Food-Gardening Lessons From A Wartime Victory Garden

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Tag: trees

Golden Spirit Smoke Tree for Container Gardening

Cotinus Golden Spirit - Mike Darcy

Sometimes a plant that we think of as growing to 15 feet in height or more, can actually be kept quite small by severe pruning. I have a Cotinus coggygria ‘Golden Spirit’ (Smoke Tree) growing in a pot on our deck and it has been in the same pot for 6-7 years. In the winter, I prune the branches back to 12-18 inches, lift the plant out of the pot and add fresh Black Gold All Purpose Potting Soil as the plant goes back into the pot. ‘Golden Spirit’ smoke trees have leaves that are lime green in early spring and turn to chartreuse in the summer. They make excellent container plants, especially when there are plants with dark green foliage surrounding them. This Cotinus makes a great summer foliage plant and while it will not bloom because of the severe pruning, the leaves more than make up for the absence of flowers.

Healing Storm Damaged Trees

This summer is already a perfect storm, and we aren’t even in hurricane season yet! If you’ve already been hit with Mother Nature’s powerful presence, your plants need help to recover. Whether it’s heat and drought or saturated soils and gale force winds – plants are suffering. They need your attention in different ways depending on where in America you live. For those horribly damaged in the East, it’s important to take a close look at your woody trees and shrubs. Storm winds can injure them in unique ways that may only be revealed upon close inspection. Pests and diseases often enter storm damaged trees through these sometimes subtle breaks in the bark. Attending to wounds now can not only help them recover faster, you may be able to prevent bigger problems down the road.
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Putting the Fruit Back in Fruit Trees

Getting the Fruit Back - Flowering Plum - article-top
This purple leaf plum was bred to eliminate fruit for a better ornamental variety with burgundy foliage and pink flowers.

In the hoity toity world of landscape architecture, small flowering trees known as “accents” are often fruit trees bred to enhance the flowers but eliminate the fruit. The Japanese flowering cherry is a famous example in Washington DC. The Bradford pear has become a favorite white accent for urban gardens. But times have changed and my clients are all clamoring to get the fruit back without sacrificing beautiful flowers.
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Weeping Larch

Larix decidua Pendula 5-6 Specimen

In my own garden, I have very few conifers, but I recently added a weeping larch (Larix deciduas ‘Pendula’). A deciduous conifer with a beautiful weeping form, soft needles, and wonderful fall color. This is a specimen tree – good for even a small garden. Plant it where you can see it all year.

Fall Color of Coral Bark Maple

Sango Kaku
The fall leaf color this year is truly outstanding. A good example is Acer palmatum ‘Sango Kaku’ (Coral Bark Maple) which is a four season plant. Coral colored branches in winter, bright green leaves in summer which turn to golden yellow and make a striking contrast against the red bark. A good tree for a small garden; plant Coral Bark Maple where you can see it in winter. And for good health feed it in fall with Black Gold Earthworm Castings!