Friends of the Arboretum Newsletter
Vol. 6, No. 2
Horticulture
Seeking Refuge in a Haven of Fall Color
By Karen Harris, Foothills Nursery, Mount Airy, NC – Guest Writer
For some gardeners, the bloom of a plant or the twist of its branches piques their interest. For me, however, there's nothing that quite matches the warm shades of autumn for beauty and tranquility. I look forward to the brilliant hues of yellow-gold; the flames of orange, red, and burgundy; and the shimmering shades of copper found amongst the foliage of autumn. The allure of this quiet season appeals to the part of me that loves to traipse through the woods alone, or stand along the river's edge to watch as the trees and shrubs offer their last performance of the year. They seem to drop their dazzling costumes into the quickly moving water, to float past like a multi-colored armada heading for greater things.
It is likely that every painter has, at some time, tried to capture the warm glow of autumn on his or her canvas. Those of us with different talents use our garden for the canvas and fill in the spaces with our chosen palette of colors. I've never forgotten the startling impact achieved by placing Fothergilla major 'Mt. Airy' in an area in front of a weathered old tobacco barn. With its multi-colored coat in shades of orange, yellow, and red in October, the plant seemed to be flaunting its beauty without a hint of modesty. Surely those gardeners who buy this plant for its unusual bottle-brush style white blooms in spring are pleasantly surprised by this forthright proclamation of additional magnificence in the fall.
At
home in my nursery, however, where tobacco barns are scarce, the fothergilla
is loudly claiming its due in the native planting area across from the greenhouse.
Admittedly, it does receive some competition from the 'Henry's Garnet' Virginia
sweetspire (Itea virginica 'Henry's Garnet') planted nearby.
This simple native beauty is one that we often recommend in place of burning
bush (Euonymus alatus) because it offers such rich hues of burgundy-red
in fall. The lengthy fragrant white bloom in late spring, when most other spring
blooms are spent, is a superb bonus. In addition, this plant is highly adaptable
to various environmental conditions. Mt. Airy city horticulturist, Michella
Huff, combined this eye-catcher with a tough, small evergreen along
a parking lot edge for a great display of year-round interest. For smaller spaces,
the more recently introduced Little Henry™ Virginia sweetspire (Itea
virginica 'Sprich') is perfect. It offers the white fragrant blooms
and fiery red fall color on a more compact frame.
For
the gardener who seeks a distinctive plant that adds blue-green foliage to a
border or bed, Disanthus cercidifolius (redbud hazel) is worthy of
attention. The shift to autumn clothing blends leaves into combinations of deep
reds and purples, shot through with orange highlights...well, as Mike
Dirr, Ph.D., in his Manual of Woody Landscape Plants, notes
"It is one of the most beautiful shrubs for fall color." These fabulous
shades against the backdrop of a silvery-blue Sawara falsecypress (Chamaecyparis
pisifera 'Boulevard') create one of our greatest showstoppers in our
front garden. The plant adapted readily to our heavy clay soil and has taken
off with incredible speed.
Another
unusual garden addition is the seven-son's flower (Heptacodium miconioides).
An introduction from eastern China, it is easiest to grow as a large arching
shrub, but can be trained into a small tree with pruning. Fragrant, creamy-white
late summer flowers are not overwhelming, but they do attract butterflies. Glossy
dark green leaves and exfoliating gray bark are attractive, but this was the
first year that our plants were large enough to display their most engaging
attribute. The masses of reddish-pink sepals that persist after the bloom are,
also, visually arresting. Anything that stops people in their tracks as they
wander along in October is worthy of a garden corner.
Japanese stewartia (Stewartia pseudocamellia)
and the cutleaf fullmoon maple (Acer japonicum 'Aconitifolium') also
tend to provide a lot of excitement in their respective sites. Stewartia is
a lovely mid-summer bloomer with 2-3" white, camellia-like blossoms. It
warms the landscape in autumn with brilliant yellows and red-oranges as the
leaves change, and offers outstanding exfoliating bark for winter interest.
The cutleaf fullmoon maple makes a terrific statement as a focal point with
its interesting form and plump "full moon-shaped" leaves. In addition,
A. japonicum 'Aconitifolium' serves as an alternative to dwarf
forms of the Acer palmatum Dissectum Atropurpureum Group because
of their small size, a magnificent range of crimson fall colors, and showy purple-red
flowers in spring. This is likely my favorite among the Asian maples.
Let
me also point out the trident maple (Acer buergerianum).
This tree actually stole the show last fall with such a bold display of
rosy-red and burgundy foliage that you could almost feel the heat. This terrific
species grows slowly to 20-25' and is beautiful as a multi-trunk focal point.
Its shiny, lush green foliage in summer and a great tolerance for semi-drought
and air pollution make this beauty a good choice for boulevard plantings in
urban areas. The reality is that nearly all of the Asian maples from Acer
griseum to the many cultivars of A. japonicum and
A. palmatum offer fabulous fall color. If color in autumn is an especially
important feature in your garden, visit a nursery that carries many different
maples so that you can compare the many choices as the weather cools.
A number of viburnums flaunt fall finery as well. For berry-set last year, tea viburnums (Viburnum setigerum) were impossible showboats. Often a fairly leggy species, they appear elegant and graceful when the branches arch outwards with the heavy drupes of brilliant red fruits. This 8-12' viburnum is delightful when tucked along the edge of the woods or into a mixed shrub border.
Two
selections of Viburnum nudum have been of great interest to
us. 'Winterthur' was grown side by side with 'Angustifolium', with the latter
advertising a semi-evergreen nature. Large waxy green foliage, an abundance
of fragrant white blossoms, and handsome reddish-purple fall foliage that makes
one yearn for a nice glass of red wine in front of the fireplace was virtually
the same on each plant. The difference, however, is discernible in winter. In
mid-December, 'Angustifolium' is fully clothed, while 'Winterthur'
stands shivering in the nude.
Overall, however, my favorite viburnum performer last year was Viburnum sargentii 'Onondaga'. Its new foliage was incredibly soft to the touch and tinged with burgundy. Large creamy white, lace-cap type blossoms seemed to have almost a peachy undertone. Then, in autumn a fabulous shade of red foliage was more spectacular than the bright red fruits that it would hold into winter. Most folks assumed that the plant was a maple. What a treat! Expect a large 8' × 8' mound from this coarse-foliaged grower. It is best used as a backdrop in a large garden space or as a transitional plant between the lawn and the woods.
For those who are limited by space or simply prefer working with perennials and smaller shrubs, there are a number of options for outstanding fall to winter colors. The leathery lettuce-like foliage of bergenias (Bergenia) becomes a sparkling burgundy shade with cool weather and then pops forth in spring with pink to red stalks of bloom. I have used several plants to underplant a dwarf conifer in a large container with great success. In our rather warm part of the country, these plants prefer some afternoon shade. For a spot with a bit more sun, 'Husker Red' bearded tongue (Penstemon digitalis 'Husker Red') makes a good choice for incorporating burgundy hues in the autumn landscape. I like to leave the spent bloom stalks, as they too, will take on burgundy hues for a spiky "punk" look above the mounded leaves.
John Newman, a noted garden designer and landscape architect in Winston-Salem, NC, notes that he prefers the buttery yellow foliage of Japanese Solomon seal (Polygonatum odoratum var. pluriflorum 'Variegatum') among the falling leaves of the shade garden. In sunnier spaces, plant Amsonia hubrichtii for a stunning golden mound of fall color. When I first noticed this plant from a distance in mid-autumn in the gardens at André Viette Farm & Nursery, I ignorantly asked, "What fantastic new conifer is that?" It was a shock to discover, upon closer inspection, that the fine, feather-like foliage in a large 3' × 3' mound belonged to an herbaceous perennial. I wasn't even in the ballpark! Early spring blooms are pastel blue to white and star-shaped amidst the green color of the needle-like foliage. This is a great plant for additional texture in the rock garden, perennial border, or in front of a backdrop of dark green.
A wonderful group of fall performers is also found among the ornamental grasses. Among the larger grasses, most gardeners consider the plumage of Miscanthus and Pennisetum to be their main attraction. When massed, however, the brilliant orange-red shades of the blades of flame grass (Miscanthus sinensis 'Purpurascens') or the bright yellow shade achieved when 'Heavy Metal' switch grass (Panicum virgatum 'Heavy Metal') begins to abandon its coat of metallic blue is also worthy of attention. If plumage is a must to merit a spot in the garden, the airy panicles of pink flowers that drift cloud-like above pink muhly grass (Muhlenbergia capillaris) rate high on the list of enticing garden additions for autumn interest.
It's so difficult to choose a few "greats" when so many exist. For those who appreciate the garden during its "mature foliage" moments, autumn is an unbeatable season. I can't think of a time that I love more...but then, no one has ever accused me of being an "early bloomer."
Plant Geek Heaven
By Viv Finkelstein, JCRA Volunteer – Guest Writer
Twenty happy people and their plant purchases boarded the plane for home at Portland International Airport after a ten-day adventure in the Pacific Northwest, seeing nurseries and gardens, photographing, and plant shopping until their motorcoach was full. Todd Lasseigne and Anne "Mom" Calta were excellent hosts, with Todd enlightening us all the way about the history and characteristics of not only the plants we saw in cultivation, but also of the natural landscapes. The tall dark green Douglas-firs (Pseudotsuga menziesii) of the Vancouver and Seattle areas gave way further south to the Oregon white oak (Quercus garryana), ponderosa pines (Pinus ponderosa), incense-cedar (Calocedrus decurrens), madrone (Arbutus menziesii), and manzanita (Arctostaphylos) of the drier high country. Then we approached the east-west Siskiyou Mountains, where layer upon layer of mountain ranges fading off into the distance recalled the Great Smoky Mountains.
Weather was perfect, since July and August are almost rain-free in the coastal northwest. The famously wet fall-to-spring rains and dry summers allow them to grow in that modified Mediterranean climate plants that would rot in our usually wetter summers. Our only regret was that Jon Roethling, who had made the detailed advance arrangements scheduling our time and itinerary, was unable to join us.
Nurseries hosted us with guided tours, gracious service, and often either a discount or an offer to ship our choices in September during cooler weather. We bought so many plants that a fellow guest in the Inn at the Rogue River, OR, seeing us come in with carton after carton of plants, asked, "Do these people bring their houseplants on vacation with them like some people bring their pets?"
At Stanley & Sons Nursery, Inc. (Boring, OR), we enjoyed a surprise salmon cookout on the lawn of Larry Stanley's home and nursery. Sean Hogan and Parker Sanderson invited us to a surprise cocktail party and viewing of their private garden, and the gardens they maintain in their historic Oakwood-like neighborhood (Raleigh, NC). We enjoyed a visit to their nursery, Cistus Design Nursery, on our way out of Portland.
At Heronswood Nursery (Kingston, WA), we toured the entire, amazing private gardens and then had free reign to buy from the nursery while it was being spiffed up and vacuumed (really!) in preparation for their annual open house. At Collector's Nursery (Battle Ground, WA), Bill Janssen, their designer (reminding us of NCSU's Will Hooker in manner and appearance), showed his beautifully crafted garden of treasures around their home; while Diana Reeck, back from multiple trips to collect Epimediums in China, staffed the nursery. Their garden was an artistic jewel, holding, for example, a beautiful specimen of Daphne ×burkwoodii 'Briggs Moonlight', a ghostly pale apparition with green edges, the reverse of Daphne ×burkwoodii 'Carol Mackie'. Unfortunately, in Raleigh it would succumb to the dreaded "Sudden Daphne Death." Joy Creek Nursery (Scappoose, OR) hosted a whirlwind tour with an all-too-short opportunity to buy plants and enjoy fresh berry and cookie snacks at their idyllic mountain home nursery.
Coenosium Gardens (Eatonville, WA) is the creation of a true conifer fanatic, Bob Fincham, who with his wife Diane maintains the most extensive private conifer collection imaginable. Diane also handles the mail order business out of their modest home. An unexpected treat was Bob's reminiscences of his late friend Jean Iseli.
Still living in their original small Quonset hut home, now surrounded by jam-packed top quality plants at Forestfarm (Williams, OR), Ray and Peg Prag and their staff valiantly hosted our small swarm of fanatics in their mail-order-only nursery, even offering a cooler filled with drinks and chips. Roger Gossler and his mother Marge, with dogs Annie and Beau, provided cookies and a leisurely tour of the gardens and nursery that surround the house where his father turned a corn and mint (grown for Wrigley's gum) farm into one of the foremost magnolia nurseries in the U.S., with so many other well-grown offerings that we hardly noticed the magnolias. At Greer Gardens (Eugene, OR), known especially for rhododendrons, it didn't matter that rhodies were out of season, for we hiked through acres of other herbaceous and woody wonders. They had a selection of maple species choices that amazed even fans of the Japanese maple-intensive JC Raulston Arboretum. One favorite was the curious Acer tataricum subsp. ginnala, Amur maple, whose pink samaras persist, covering the tree with color.
At Iseli Nursery (Boring, OR), the famous Möbius strip of golden deodar cedar (Cedrus deodora 'Aurea') and a lovely peaceful memorial garden to honor founder Jean Iseli provided photographic heaven. Two vans showed us around, while our guides explained their incomparable conifer production facilities. We saw acres of conifers, topiary in whimsical animal shapes, and dozens of square wooden 45-gallon tubs of weeping cutleaf Japanese maples half as big as ours in the Klein-Pringle White Garden, interior pruned so you could stand under their canopy. When we thought we were finished, there were yet more acres of conifers and maples of merit.
The foremost purveyors of street trees in the nation (3.5 million trees a year sold) is J. Frank Schmidt & Sons Co. (Boring, OR). There, research director Keith Warren, on crutches from a basketball mishap, personally showed us the display gardens. Both new trial specimens and original old Schmidt creations like Acer rubrum 'Franksred' (Red Sunset®) could be grown to full natural size for display and photography in comparison. After a surprise picnic of frappucino and cookies to die for, we waddled back to the bus for a guided tour of their gigantic production facilities, which left us with our mouths agape at endless rows of grafted maples, crabapples, and oaks, each painted with a color-coded pattern of stripes to uniquely identify the cultivar. At the ends of several fields, we encountered magnificent views of Mount Hood, snow-covered and majestic in the distance.
At Siskiyou Rare Plant Nursery (Medford, OR), owner Baldassare Mineo personally took us through his gardens, the tightly restricted nursery, and a small public shopping area of his mail order nursery, whose Gaura lindheimeri 'Siskiyou Pink' has made it a household name. We also saw his newest introduction, Gaura lindheimeri 'Pink Perfection'. My favorite recollection of that visit is the memory of Baldassare with his classic Greek profile, standing triumphantly as king of the mountain atop Mount Halda (his rock garden built by Josef Halda), pointing out his latest discovery, found just that morning: a yellow variant sport on Daphne kosaninii, which we were the first visiting mortals ever to witness.
But it wasn't all nurseries. Public gardens were the other focus of our trip. At the University of British Columbia Botanical Garden in Vancouver, BC, Acting Director Douglas Justice gave us a full personal tour of their mature university research and display collections, from the forests of trees and climbing vines, some 100' tall, to the geographically arranged alpine gardens with a Stipa Todd had lusted after; the edible garden where we tasted enormous raspberries and salmon berries like shiny clusters of fish eggs; Sorbus galore; dark wine colored lilies; and the famous first Sinocalycanthus chinensis (Chinese wax plant) brought out of China. Their late Curator of the Asian Garden, Gerald Straley, Ph.D., had tried unsuccessfully to hybridize this Sinocalycanthus with Calycanthus occidentalis (western sweetshrub), while collaborators J. C. Raulston, Ph.D., and Richard Hartlage at NCSU were successfully crossing a seedling from UBC's Sinocalycanthus with the eastern Calycanthus to produce the new bigeneric hybrid that would later be named ×Sinocalycalycanthus raulstonii 'Hartlage Wine'. Volunteers among us were interested to learn that UBCBG's 160 active volunteers put on events and raise as much as one third of the budget, but except for the edible garden area, are not permitted by Canadian union rules to assist the staff curators in maintaining the gardens and collections. Here, we had our first view of giant Gunnera manicata which would appear in unbelievably enormous sizes at nearly every garden to follow.
VanDusen Botanical Garden, also in Vancouver, BC, gave us an outstanding taste of a mature and well-financed garden maintained by a private foundation. On what was originally a golf course belonging to a railroad company, the volunteers, again, do not even weed, but 120 of them give tours while others run the gift shop. We marveled at the original surviving specimen of Cornus 'Eddie's White Wonder' which was the sole survivor of a Fraser River flood in 1948 when all rooted cuttings but this one drowned. This large-flowered, disease-resistant cross made by Henry M. Eddie between the west coast native Cornus nuttallii and the east coast native Cornus florida was moved to VanDusen in 1994. Exquisite landscaped gardens and a lake with fountains and a swan enhanced our enjoyment of the extensive plant collections.
South Seattle Community College Arboretum (Seattle, WA) displayed a new teaching garden, where instructor Van Bobbitt took us through the student- and volunteer-built gardens, including a pool, texture garden, and a new dwarf conifer rock garden with plants donated by Coenosium Gardens, and finally the adjacent, newly begun Seattle Chinese Garden which will be financed and built on a windy ridge by the Seattle Chinese Garden Society. The latter is destined to become the largest Chinese garden in North America.
Across Puget Sound at Bellevue Botanical Garden (Bellevue, WA), NCSU graduate Tyler Burgess greeted us. This 36-acre garden displays exquisite fuchsias, a rock garden, a mammoth volunteer-maintained perennial border, a breathtaking entrance water feature, and my personal favorite, the Yao Japanese Garden, an apparently wild but in fact carefully crafted ravine garden of endless perfect vistas and combinations of plants.
Located along the banks of an U.S. Army Corps of Engineers canal runs the Carl S. English, Jr. Botanical Garden (Seattle, WA). Hardly the group one would expect to maintain a surprising collection of trees of merit. Features here include an enormous Thuja plicata 'Zebrina' (variegated western redcedar), an Aesculus indica (Indian horsechestnut) with stunning fragrant flowers, a Quercus hypoleucoides (silverleaf oak) with white leaf undersides, and a collection of Garrya elliptica (Oregon silk-tassel) adorned with dangling seed chains, which we would see again and again on the rest of our trip.
The Washington Park Arboretum offered another type and size of public garden, 75 years old, on land owned by the city of Seattle, in cooperation with the University of Washington Center for Urban Horticulture, and always free so area residents can enjoy it. After a greeting and overview from Director John Wott, Ph.D., we were treated to a guided tour by the very knowledgeable Collections Manager, Randall Hitchin. It was an education and a pleasure to listen while he and Todd matched horticultural skills bringing out the best in both, as they discussed their plant collections. Here we saw excellent Stewartias; the biggest ever Oregon crabapple (Malus fusca) with its twisted trunk; Acer tegmentosum 'Arthur Witt' dating from 1949 with its trunk striped all the way to the base; the original Magnolia ×kewensis 'Wada's Memory'; and the original Mahonia 'Arthur Menzies', the only seedling not winter-killed from seeds that Strybing Arboretum and Botanical Gardens had sent them labeled as Mahonia lomarifolia, but were hybrids with M. bealei.
Adjoining Washington Park, The Japanese Garden of Seattle is a gem. Manicured and formal, it abounds with perfect vistas galore around a huge pond with bridges; stone lanterns; exquisitely selected, maintained, and trained plants; and subtle color variations on a green theme. It is a highly civilized garden of ooh-aah views, in contrast to the wilder feeling of the Yao Japanese Garden at Bellevue. Here Todd taught us about vivipary when we found a Skimmia with berries germinated on the plant.
The one-acre formal Portland Classical Chinese Garden (OR) was a scholar's residential retreat. It featured the five elements of architecture, stones, water, plants, and literature with equally-weighted importance. Surrounding a pool were a teahouse and poetically named theme pavilions with beautifully carved panels of camphor, ginkgo, rosewood, and various stones, representing classic Chinese literature. A privately owned and maintained collection of penjing, the Chinese precursor to bonsai, is displayed on permanent loan. Symbolism abounds.
The newest and still unfinished public garden we visited by admission fee. The Oregon Garden (Silverton, OR) was uniquely commercial. Initially financed by J. Frank Schmidt & Sons Co. with a grant to purchase land and get started, every area bore a sign prominently naming the donor who sponsored the section and/or plants. Sadly, the guided tram tour seemed like an endless advertisement of donors with little said about the plants or design. That focus blunted my enjoyment of the landscape and some fine new plantings. One hopes that this garden will outgrow this commercialization as it matures.
Our final visit was an unscheduled one to the newest arboretum of the future, Pacifica, a 500-acre ranch that will eventually become an educational public garden. Peg Prag, who took us to see it a few miles from her Forestfarm nursery, is on the steering committee, as are Sean Hogan and several other west coast nurserymen. As yet unplanted except for a few trees, it has a "plantmobile," painted like a caterpillar that serves as a plant lab for school visits.
After the first Acer palmatum 'Shaina' that knocked our socks off at Wells-Medina Nursery (Medina, WA), we found almost every nurseryman whose home garden we visited had an example of this truly red-leafed compact Japanese maple planted near his front door. The beauty of this tree is its maraschino cherry colored teensy new leaves and small, star shaped red adult leaves in full sun. By the time we reached our last stop at Forestfarm, we learned from their catalog that 'Shaina' was taken from a witches' broom on an Acer palmatum 'Bloodgood'. This was probably the woody plant purchased by more trip participants than any other. Dierama, angels' fishing wands, named for its dangling flowers on 6' canes, was perhaps the herbaceous runner up. We saw beautiful Cornus controversa 'Variegata' almost everywhere. Garrya. Stipa. Fuchsia. Blue and gold variegated conifers. And on and on and on.
The trip was plant geek heaven. We all loved it. Collectors found unparalleled plant shopping. Photographers and designers took home limitless views and ideas. Perpetual students took notes and filled their heads with knowledge. Even a husband just along for the ride with his gardening wife enjoyed the scenery and the company. There was variety and balance and good fun. Would we want to do it again? You bet!
Desert Life in Raleigh
By
Nancy Doubrava, Interpretive Specialist
What a show! This spring we had a taste of the Southwest right here in Raleigh, when two spectacular agaves flowered for the first time at the JC Raulston Arboretum. The giant flower spikes began to emerge in late April from the center of each rosette, rising over 20' high with candelabra-like flower clusters high above the Southwest Garden. The bright yellow flower clusters were constantly covered by swarms of insects feasting on the rich nectar. Extremely drought tolerant, these plants were collected by J. C. Raulston, Ph.D., from the mountains of northern Mexico in late December 1991, during the joint expedition with Yucca Do Nursery, The Arboretum of Los Angeles County, and The NCSU Arboretum.
Agaves are intriguing plants. Most are monocarpic, meaning that they will flower once and then die. A beautiful rosette is formed from large stout, fleshy gray leaves that have a murderous spine on the tip of each. Our two magnificent agaves that flowered are identified as an Agave havardiana hybrid (a hardy blue agave) and Agave neomexicana (New Mexico agave), but identification of these unique plants is often complicated.
In the landscape, these agaves are an excellent alternative to century plant (Agave americana), especially when plenty of space is available. Both of these agaves have proven to be cold hardy in Raleigh, exhibiting only a very slight winter burn. (A. americana is not cold hardy in Raleigh.) They need minimal, if any, maintenance, grow in full sun, and are extremely drought tolerant. Watch for many more accessions of southwestern plants, including agaves, waiting to be planted in the new garden areas at the JC Raulston Arboretum.
Director's Letter | Arboretum Trip | Horticulture | Development | Volunteering
Formatted into HTML
by Christopher
Todd Glenn
Programs & Education Coordinator
JC Raulston Arboretum
Department of Horticultural Science
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7609
© The JC Raulston Arboretum, October 2002