is offered for sale differs from year to year.

And there are probablythirty to forty more various arborvitaes that are eminently usable for Minnesota landscape gardens.    Some are more eminent than others. 

Some are trees.  Usually these trees are listed separately from lists of trees and instead are grouped into the category titled, “Uprights”. 

Uprights suggest the tree is a vertical woody perennial growing more than a dozen feet in height.  Upright also suggests that the tree is not a shade tree….that it doesn’t have a large enough canopy to cause shade.  Yet, for those of you who know trees and are avid northern woods folks, you know that the White Cedar does develop a canopy, not by its own preference, but because the species is deer food of the first order.  They will eat as much foliage as can be reached until the arborvitae grows beyond the stretches  of these usually hungry Bambis. 

Arborvitaes are at the top as a landscape garden tree because they do not have shade causing canopies.  So one can grow any sun-loving perennial or flowering shrub within a grove of arborvitae.

Among the more narrow, tall and most elegant of these Thuja for Minnesota is the deGroot’s cultivar.  Its stately form seems to  create order to  almost  any grouping of  perennials and  shrubs.

It is certainly among my favorites and we use it often in our landscaping designs. 

Among the many shrub cultivars I think I have two favoritesl…..Rheingold and Hetz Midget arborvitaes.  Both can grow best in full sun for at least half a day.  Rheingold is the only evergreen conifer that actually appears to have golden to orangish tips to its young foliage when grown in full sun.

Arborvitaes do not do well in dry areas, but much prefer the regularity of irrigation watering on a regular time scheme. 

Among the Uprights, but fatter and more prominent forms, I do prefer the Sunkist or Yellow Ribbon Arborvitae.  They are much the same plant.  The tag attached to my Sunkist arborvitae, a major conifer in my front garden, announced that the expected height was up to 8 feet. 

My Sunkist is double that size and appears to have no intention of slowing down its growth.  Much of its foliar wealth comes from the dependable watering it receives from the irrigation system. 

Woodward is a very, very large natural globe….I have seen them at twenty five by twenty five feet in size. 

Arborvitaes often look as if they are struggling when they are forced to grow in deep shade.

Rabbits and mice love to devour arborvitae foliage in the winter time.  This past winter, my Siberian arborvitae about 18 years old and twelve feet tall, was packed to the ground by last year’s Christmas rain and heavy snowfall.  It had disappeared from sight all winter looking like a small snow drift.  When it finally became release from its icy prison by March, half of the foliage on the ground side had disappeared.  Rabbit droppings proved what the major culprit was…..but then mice almost always eat arborvitae in the winter whereever Thuja grow.

The Golden Globe is another natural globe which shows striking yellow folliage.  It does turn color to a rather darkish green in winter, but regains its color usually by the first of March .

Arborvitaes are all pleasant to the touch and exudes  a very strong fragrance when  the foliage is pruned.  They do better growing in good garden loam with a nearly neutral soil pH.

They are among the best uprights to be used for vertical sculpture and framing garden scenery.