Viewing comments posted by jathton

Bosnian Pine has several attributes that make it an attractive garden plant. When young it assumes a good looking conical form. Because it holds its needles for several years its foliage is dense and full. Some think its needles have the best green color of any conifer.
It is tolerant of a variety of soils as long as they are well-draining. It is tolerant of limestone soils. It has proven to be fairly insect and disease free. Hardy in zones 3-8. If grown at the southern end of its hardiness range it might be wise to protect it from drying summer winds.
This pine was named in honor of German botanist Theodor H. H. von Heldreich (1822-1902) who discovered some 700 Greek species new to science.

Alcock's Spruce [Picea alcoquiana] was first collected by John Gould Veitch in September, 1860 during an ascent on Mount Fuji-yama. It is native to the mountains of central Japan, in a limited but stable number of subalpine forest areas. Under ideal conditions it assumes a broad pyramidal form and can grow to 80 feet in height. It was awarded the species name alcoquiana and the common name Alcock in honor of Sir Rutherford Alcock… who accompanied Veitch on the Mount Fuji climb.
As a garden plant in the United States it is considered hardy in zones 3-7… and it can be expected to have a mature size approximately 4-6 feet tall and 2-5 feet wide at the base. It grows best in good, medium-moisture soils that are well-drained. It tolerates clay soils. It is intolerant of air pollution.
If planted toward the southern end of its zonal range it should receive shade from noon to 4PM in the summer months and should be protected from hot summer winds.
This dwarf conifer would be a significant asset in any small or rock garden… and should be placed so as to be a focal point in any plant grouping it occupies.

'Fireglow' Japanese Maple was selected by the Fratelli Gilardelli Nursery near Milan, Italy in the early 1980's. It did not take long after its introduction to the American nursery trade for its qualities to be recognized.
'Fireglow' was, at first, compared with 'Bloodgood'... a Japanese Maple that had long been the standard for an upright, vase-shaped maple with red foliage.
Before long, however, professionals realized 'Fireglow' was more upright... its leaves were less divided... and its color was more intense. Southern nurserymen also realized 'Fireglow' was more drought & heat tolerant than 'Bloodgood'... and that its red foliage color held up better to the heat of Southern summers.
Ever since then 'Fireglow' has held a slight edge over 'Bloodgood'... even though 'Bloodgood' is more readily available in the trade. Gardeners and homeowners in Southern states, however, might want to hold out for 'Fireglow'... even if they have to look a little harder to find it.

Dwarf Globe Blue Spruce [Picea pungens 'Glauca Globosa'] is an excellent conifer for small gardens. It is capable of reaching a mature size of 8 feet diameter... but this is accomplished over a substantial amount of time. The gardener needs to understand how to prune and groom conifers if he wants to succeed with this particular plant. This Blue Spruce will eventually develop a central leader... and if it is not removed the plant will lose its globular shape and begin to assume an inverted teardrop form.
This particular Blue Spruce is rated as hardy from zones 2-7. If it will be planted in the southern end of this range the following is recommended:
1. Plant in soil that drains well but can stay slightly moist. This plant is only nominally drought tolerant.
2. Plant in an area that receives shade from noon until 4PM.
3. Ideally, plant it where it will be protected from hot summer winds.
A gardener in zone 7 would probably be well advised to consider R.H. Montgomery Dwarf Blue Spruce as a superior alternative to this dwarf conifer.

This dwarf conifer was one of those accumulated by a dedicated conifer collector named Colonel R.H. Montgomery. When he sold his estate he donated his conifer collection to the New York Botanic Garden. When his collection was named the Montgomery Conifer Collection in May, 1949 this particular dwarf conifer was named in his honor. The original plant can still be seen in the NY Botanic Garden's Montgomery Conifer Collection.
'R.H. Montgomery' is a slow growing conifer... usually globe shaped when young... but eventually developing a central leader. At maturity [usually at about 8 feet] it assumes a pyramidal shape that is broader than it is tall.
Colorado Blue Spruce [Picea pungens] and its cultivars are normally not recommended for gardens south of zone 6. But Picea pungens 'R.H. Montgomery', and a few other cultivars, have clearly demonstrated significantly better heat resistance than others. This conifer has been successfully grown in gardens in Oklahoma City [zone 7A] for the past 35 years.
Aside from its heat resistance, this conifer has another outstanding quality. Colorado Blue Spruce can sometimes look more pale green than blue by the middle of the growing season. R.H. Montgomery does an excellent job of holding its silver-blue foliage color throughout the growing season.
This is one conifer that is ideally suited to smaller gardens. In areas with intense summer sun it benefits from shade during the hottest part of the day... noon to 4PM. It also prefers good soil that is decidedly well drained. It will not tolerate wet sites.Given those conditions it will prove to be a notable and beautiful contribution to any garden.

Throughout my career I called myself a garden designer, But when I joined the staff of a terrific locally owned nursery in the 1990's I also became a "plant salesman." I became responsible for helping customers select as little as one new plant for their home landscape… and selling a tree to a customer became a special treat.
I say that because most tree customers were homeowners who were going to live in their house for 5-7 years before selling and moving on. Their biggest motivation when tree shopping was to add a tree or a few trees to the grounds around that home… in the hope that the trees they planted would add dollars to the re-sale value of their home.
A small percentage of those customers came into the nursery knowing what they wanted. Their tree needed to be attractively shaped and capable of rapid growth. They were looking for Silver Maples and Sycamores and Hackberries and Thornless Honeylocust. Bradford Pears had tremendous appeal because of their wonderfully balanced shape when young. Some of them even wanted Cottonwoods and Mimosas. In short, they had the names of fast growing trees down cold.
It very quickly became a mission of mine to steer these customers away from what I called "trash trees" [my opinion] and toward trees that had real quality.
One of the first trees I always pointed them toward was the Northern Red Oak [Quercus rubra.]
I described this tree as "majestic" and "noble" and "tremendously long lived"… that there were innumerable, beautiful Red Oaks in Oklahoma City that had been planted shortly after the city was formed in 1889. I told them these trees developed impressively thick trunks and stout branches that grew at right angles to the trunk… eventually forming full, rounded crowns. They learned, much to their surprise, a properly cared for Red Oak could grow to 16-20 feet in ten years. They found out Red Oaks were tolerant of many soil conditions, as long as the soil was well-drained. They discovered the leaves and the acorns contained tannic acid which helps to guard them from fungus and insects. They learned the beautifully lobed five to ten inch long leaves are dark green and smooth, sometimes shining above… and they turn rich shades of red in fall… in a city that has been overwhelmed by trees with yellow autumn color.
It has been twenty two years since I was a "tree salesman" associated with that nursery. These days I can drive through several neighborhoods in Oklahoma City and see large numbers of stout, beautifully shaped semi-mature Northern Red Oaks shading front lawns and streets and peeking over the roofs of homes… Red Oaks I sold to customers who came to the nursery looking for a Silver Maple. I'll always love Northern Red Oaks for their great character, their stature in a lawn setting, their beautiful fall color and their longevity.
Incidentally, the largest Northern Red Oak in America is 131 feet tall and has a spread of 118 feet. It lives in Washington County, VA.

I'm sure there are plenty of gardeners and lawn professionals who will gladly extol the virtues of Bermuda grass. But I have spent my professional career designing and installing residential gardens in Oklahoma City... and my opinion of Bermuda grass falls far short of flattering. I rate the introduction of this grass to the United States right up there with the introduction of Kudzu Vine to the Deep South and Blackberry plants to the Pacific Northwest.
Please understand I am speaking as a designer of residential gardens. In that capacity I have watched, year after year, as Bermuda grass infiltrated and tried its best to take over any shrub or flower bed I've created. Granted, there are types of garden borders and edging that will temporarily stop this invasion. But time after time the Bermuda grass has eventually won… and the home gardener was faced with trying to eradicate it without killing the plants he wants to keep.
Bermuda grass, like Kudzu Vine and Blackberries, is amazingly tenacious and invasive. Wikipedia points out its root system "can grow to over 2 metres (6.6 ft) deep, though most of the root mass is less than 60 centimetres (24 in) under the surface. The grass creeps along the ground with its stolons rooting wherever a node touches the ground, forming a dense mat." And I can say from long experience that digging it out of a flower bed inevitably leaves some small root pieces that are more than capable of generating lots of new growth.
While taking a turf grass science class at Oklahoma State University I spent several class periods listening to the professor introduce us to all the known varieties of lawn grass. When he talked about Bermuda grass he pointed out that millions of dollars had been spent over the years bringing it to America from North Africa and hybridizing and improving it.
I raised my hand and asked why all that money had not been spent on Buffalo grass… an American native that is much better behaved and much easier to grow and maintain. He ducked answering my question, but after class he pulled me aside and told me he hated Bermuda grass and that the lawn at his home was Buffalo grass. He swore me to secrecy… threatening all manner of painful consequences if I let that story get out. I kept his secret… but in 34 years of designing gardens I never once used Bermuda as the lawn grass on projects.

The friend who gave me a clump pf Northern Lady Fern in spring, 2016 told me to pot it up for a while... then plant it in the garden. By mid-summer it had begun to crowd its original pot... so I moved it up to a 17 inch double-walled plastic pot. That fall it looked so good in the pot I decided to leave it there through the winter. [It is, after all, hardy to zone 2.] By summer, 2017 this fern had exploded into a huge, beautifully shaped fern that completely filled the larger pot.

That fall I dug it out of the large pot and divided the creeping rhizome into several sections and gave them to friends. The one section I kept was planted in my shade garden... but sadly did not survive that winter.

Now that I've found a reputable source for potted hardy ferns, I'll be getting another Northern Lady Fern next spring... I have just the place for it.

Several friends, and a couple of professional horticulturists, have told me this shrub has a couple of weeks of flowering glory in spring... and otherwise it's just a big bush. Funny, I never hear them say anything derogatory about Forsythia, Quince, Azaleas, Wisteria or Lady Banks Rose... and they pretty much do the same thing.
A large, irregularly shaped Pearlbush in full bloom is a marvelous sight. And if you are fortunate enough to see this plant in full bloom on a night with a full moon you are in for a great, springtime treat.

Both this plant database and the Missouri Botanical Garden PlantFinder database list this plant as hardy to zone 8. The MBG database does, however, say it might be hardy in zone 7 if planted in a protected location.

It should be pointed out that at least 5 specimens of this plant have been growing in Oklahoma City gardens for many years. They do, of course, die to the ground in winter... but they all return very vigorously each spring. The two I am most familiar with grow into 5x5 foot specimens each year and bloom prolifically.

All of the photos I have loaded to this location are of a plant growing in Oklahoma City [zone 7a.]

Native to South Africa, Encephalartos horridus is an evergreen, slow-growing cycad that makes its home on rocky outcroppings, slopes and ridges in the Eastern Cape Province. It is a dioecious gymnosperm with cylindrical male cones and oval female cones. Fertilization takes place in summer.

If a gardener can find one in the trade, and if he is willing to handle a plant as prickly as this one, the 'Ferocious Blue Cycad' makes a striking container plant in the garden in summer. North of zone 10, however, it must be taken indoors for the winter... and there is the rub... or scratch.

Ice Blue Cycads in San Diego is a possible source for this plant.

Foster's Holly is nothing short of elegant and aristocratic... WHEN it is sited to best advantage. The trouble is most homeowners choose to locate this plant at the front corners of their home. They think a nice, tear-drop shaped plant at each corner will add a nice sense of symmetry to the front landscape. They completely ignore the mature size of this plant when making this decision... and a few years down the line they end up shearing the plant to keep it within bounds. Not only do they butcher the natural shape of the plant they end up shearing off all the berries that make it so attractive in fall and winter.
A far better solution is to locate this Holly somewhere in the lawn where it can be a stand-alone specimen plant. Let it develop without pruning until it attains a stature that really shows off all its qualities. The landscape will then have a beautiful, pyramidal plant with evergreen foliage and bright red berries in fall and winter.
And if you want to really show it off to best advantage plant a triangle of three plants. Don't get crazy and try to make them all the same size. Let them be different sizes. That will only add to the beauty of the grouping.
Remember: "The only symmetry in nature is the symmetry man imposes on it." Try hard to not be imposing.

Alexander von Bunge, a botanist from St. Petersburg, was the first westerner to "discover" Lacebark Pines. He saw them growing in and around Peking in 1831. The specimens he saw were very old trees whose trunks had turned completely white. The tree was first introduced in the Western world by Robert Fortune in 1846. The tree was formally named in honor of von Bunge in 1897.

This tree has several attributes that make it appealing to a gardener or garden designer. It is often multi-stemmed, with ascendant branches, and a round-topped form. Its good looking yellow-green needles are carried in bundles of three and are usually evenly spaced over the crown. The bark is the true focal point of the tree. It exfoliates in irregular peels... revealing apple green and lighter yellow green patches in the normally brownish gray bark.

I remember a friend and I getting pretty excited when Iseli Nursery began offering Lacebark Pines in the 1990's. Until then it had been virtually impossible to find them in the trade. The only reason we knew about this pine was because there was a very large specimen of one growing on the northwest corner of 19th and N. Pennsylvania in Oklahoma City for years and years. The homeowner had no idea what it was and we spent a long time identifying it in those historic days before the internet came into play.
It was a beautiful specimen and I took real pleasure in seeing it each time I drove up that street. Then, one day, it was gone... to the ground. I was so shocked I stopped, banged on the door, and asked what had happened. The home had been sold and the new owners felt it blocked their view. I turned around and looked at their new view... of an intersection with stop lights. There is just no accounting for some taste.

I'm not sure when this stately evergreen first appeared in the nursery trade in the 48 contiguous states... but I do know we were using it successfully on landscape projects in central Oklahoma by 1995.
As remarkable as it seems Weeping Alaskan Cedar seems just as happy growing on the Southern Great Plains as it does in its native habitats of Alaska and the Washington and Oregon coasts.
This conifer has a graceful, decidedly pendulous form that only improves with age. The foliage is medium to dark green and roughly resembles the foliage on oriental Arborvitae.
It grows 30 - 45 feet high and 15 - 20 feet wide in the wild... but its growth rate is considered slow... and it does not get that large under cultivation. Michael Dirr says the species grows best when atmospheric and soil moisture is abundant.

I was walking the grounds of my favorite botanic garden on a beautiful spring morning in 2004 when I turned a corner and stopped dead in my tracks. Ten feet in front of me, backed up by a dark evergreen Holly hedge, was a mature specimen of Paeonia 'Hesperus' in full bloom.The sun was still low in the sky and the light had that magical quality the early morning permits... and it illuminated the enormous blooms from behind.
I have always had a soft spot for Peonies... waiting for the buds to finally open is a great exercise in patience... enjoying their beauty and fragrance for the short time they are fully opened is, for me, a time of pure pleasure... and watching them slowly fade is akin to a mourning period. Yes, I know that sounds melodramatic... but it is accurate.
Seeing 'Hesperus' in full bloom, however, made me feel I had never really seen a Peony before.
The blooms were enormous... and each petal, glowing in that early morning light, looked as though it had been cut from crepe paper or exceptionally sheer silk.
All these years later I still have trouble understanding why I only photographed one bloom. It must have seemed, at the time, that one bloom summed up the entire plant... that an image of the all the blooms would have somehow detracted from the beauty of each bloom.
I'm still trying, fifteen years later, to find a source for this Peony... and I'm beginning to wonder if I ever will. I know, however, I'll keep looking.

I have seen, over the years, some spectacular specimens of 'Crimson King' Maple in Little Rock, AR... in Muskogee and Tulsa and Bartlesville, OK... and in Lawrence, Kansas City and Leavenworth, KS.

But move west from any of these towns and cities and you move beyond the relative protection of the eastern deciduous forests... and into the harsher weather on the Southern Great Plains. A lot of varieties of trees perform beautifully in this harsher environment... 'Crimson King' Maple is definitely not one of them.

In this "farther-west" environment 'Crimson King' Maple will suffer regularly and sometimes extensively from leaf scorch. Trees under this kind of stress are also more susceptible to severe stem canker.

North and east of these demarcation lines 'Crimson King' should be planted and allowed to fulfill its potential as a stunningly beautiful shade tree.

There are evidently lots of reasons to NOT plant Burning Bush if you live in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, NYC and other points east. But living on the Southern Great Plains often gives gardeners a perspective they would not otherwise have. Burning Bush out here on the plains:
... adapts to a wide range of soil conditions
... tolerates moist and dry sites
... has no serious insect and/or disease problems
... is easy to transplant
... tolerates our blazing hot full sun in summers
... and provides a degree of red fall color seldom seen on shrubs on the Great Plains.
So, while others will condemn it as largely valueless, I'll hold with Michael Dirr's opinion that Burning Bush is one of the great aesthetic and functional shrubs available for American gardens.
Oh yes, pruned up it makes a beautiful multi-stemmed small shrub or tree for containers.

The Lacebark Elm , or true Chinese Elm, began to be grown and planted in the United States largely out of necessity. Dutch elm disease had laid waste to approximately 75% of the 77 million American Elms that stood along public streets and in lawns in 1930. Because it is highly resistant to Dutch Elm disease and the elm leaf beetle the Lacebark Elm was chosen as the natural successor of American Elm.
Many years later, in the late 1980's, an Oklahoma City nurseryman named Bruce Rey was monitoring the development of a controlled planting of Lacebark Elm seedlings. He noticed one of the seedlings leaves were a distinct light yellow color. Subsequent asexual propagation of root cuttings from this seedling resulted in a small population of new plants… all possessing light yellow foliage.
Additional asexual propagations of these new plants clearly demonstrated that "…distinguishing characteristics came true to form and are established and transmitted through succeeding propagations."
On March 3, 1989 a plant patent was applied for using the name Ulmus parvifolia 'Golden Rey'… and on June 5, 1990 Patent Number: Plant 7,240 Rey was issued to Bruce Rey and the Assignee: Preston Warren of Spencer, OK.
"The growth rate of the new variety is believed to be similar to the species which, under normal nursery conditions, is about two to three feet per growing season. Overall growth is upright when young but becoming more rounded with age so that the mature shape is a broad, rounded configuration with ends of the new growth being slightly pendulous. The estimated height at maturity is about 40-60 feet with a width of about one-half to two-thirds of the tree's height. The new variety tends to be more compact, with more branches, and of more upright form than the species at comparable maturity.
The bark on young trees of the new variety, i.e., up to 5-6 years of age, appears to be a uniform brownish grey. At approximately this age, the bark begins to exfoliate and develops splotches of light tan where portions of older bark have fallen away. This behavior is similar to that of the species.
Observed under field growing conditions, the disease resistance of the new variety seems to be equal to that of the species."

The cultivar 'Adiyaman' is generally taller and more free-flowering than the species.

Persian Fritillary is native to Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine and southern Turkey.

Each plant may bear up to 30 bell-shaped flowers that hang straight down from the flower stalk.

Persian Fritillary should be planted as soon after receipt as possible. It will NOT store well in the packing container.

Pistacia chinensis (English: Chinese pistache;[2] Chinese: 黄連木; pinyin: huángliánmù)

Chinese Pistache was a very welcome addition to the horticultural plant palette in central Oklahoma. It just has so many qualities going for it that Oklahoma gardeners needed in a medium sized shade tree. It is:
... a reliable source for brilliant orange to red-orange fall color. It will develop good red fall color as far south as Orlando, FL and in the low-elevation deserts of Southern Arizona
... tolerant of a wide range of urban conditions
... very drought resistant once established
... very deep rooted
... very tolerant of extreme heat
... tolerant of low humidity and drying winds
... tolerant of transplant stress
... tolerant of full sun... intolerant of shade
... a good choice as a street tree
... nearly disease and insect free
... capable of an excellent growth rate when given good care
... a tree with very hard, durable and decay-resistant wood... so it is very wind and ice and vandal resistant

There is one very serious concern if the gardener happens to be a lawn fanatic who will spray anything necessary to maintain a perfect lawn. Chinese Pistache is exceptionally sensitive to triazine and sulfonylurea-type herbicides.