bottlebrush buckeye

This is my four year old bottlebrush buckeye tree. I bought this handsome "yarden" speciemen from Niche Gardens ....."yarden" is my term, and kind of describes my home landscape's look and feel.  More on that some other time.

It took a summer or two before this beauty finally flowered.  She has finally decided to send up some shoots; yes it's a grove in the making but that will take a few more years. Here is what I had to say about this tree a few years ago.

Maybe it is the humidity

This morning I spotted my first Southern magnolia blossom of the season. It was pretty far above my head so I couldn't get a great shot....now it really does feel like summer.

check this out...

The eastern redbuds will be blooming soon. I noticed some glowing buds on my way to Duke's Bostock Library today. In the stacks, I've seen that more and more books have made their way to Bostock by way of Duke's Biological and Environmental Sciences Library, which has apparently closed.....

The illustration and old library card sleeve are  from Carolina Landscape Plants, by R. Gordon Halface (1971, The Sparks Press, Raleigh).

american sycamore

Honestly, until this year (or maybe last), I haven't thought much about sycamore trees. I am not sure why. Their beautiful ivory colored bark can be seen in backyards and bottomlands all over the eastern United States. Maybe, as with other native hardwoods, I've taken them for granted.

The beautiful bleached bark along the upper reaches of a large sycamore tree is an incredible sight against a blue winter sky. I wouldn't plant this tree in the front yard of a cottage. The leaves and prickly seedballs are kind of messy. But here in a part of North Carolina where a city dweller like myself can grow tired of loblolly pines and sweetgums, the sight of a monolithic sycamore can really make you appreciate the leafless parts of a year. And since sycamores are also known for losing their leaves early (sometimes in August), it can be a long and beautiful show.

another state deficit

I took this picture of cedar berries last week and immediately thought of it after reading this short bulletin in yesterday's N&O. It turns out the state's forestry service is desperate for red cedar seeds. I may give them a ring. But since I don't own this tree and I am not sure if it belongs to the city of Durham or Duke University, I may just volunteer to strip some lower limbs myself and say they came from my property. It is the heaviest berry producing cedar I have ever seen... hence my willingness to step in. The only protests would probably come from the birds, but there's plenty for them too.

in the middle

When I lived in Baton Rouge, live oak trees were like crape myrtles in North Carolina-- they were planted everywhere. But in south Louisiana, live oaks were more than a "street tree." They turned into large and low-slung behemoths. From a distance they looked like thunderheads of evergreen and gray. The coastal and deep South is where Quercus virginiana gets real big and sometimes gets real Spanish moss on its limbs.

But live oaks can survive into Durham (zone 7a/b) and other parts of the middle South. There are online garden forum discussions of specimens even making it in Kentucky and Tennessee. Some of those threads get crazy when folks start debating the trending of real temps, global warming, native trees, etc. Even weather is controversial when you get passionate folks together who have the Internet and an opinion to share.

Pictured above is my favorite local live oak. It was probably planted thirty-plus years ago when Duke's mid-campus apartments were newly built/landscaped. The sheltered and sunny site in between two buildings makes a good spot for this marginally hardy tree.

campus trees

Above are common Eastern red cedars. A lot of folks would not confuse these with the same scraggly things that we see crowding fence rows and interstate medians all over the South. But out in the open and limbed up, their trunks are beautiful. Birds appreciate the winter cover and berries.

These photographs were taken last September, just west of Duke Chapel.

heirloom oranges?

This is a picture of fallen fruit from an Osage orange tree at the Stagville State Historic site just north of Durham. This tree is native to some areas of Texas and Oklahoma. It became a popular planting throughout the southeastern United States in the 19th century.

When kept short and bushy, Osage oranges are covered with thorns. In rows, they made an excellent fence for keeping livestock in (or out) of particular fields.

These tennis ball colored "hedge apples" are the product of mature trees that are still alive at this former plantation. Wood from Osage orange trees was also prized as a rot-resistant choice for building fence posts in later decades after the invention of barbed wire erased the need to grow spiky barriers of severely pruned Osage oranges.

I think the fruit is only enjoyed by squirrels, but I haven't scoured the web for other uses. I have heard that their mashed up insides offer up a natural insect repellent.