Growing Wise

Spectacular Forests, Jungles and Rainforests from Around the World

2009-10-23T20:30:00Z

Spectacular Forests, Jungles, and Rainforests from Around the World

Forests - they cover nearly 10% of the earth's surface, are an essential part of maintaining a healthy planet. Jungles are a special subset of forests that grow in hot climate and are known for their dense foliage, rainforests are another specialized class of forests known for the high amount of rainfall they receive each year. Together, these areas make up some of the most strikingly beautiful, scenic and inspiring landscapes on the plant. Here's a look at 40 different forests, rainforests, and jungles from all across the globe.

Iguazu National Park

Photo credit: ricardo.martins

The Iguazu National Park is located in Argentina's Iguazu Department in the northern part of the country. Much of the park is dominated by the Iguazu River, whose banks are densely covered the trees that extend into Iguazu's forests. The ceibo tree, otherwise known as the Cockspur coral tree, is among the most recognizable trees in the area because its flower is the national flower of Argentina.

Noel Kempff Mercado National Park

Photo credit: Wikipedia

The Noel Kempff Mercado National Park is located inside of Bolivia on the country's border with Brazil. Founded in 1979, the park is home to an estimated 4,000 species of vascual plants. It is home to a variety of bromelias, passifloras, heliconias, araceas, and palm trees, as well as a variety of important lumber trees. There are five ecosystems within the area, ranging from Amazonian rainforest to dry cerrado.

Tasmanian Wilderness

Photo credit: Anyaka

The Tasmanian Wilderness is located in the southwestern, western, and central parts of Tasmania. The reserve covers almost 20 percent of Tasmania and it is one of the largest conservation areas in Australia. As one of the largest expanses of land experiencing a temperate climate, the Tasmanian wilderness is home to a respectable variety of trees and features beautiful, untouched forests.

Kauai Jungle, Hawaii

Photo credit: LFL16

Kauai, an island of the state of Hawaii, is home to Honopu Valley, which is in turn the home of many of Kauai's lush jungles. The jungles of Kauai are known for having an unusually dense amount of vegetation, so dense that hikers trying to get through the jungle may even have to crawl to get through some of the overgrowth. The jungle is also known for its large variety of edible fruits that grow naturally within, such as grapefruits and guavas.

Monteverde Cloud Forset

Photo credit: baxterclaus

The Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve is a Costa Rican reserve located along the Cordillera de Tilarn mountain range. The reserve contains over 10,500 hectares of tropical rainforest and is visited by about 70,000 tourists each year. The area is known for an extremely high biodiversity, with over 2,500 plant species and several hundred species of vertebrates. The region is also home to the largest number of orchids in the world.

Mt. Hood

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Mount Hood is a stratovolcano located in the Cascade Mountain Range of Northern Oregon. The Mount Hood National Forest holds 189,200 acres of designated wilderness and has become a popular tourist destination among visitors to the Pacific Northwest. Berry-picking and mushroom collecting have become popular traditions for visitors to the area, while local residents often come to the forest to select their Christmas tree during the holiday season.

Olympic National Park

Photo credit: Jason Pratt

Olympic National Park is located in Washington state's Olympic Peninsula. The western side of the park is home to a temperate rainforest, which includes the Hoh Rainforest and the Quinalt Rainforest, the wettest spot in the continental United States. As opposed to tropical rainforests, this rainforest is home to moss-laden coniferous timber.

Mount Rainier

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Photo credit: pfly

Washington State's Mount Rainier is the tallest peak of the Pacific Northwest's Cascade Mountain Range and has become an immensely popular tourist destination. The wilderness surrounding the peak is dominated by enormous, ancient fir forests that thrive in the area's temperate climate. The area is also known for its wildflower-packed alpine and subalpine meadows.

Tongass National Forest

Photo credit: Neil Clement

The Tongass National Forest is the largest national forest in the United States, dominating 17 million acres of southeastern Alaska. Most of the area is part of the temperate rainforest ecoregion and is home to a large variety of rare and endangered plant species because of its isolation. The area is home to many species of plants and animals that cannot be found anywhere else in North America, making it an important part of the continent's ecology.

Great Smoky Mountains

Photo credit: Wikipedia

The Great Smoky Mountains are located along the Tennessee-North Carolina border in the southeastern part of the U.S. Heavy logging destroyed much of the region's forests, but the National Park Service estimates that about 187,000 acres of old growth forests still remain. The area is well-known for its cove hardwood forests, which are among the most diverse forest types in North America, as well as for its wide variety of wildflowers.

Yosemite National Park

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Yosemite National Park, which is located in east central California, covers 761,266 acres and reaches all the way to the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. The park is visited by about 3.5 million tourists each year, many of whom come to experience the area's stunning biological diversity and its world-famous Giant Sequoia groves. Five major vegetation zones are contained within the boundaries of the park.

Crater Lake National Park

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Crater Lake National Park is located in Southern Oregon and its primary feature is the spectacular Crater Lake. Among other features, the park is known for its 50,000 acres of old-growth forests, forests so old as to have acquired a variety of unique features as well as an impressive biodiversity. The area surrounding crater lake is heavily wooded with a variety of fir trees.

Sherwood Forest

Photo credit: left-hand

Photo credit: soylentgreen23

Sherwood Forest is a Royal Forest located in England that is most famous for its association to the legends of Robin Hood. The forest has been wittled down to a relatively small 165-square-mile wood area, but it is still very popular amoung tourists because of its national beauty and association to legends. A famous aspect of the forest is Major Oak, which was thought to be Robin Hood's main hideout. It is distinguishable by the network of scaffolding that supports its limbs.

Cloud Forests of Henri Pittier National Park

Photo credit: Cristóbal Alvarado Minic

The Henri Pittier National Park is the oldest national park in Venezuela and it is most famous for its birdlife. Several different ecosystems can be found througout the park, varying with its altitude. It is home to many cloud forests, which are evergreen montane moist forests with a high incidence of low-cloud cover. They usually have an abundance of moss covering the ground and the vegetation, which often leads to them being referred to as mossy forests.

Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park

Photo credit: mugley

The Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park is located in the Central Highlands of Tasmania. The area is an important location for Tasmania's endemic species, as anywhere from 40 to 55 percent of the park's alpine flora is endemic. The vegetation in the park is very diverse and has managed to escape unscathed from a variety of destructive fires that have caused neighboring regions much damage.

Yakushima Wilderness Area

Photo credit: world_waif

Yakushima, which is one of the Osumi Islands, is located in the southern part of Japan. The area is covered in a dense forest which is most notable for its old growth Cryptomeria trees, which are known as Sugi in Japanese. The forest is a unique remnant of a warm-temperate ancient forest, which has been almost completely untouched by human development. It is also notable for being Japan's wettest spot in terms of rainfall.

Mt. Saint Helens

Photo credit: Wikipedia (image before 1980 eruption)

Mount Saint Helens is an active stratovolcano located in Washington State. It is surrounded by the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, a reserve famous for culturall modified trees and an interestingly complex topography and volcanic geology. The forest itself is home to a large variety of endangered animal species, such as the bald eagle, the bull trout, and the chinook salmon.

Trillemarka

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Trillemarka is a large nature reserve located in Buskerud, Norway, consisting of one of largest natural forests in the eastern part of Norway. The forest includes a virgin forest and 93 red list species, or threatened species. A large controversy has erupted in Norway over whether or not Trillemarka should be expanded and, if so, by how much land.

Inca Trail

Photo credit: discosour

The Inca Trail marked the pinnacle of transportation technology in pre-Colombian South America, consisting of two north-south roads with many branches. These roads stretch through many miles of pristine tropical forests due to the relatively untouched quality of many branches of the trail. The trail was often the only way for travelers to forge their way through the thick cloud forests and other vegetation in the area.

Fraser Island

Photo credit: bram_souffreau

Fraser Island is situated off the southern coast of Queensland, Australia, which is in the eastern part of the country. Considered to be the largest sand island in the world, Fraser Island's forests have suffered from centuries of logging. However, the logging industry finally left Fraser Island in 1991, which has allowed Fraser Island's fauna to begin its recovery.

Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves

Photo credit: Wikipedia

The Gondwana Rainforests of Australia, otherwise known as the Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves, constitute the most extensive area of subtropical rainforests in the world. About two million visitors come to the reserve each year to experience the area's shocking amounts of biodiversity, including over 200 rare or threatened animal and plant species. Evidence shows that many of the species of plants in the reserve's rainforests are directly descended from plants that populated Gondwana when it existed, hence the name.

Wet Tropics of Queensland

Photo credit: Wikipedia

The Wet Tropics of Queensland includes an enormous amount of Australian wet tropical forests in the northeastern Queensland portion of the Great Dividing Range. Over 390 plant species, of which 74 are threatened, survive in the Wet Tropics of Queensland. At least 85 of these species are endemic to the area, with 13 different types of rainforest species and 29 different types of mangroves.

Laurel Forests

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Laurel forests are humid subtropical forests found in the Macronesian Islands of the North Atlantic, such as the Madeira Islands, the Azores, and the Canary Islands. They are made up of laurel-leaved evergreen hardwood trees and contain an impressive variety of species endemic to the islands. Many of these forests have been damaged by years of logging and invasion from exotic species, but conservation efforts have improved the health of these forests.

Gilan Jungles of Iran

Photo credit: Wikipedia

The jungles of Iran's Gilan Province fall in the humid temperate forest category and cover about 212,000 hectares of land. One of the most notable features of the area is a lack of coniferous trees, with only relics of coniferous tree species present in the area. The area is also home to some of the last remaining natural deciduous forests in the world.

Bialowieza Forest

Photo credit: Wikipedia

The Bialowieza Forest is an ancient forest located on the border between Belarus and Poland, and it is one of the oldest and largest remaining primeval forests of the kind that once spread across the European plain. The forest has long held great significance for the cultures of the area, with historical references to the forest dating back to the 13th century. Another interesting feature of the forest is the variety of named oaks that dot the landscape.

Shirakami

Photo credit: jetalone

Mount Shirakami is a mountain located in Sasayama, Hyogo, Japan. It is known for its outline, which closely resembles Mount Fuji to the point that it is known in Japanese as the Fuji in Tamba Province. The forest surrounding the mountain is classified as primeval beech forest and it has remained well preserved because it was never suitable for Shiitake farming. Because of this, the area is also home to many endangered plant species.

Shiretoko National Park

Photo credit: hogeasdf

Shiretoko National Park covers much of the Shiretoko Peninsula at the northern tip of Japan's Hokkaido island. It is one of the most remote regions of Japan and is only accessible by foot or by boat. This has left its forest and wilderness areas relatively untouched by human development, allowing its temperate and subalpine mixed forests to thrive. Sakhalin fir, Erman's berch, and Mongolian oak are the main tree species in the area.

Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park

Photo credit: Wikipedia

The Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks are jointly administered units of the National Park System, both of which are located in the southern Sierra Nevada. Sequoia National Park is most famous for its Giant Sequoia Tree, including the General Sherman tree, which is one of the largest trees in the world. Kings Canyon National Park is similarly famous for its own groves of sequoia trees, as well as for its mixed conifer forests.

Eldorado National Forest

Photo credit: Vlad & Marina Butsky

The Eldorado National Forest is located in the central Sierra Nevada mountain range in California with a tiny portion extending into Nevada. The forest is graced by a Mediterranean climate, giving it warm, dry summers and cold, wet winters. The main vegetation types throughout the Eldorado National Forest are woodland, chaparral, mixed conifer, true fir, and subalpine.

Inyo National Forest

Photo credit: jcookfisher

The Inyo National Forest is located mostly in California, with a smaller section in Western Nevada. About 238,000 acres of the forest is home to old-growth forests, where the most abundant trees are Lodgepole Pine and Jeffrey Pine. However, Inyo National Forest is most well-known for the elusive Great Basin Bristlecone Pine called Methuselah, which is the oldest non-clonal living tree on Earth at around 4,839 years old.

Sierra National Forest

Photo credit: Wikipedia

The Sierra National Forest is located on the western slope of the central Sierra Nevada in California, covering more than 1,300,000 acres. The area's terrain includes rolling, oak-covered foothills alongside heavily forested slopes. About 383,000 acres of these forests are considered old-growth forests, containing large amounts of Lodgepole Pine and Red Fir.

Baxter State Park

Photo credit: jbarreiros

Baxter State Park is a large wilderness area located in north-central Maine that covers 200,000 acres. The area's climate is the cool, moist climate that most of the region experiences that lends itself to deciduous trees. Many visitors come to Baxter State Park to experience the leaves changing colors from early September to late September and early October. Deciduous trees generally shed all their leaves by the end of October.

Boundary Waters Minnesota

Photo credit: Wikipedia

The Boundary Waters, also called the Quetico-Superior country, is a region of wilderness that straddles the border between Ontario and Minnesota just west of Lake Superior. The region is most well known for a large amount of waterways and bogs, as well as for its boreal forests sitting upon bedrock and thin soils. In the southern part of the region, the boreal forest transitions to a deciduous forest.

Virgin Komi Forests

Photo credit: Wikipedia

The Virgin Komi Forests is a natural UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Russia's Northern Ural Mountains. The largest virgin forest in Europe, the Virgin Komi Forests belong to the Ural Mountains taiga ecoregion. Siberian Spruce, Siberian Fir, and Siberian Larch are the most prominent species of trees in the area.

Hoh Rain Forest

Photo credit: pallavi_damera

The Hoh Rain Forest is part of the Olympic National Park, which is in turn located in Washington State's Olympic Peninsula. As one of the few temperate rainforests in the United States, and one of the largest, the forest is unique in the continental U.S. Sitka Spruce and Western Hemlock are the dominant species of the area, with many examples of these species growing to impressive sizes.

Siskiyou Forest

Photo credit: thewhitebear

The Siskiyou Forest, which is part of the Rogue River - Siskiyou National Forest reserve on the California-Oregon border, covers almost 1,800,000 acres. The forest is home to significant pockets of old growth comprised of Port Orfard cedar and Douglas fir in the area known as Copper Salmon. A study confirmed that the total area of old-growth forest in the reserve is about 345,300 acres. In 2002, a massive fire burned down almost 500,000 acres of the reserve.

Fiordland Rainforest NZ

Photo credit: celebdu

New Zealand's Fiordland Rainforest is famous for its stunning scenery as well as for the rainforests that cling precariously to the sides of steep mountains in the area. The area has managed to remain relatively untouched by human hands, resulting in unbelievable natural beauty and rainforests with a shocking amount of biodiversity. Tourists to the area can delight in a variety of ways to experience everything the rainforest has to offer.

Amazon Rainforest

Few forests are as well known as the Amazon rainforest, which is also known as Amazonia or the Amazon jungle. Covering 1.4 billion acres of the Amazon Basin, the forest is a moist broadleaf forest and home to the most impressive biodiversity in the world: one-in-ten known species can be found in the Amazon rainforest. There are tens of thousands of different plant species throughout the Amazon rainforest and more are being discovered today.

Congo Forest

The Congo Basin Forest covers 700,000 square miles in six countries, making it the second largest area of moist tropical forest left in the world. The forest is part of the Congolian forests, which is a belt of lowland tropical moist broadleaf forest extending across the Congo River and into Central Africa. The forest transitions into drier savanna-like landscapes in the northern and southern parts of the Congolian forests.

Man National Park

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Manu National Park is a biosphere reserve located in Cusco, Pero. It was originally well-preserved because of its inaccessibility but was converted into a national park once mankind started to enter the area. The park contains several ecological zones throughout its enormous area, giving it extremely high biodiversity, and as many as 250 varieties of trees can be found in a single hectare. Overall, there are more than 20,00 species of flora.

Best Botanical Gardens Across the USA

2009-07-27T06:40:00Z

Best Botanical Gardens Across the USA

What many travelers don’t realize is when it comes to touring botanical gardens, it’s not really about the botany. Let’s face it, most of us are not botanists. Heck, a lot of us don’t even work on our own yards... or even have yards. So why go to the effort to visit a botanical garden? Like I said, it’s not about the botany. It’s about the serenity. Most of us live in concrete jungles where we spend our days surrounded with electronics and machinery. Vacations are all about looking for a change of scenery. And you can’t get much further from our cubicles than a quiet, green botanic garden.

National Tropical Botanical Gardens

Created in 1964 through an act of Congress, the National Tropical Gardens were formed when a group of individuals and organizations united and lobbied that the United States needed a tropical botanic garden on its own soil. The gardens are headquartered in Hawaii, but spread out over five locations on Kauai, Maui, and the state of Florida.

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The Arboretum of Los Angeles County

Founded in 1948 when Los Angeles County and the State of California purchased its 111 acres, the Arboretum is home to thousands of trees and plants. The grounds are also home to over 200 peacocks and peahens, descendents of a flock brought over from India around 1880 by Elias Jackson "Lucky" Baldwin, the original owner of the property.

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Huntington Botanical Gardens

When railroad magnate Henry E. Huntington passed away, his estate became the "Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens". The gardens cover approximately 120 acres and are divided into a dozen themes including the Rose Garden as well as Shakespearean Garden. The most famous, however, is the desert garden featuring over 5000 species of desert plants.

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Arnold Arboretum

Founded in 1872, the Arnold Arboretum is run by Harvard University to assist with the teaching of agriculture and horticulture. The site sits on 265 acres divided into 4 parcels. Interesting enough, while the land was given to Harvard through various wills, the property is today technically owned by the city of Boston who in-turn granted Harvard a thousand-year lease.

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Dallas Arboretum

There are a number of fabulous gardens in Texas. The Dallas Arboretum sits on 66 acres at the shoreline of White Rock Lake. In the springtime, the Arboretum is host to "Dallas Blooms", the largest floral festival in the Southwest with over 400,000 spring bulbs in full bloom.

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Chicago Botanic Garden

Open every day of the year except Christmas, the Chicago Botanic Garden is heavily dedicated to the scientific study and conservation of endangered flora. Over 500 classes are offered by the garden on subjects ranging from gardening, to nature and the environment. The garden also boasts a membership of 50,000, the largest in the country of any pubic garden.

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Brooklyn Botanical Garden

One of the most visited public gardens in the United States, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden is only 25 minutes by subway from Manhattan and features 52 acres of some of the most beautiful gardens in New York. For those who love Asian Cherry trees, the garden features one of the best collections outside of Japan itself.

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Marie Selby Botanic Gardens

This seven acre botanical garden is dedicated to the study of epiphytes, especially orchids and bromeliads. In fact, the gardens reportedly contain the most diverse collection of bromeliads in the world. Marie Selby was the wife of William Selby, a Texaco Oil magnate.

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New York Botanical Garden

One of the most respected botanical gardens in the Unites States, the New York Botanical Garden, located in The Bronx borough of New York City, is host to some of the world’s leading laboratories dedicated to the study of plants. The garden was founded in 1891, due mostly to the efforts of Columbia University botanist Nathaniel Lord Britton who’s goal was to emulate the Royal Gardens in London.

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Desert Botanical Garden

Founded and Established by the Arizona Cactus and Native Flora Society in 1937, the Desert Botanical Garden is dedicated to the collection of plants that have adapted to desert conditions. The 140 acre garden contains over 20,000 plants from deserts throughout the world.

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Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden

This 86 acre garden is dedicated to native Californian plants. Some two-thousand native species, hybrids, and cultivars are represented throughout seventy-thousand plants. The garden works closely with Pomona College and even offers graduate degrees in Botany through Claremont Graduate University.

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Missouri Botanical Garden

One of the oldest botanical institutions in the Unites States, the Missouri Botanical Garden (also known as "Shaw’s Garden" after its founder) was founded in 1859 and is 79 acres in size. It is an important center for botanical research as well as host to a number of cultural festivals throughout the year.

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The Lyon Arboretum

This 200 acre garden is managed by the University of Hawaii at Manoa on the outskirts of Honolulu, HI. The Arboretum was founded in 1918 by the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association to demonstrate and study reforestation. Today, the majority of the park is a successful man-made, lowland tropical rainforest.

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United States Botanical Garden

This is the oldest continually-operating botanical garden in the United States. Also impressive, it is located on the grounds of the United States Capitol building. It gained prominence when Charles Wilkes returned from the "United States Exploring Expedition" with a collection of plants. Those plants would be housed at this garden, and several of them survive to this day.

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No matter what state you’re in, somewhere nearby there is a garden open to the public. Taking a vacation doesn’t necessarily mean getting on a plane, or even driving a car. All it may require is a short walk, and sitting down to relax in a place that’s quiet and green.

Photo Credits:

National Tropical Botanical Gardens: light in dark places, Botanical gardens, Bo Tree {Ficus Religiosa}, Hawai'ia Tropical Botanical Garden, pdxjeff, National Tropical Botanical Garden - Kaua'i, pdxjeff, Rick McCharles, Plumeria 'Le Rainbow', Rick McCharles, Rick McCharles.
Los Angeles Arboretum: Iris, Simple Pink Flower, Peacock, Oh My, weird flower.
Huntington Gardens: Magic Garden, Moon Bridge, Yellow succulent, Terrace of the Jade Mirror, Bonsai Tree, Japanese Garden, Willow tree and moon bridge, Japanese Garden, Extreme Cactus, Desert Flames, Desert Colors.
Arnold Arboretum: Purple Autumn, Red Star, Lilacs at the Arnold Arboretum, Boston Skyline from St Peters Hill, Yomi No Kuni, Pink Blossom, white forsythia, fall leaves, Pink Paeonia, Peekaboo, Cathedral Window.
Dallas Arboretum: Tulip mix, flower power, white tulips, red tulips, butterfly, horse topiary, tulip mix, daffodil, foxglove, fountains.
Chicago Botanic Garden: Kaboom, Water Garden, spotted, pink, endless yellow, creamsicle, waterfall, water flower, english garden, tree rings, lily.
Brooklyn Botanic Garden: Cherry Blossoms, imsorrybrendan, Fall at the BBG, Grape Hyacinths, Bride in Bluebell Wood, burst, Brooklyn Bridge Model, Cherry Blossoms, tulips, Bridge in Japanese Garden, Baby Blue Eye.
Marie Selby Botanic Gardens: Butterfly, triple flower, purple, hanging, open flower, fountain.
New York Botanical Garden: Chinese Juniper, dahlia after rain, Sunlight on the Conservatory, Rock Island Among the Mums, Moth Orchid, Devil's tongue.
Desert Botanical Garden: superde1uxe, sonoran desert, Spring explodes, Cactus Crown, Saguaro, Prickly Pears, Arms, cactus field, Boojum Tree, Prickly Pears, Star Cactus.
Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden: poppy glow , Douglas Iris, Tidy Tips, Black Oaks, Sitka Columbine, Shasta Sulphur.
Missouri Botanical Garden: Missouri Botanical Garden, Tulip Dreams, Red + White = Pink, Reflection Pool, Missouri Botanical Garden, Orchids on Black.
The Lyon Arboretum: Lyon Arboretum Hike, Etlingera corneri, jdnx, banyan tree, Lyon Arboretum Hike, Lyon Arboretum path.
United States Botanical Garden: dc gardens, US Botanical Garden, purple tulips, United States Botanical Garden, julieminevich, joshua davis.

Bare Ground

2009-04-30T13:22:00Z

Pundits have said it for a long time--Nature abhors bare ground. Left alone, untended earth will quickly become covered with small plants, then bigger plants and, eventually trees. This succession depends on geography and topography, of course, but unless something is seriously wrong with the soil, succession will take place.

In the garden you want to encourage the desirable plants and discourage the weeds. The best way to do this is to prevent Nature from covering the earth with random seedlings. Mulch is a big help in keeping things under control. You can mulch with just about anything--pine straw, compost, semi-decomposed leaves, bark chips or shreds, cocoa bean hulls, gravel or even crushed shells. Pine straw, compost and semi-decomposed leaves have the advantage of being free, renewable and generally available. I especially love pine straw because it is soft, stays in place and smells good.

Mulch thickly to a depth of three or even four inches. Be careful to avoid piling mulch up around the bases of trees and woody shrubs, as it hastens rot and disease.

In dry areas, a good coating of mulch also helps preserve moisture in the soil. Poor soils are made richer and good soil is maintained.

Once I discovered the joys of mulch as a young gardener, I reduced the heavy digging in my garden. Now I know that even on those days when I prefer to sit on the back porch with a trashy novel, the mulch is working hard to loosen the heavy earth in my garden beds.

Lilac Time

2009-04-28T16:54:00Z

I grew up not far from Rochester, NY, which holds a big lilac festival every year. It was a perfect celebration of spring in a part of the world that gets a lot of winter.

In my Zone 6 garden, the lilacs start blooming along with the mid season tulips and help to provide color after many of the showy spring flowers--like daffodils--have folded up their petals and begun the first steps on the road to dormancy. Taken on their own, the bushes are pleasant enough, but not much to write home about. The leaves are an endearing heart shape, but the branches can grow gangly if not tended every year. Lilacs are not as unattractive out of flower as forsythia, but they don't provide more than one season of real interest.

But lilacs more than make up for their relatively short season of interest by covering themselves with the most elegant, beautiful, fragrant array of tiny flowers imaginable. Arranged into large panicles or flowerheads, they are enough to make you want to cut armloads to bring into the house. Unlike some highly scented flowers, lilacs don't seem to become overpowering even when you put a large vase of them n a relatively small room.

I am especially fond of the old favorite 'President Lincoln', which is a cultivar of the "common" Syringa vulgaris. The President, like its namesake, grows tall. The flowers are blue-purple and exceptionally fragrant. Also, like its namesake, 'President Lincoln' can stand up to hard times, especially in the form of cold winter temperatures. Pruning a third of the mature branches back every year is all it takes to keep it in shape. This kind of pruning also allows for good air circulation, which keeps powdery mildew, at bay.

Out in the country, almost every old farmstead has a lilac growing somewhere near the door. It is a custom that deserves a renaissance.

Elusive Aquilegia

2009-04-26T13:20:00Z

No garden should be without columbine (Aquilegia). The flowers are unique, the colors are exquisite and even the lobed green leaves are attractive. (In fact, the leaves look good even when they are beset by the great columbine pest, leaf miner.)

But be aware that columbines are full of suprises. Buy even one this year and chances are, next year you will have many little plants. Columbine self-seeds with wild abandon. This isn't really a problem because the little seedlings are easy to transplant. The colors of the offspring may surprise you, however. Fortunately most columbine colors harmonize with other columbine colors and you may end up with some serendipitous combinations.

If you like those combinations, they will enrich your garden. If not, wait a season. Columbine tend to appear and disappear according to their own rules. I used to have many blue and blue-purple flowered plants in one bed in my back garden. The originals seem to have disappeared and now I have a nice clump of them in a nearby bed. The newcomers bloom later and some of them are pink. I treasure them right now, but know that I shouldn't get too comfortable with the display. Next year it is likely to be different.

Columbine is probably not for the person who likes to control everything--unless that person also likes to transplant interloping plants. For those of us who enjoy an element of serendipity in the garden, they are one of the best choices.

Beach Plum

2009-04-24T14:18:00Z

Beach plum or Prunus maritima is just what it sounds like-- a plum tree that grows along the seashore or sometimes even along lake shores. It's a small native tree (about ten feet tall at maturity) that can survive some fairly adverse conditions, including salt spray. The real glory of the beach plum is the fruit. You can't eat it out of hand unless you like things that are extremely sour, but it makes the most delicious jelly--richly flavored with enough tartness to make it interesting.

Of course you can buy beach plum jelly in some places and if you are not inclined to grow the tree and make it yourself, you certainly should. However, the other glory of the beach plum is its fragrant white spring blossoms. Even if the tree never bore a single plum, the scent would be enough to justify growing Prunus maritima.

In some ways it seems a shame to have to buy a beach plum tree. It is nicer to find one serendipitously on a beach somewhere. Most of us are not that lucky, however, so if you have the right sunny spot, beach plum is a great plant to have. As you might suspect, it likes excellent drainage. Clay soils are not right for this sand or shale-loving species.

For those lucky enough to have a beach and the erosion worries that go with it, beach plum is also a worthwhile investment. Its roots hold the soil, helping to keep the beach in one place so you will have a vactaion spot--plus lots of tasty beach plum jelly--for years to come.

Blue and Yellow in the Spring

2009-04-21T22:07:00Z

I have always liked the combination of blue and yellow in the garden. It is never better than in early spring. You can combine yellow daffodils with blue chionidoxa or hyacinths. Arrange for your early blooming daffs to come up through a carpet of blue-purple vinca minor. The later blooming ones can emerge from a sea of blue forget me nots. ( The best thing about both forget me nots and daffodils is that once they are established, they require nothing at all from the gardener.)

I particularly love blue or blue-purple grape hyacinths with yellow-flowered tulips. My favorite yellow tulip is 'Maja', which has fringed edges. The pairing with grape hyacinths (Muscari armeniacum) or spanish bluebells (Hyacinthoides hispanica) is inspired in the garden or in a vase.

By making careful early, mid and late spring selections, you can have blues and yellows for at least six weeks. It is worth taking the time to investigate.

Hyacinths

2009-04-20T12:48:00Z

In my neighborhood the hyacinths are in bloom and wherever more than a couple are clustered, the fragrance hits you as you pass by. I love them and can't figure out why more people don't grow them.

I suppose that others may not love the sweet, heavy fragrance quite as much as I. Hyacinths are beautiful in a bouquet, but if you place more than one or two of the full figured blossoms in a room, the scent is overpowering. I can't resist cutting hyacinths, but if I want a sumptuous arrangement, I put it outside on my back porch where the fragrance will be dispersed.

The problem can't be color--unless you dislike shades of blue, purple, pink, yellow, peach and cream. (And if you do dislike those colors, you are going to have trouble in the garden, no matter what you do.) Maybe the problem is hyacinth's growth habit. The first spring after the bulbs are planted, the flowerheads are so full of florets that they are prone to toppling over under their own weight. The second year, however, the florets are a bit farther apart. This results in a slightly less formal flower that also has the benefit of being easier on sensitive noses.

Some of the hyacinths in my garden have come back for years, though never as full as the first year. I don't mind this and I still prize them for their many virtues.

Back in the nineteenth century, gardeners could choose from hundreds of hyacinth varieties. Now there are relatively few. Mark your garden diary and plant a few next fall. They are worth saving.

Nasturtiums on my mind

2009-04-16T11:44:00Z

Even as the grape hyacinths come into bloom and the last of the daffodils open up in my yard, I, like other gardeners am thinking ahead. That's why I am planting nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus) seeds. The closest that many people get to nasturtiums is seeing them as part of the packaged "edible flower mixes" sold in the specialty produce sections of many supermarkets. The flowers taste peppery and are good in salads, but I think they lend even more spice to the summer garden.

The blooms have five petals apiece (double-flowered varieties are also widely available) and are vaguely trumpet shaped. They grow profusely and stay close to the rounded green leaves. My favorite nasturtiums are the old-fashioned ground hugging varieties that are great for the front of the border, flourish in pots and make a colorful edging for vegetable or herb gardens. I am especially fond of 'Peach Melba', a cultivar with cream petals and a red throat. This year I may try one of the climbing varieties as well.

Nasturtiums have big, pea-like seeds that are easy to handle. Soak them in water for about eight hours before planting to loosen the hard outer covering.

Perhaps the most wonderful thing about nasturtiums is that they absolutely love lean soil and don't mind drought. Put them in rich soil and overfertilize and you will get an exuberant crop of leaves but few flowers. But if you plant them in sunny space, water until they are established and pretty much forget about them thereafter, they will generally reward you with lots of flowers. Pick a few for a salad, but enjoy the rest in the garden. Nasturtiums are about as close as most of us will get to a horticultural free lunch.

Kwanzan Cherry

2009-04-14T18:49:00Z

At this time of the year, the flowering cherry tree (Prunus serrulata 'Kwanzan' or Kwanzan cherry) is at its best. A nearby school boasts two of them, and when they are in full bloom, more than one elementary student carries home fallen blossoms to his or her mother after school. Those blossoms are the essence of all that is pink and frilly--a little like a carnation without the ragged edges, or like a semi-double rose. They are borne in enormous numbers on the trees, which are masses of solid pink for at least a couple of weeks. Here those weeks happen in mid April, elsewhere it might be earlier or later.

The trees are not enormous, growing between 20-30 feet tall at maturity. At other times of the year their attractive gray bark and green leaves make them useful in the landscape. Like all ornamental cherries, they do not bear delicious edible fruit. Depending on where they are planted, this can be a good thing. The school principal, for example, is very thankful that the trees do not provide a ready source of projectiles in the fall.

My daughter, who carried those cherry blossoms home to me many days, always wanted a Kwanzan cherry tree. We don't really have room for one unless lightening strikes the sturdy maple in front of the house. Maybe my child, now a junior in college, will plant one herself one of these days.

New Plant Challenges

2009-04-13T12:56:00Z

It is mid April and the nightime temperatures in my area are still in the mid to upper thirties. The long cool season keeps the spring flowers blooming longer, but it also poses a challenge for those of us who order plants from online or catalog vendors. It is too cold to put the plants outside or install them in the garden, but the boxes full of bulbs, dormant roots, bare root plants and tiny pots of young plants arrive daily. What can you do?

Don't panic, but do unpack the plants. Store any bulbs in a cool dark place, but make sure you make a note to yourself to retrieve them as soon as the weather warms up. Dormant roots and bare root plants need to be potted up temporarily and placed in sunny spots in your house. Remember to water them as necessary. Young plants in small pots should be checked for problems,placed in trays or saucers and also situated in a sunny spot inside or a very protected spot outside. Water from the bottom by pouring water into the tray or saucer for the plant to take up as needed. If your purchases spend a week or two inside, be sure to harden them off gradually by placing them in a protected spot outside when the weather warms up. A few days in the protected spot and they will be ready for planting in the garden.

How do you know if your soil is ready? That's easy. Pick up a handful. It should not feel particularly cold and should have the texture of good chocolate cake--not too wet and not too dry. If the soil is too wet, it will clump in your hands like a mud ball. Many plants, bulbs and seeds will rot if planted in wet, cold soil.

Take a little care with your young plants and the mature ones will give you joy later in the season.

Handling Slopes

2009-04-09T18:58:00Z

I grew up in an area so flat that people created berms in their yards just to provide a little contrast. However, several years ago my sister and I were faced with the problem of how to deal with the fast-eroding slope behind our summer cottage. We didn't have the money to terrace the slope, but needed a relatively cheap way to stabilize the soil.

Part of our slope was sunny and part was shady. The soil was like concrete, because most of it was concrete--or at least "clean" fill dumped into place after we had the rear of our cottage renovated. Any plant that required a hole more than a few inches deep was out of the question, as were plants that required maintenance.

We decided on a combination of daylilies for the sunny areas and hostas for the shade. Both plants have tough roots that hold the soil and a reputation for withstanding bad conditions. We bought the most inexpensive daylilies that we could find and saved money by buying in quantity. The hostas were transplanted from other areas on the property. Installing them was torture--more like mountain climbing than gardening--but we persisted until we had daylilies and hostas spaced at regular intervals up and down the slope. We mulched them as best we could with the "seaweed" that washed up on our lakefront beach. We watered regularly throughout the first summer. We figured if the plants failed, at least we bought ourselves an extra year to save up for the terracing project.

Much to our suprise, the daylilies and hostas took to the miserable conditions in a big way. Not a single plant died and all increased in size. Now, after several seasons, the slope is completely covered. The rainstorms come and go, but the soil stays in place. People in boats slow down to see the spectacle when the daylilies are in bloom. For some reason, the deer, which are plentiful in the area, do not eat either plant. (It's probably because the slope is so steep that even they dislike trying to eat on it.)

So if you have a lot of slope and only a little money, take heart. Find a tough-rooted, fast growing plant that isn't poison ivy or kudzu and you will have found the answer.

When Plants Die

2009-04-08T14:28:00Z

When you are a gardener, plants die on your watch. It's a fact of life, but it is not a moral failing--even if the plant or plants in question died of neglect. Neglect just means that the plant didn't excite you very much or your life/schedule/obligations made it impossible for you to meet the plant's needs. Either way, you should not feel guilty. Next time, buy a plant that makes you happy and has requirements that fit your lifestyle.

Sometimes it is hard to let go of a plant--even if it is clearly dead. Last year I kept a potted lavender on my dining room window seat/plant shelf long after it had died. The lavender was a gift and it died for no apparent reason. I kept hoping that one day I would see the single green sprout that would tell me my lavender was really only in some kind of dormancy. I even watered my dead plant regularly. Finally I brushed by it a little too hard and one of the larger branches broke off with a snap. I pulled on one of the other branches and it was also well and truly dead. In fact, all of the branches were dead because the entire plant was dead. I finally tossed it into the composter.

The same thing has happened to me many times with outdoor plants. I have a Rosa rugosa hybrid right now that has only one living cane. The plant has been at death's door for almost two years while I have dithered about whether or not to get ride of it. This year I am going to do it--but only after early spring has passed, just in case Mother Nature decides to rejuvenate more canes.

When you contemplate dead or dying plants, it is helpful to remember that every dead plant opens up a space for something fresh and new. Repeat those words whenever you start to feel guilty.

Star Magnolia

2009-04-07T13:35:00Z

We are having a long, cold spring--the kind with a few tantalizingly warm and sunny days interspersed with three or four-day spells of unseasonable cold. If this continues, the daffodils will last longer than usual and we will finally have a good year for ornamental sweet peas. The magnolia blossoms, so long anticipated and sometimes so short-lived, may hang around as well.

I love all kinds of magnolias, but I am especially taken with Magnolia stellata or star magnolia. The trees, which grow ten to twelve-feet tall, are shorter than some of the other magnolias, so they fit nicely in smaller yards. A stellata would be a great tree for a condo or townhouse dweller who wants a flowering tree, but has either a long narrow space or a modest ribbon of property.

Stellatas don't have the big puffy flowers of old-fashioned magnolias. Instead, the pink or white blossoms have thin petals arranged in a star-like configuration. Like other magnolia varieties, stellatas bloom fairly early in the spring.

Other than sunny space and the usual, well-drained soil, the star magnolias don't demand much. Plan any light pruning for spring and bring the blooming branches into the house so that you can enjoy their color and fragrance inside and out.

Moving Shrubs

2009-04-04T12:24:00Z

This year I am rearranging my landscape and that involves moving some full-grown shrubs. This is a prospect that scares strong men and sends most people to the Yellow Pages (or the Internet Yellow Pages) in search of a landscaper. Not me. I have moved roses, hydrangeas, butterfly bushes and full grown abelias successfully and I am hardly a body builder. It's not so much about strength as it is about strategy, timing and patience. The following are a few tips:

Prepare the planting hole--Before you dig up an established shrub, prepare its new home. Dig a hole wider than it is deep and mix the soil at the bottom with some good compost. Have a bucket or two of water handy. When you have finished the really hard work of digging up the transient shrub, it will be very easy to finish the job of installing it.
Cut back the shrub that you are transplanting. This makes it easier to move and means that the newly-distrubed root system will have less growth to support.
Do not move shrubs in extremely hot or cold weather. Try to pick a cloudy day so that you and the plant don't fry.
When you dig out the plant, include a large root ball of soil. Start by digging a trench in a circle at least with a radius (not a diameter) of at least eighteen inches. The trench is your guide for digging. Work your way around the shrub, digging and gently levering it out of the ground. This takes patience, but is worth the trouble. The goal is to disturb the roots as little as possible. When you are finished, move the shrub carefully to its new location. Fill the planting hole part way with water before you put in the shrub.
Install the shrub and fill the hole part way with a compost/soil mixture, then tamp it down and water again. Finish filling the hole and tamp down. Mulch the shrub well, but do not let the mulch touch the trunk, as that will promote rot.
Fill the hole in the old location

Your shrub may go through a bit of transplant shock, but don't worry about that. It's normal. Water every few days and wait for signs of new growth. When it occurs, you will know that you have transplanted successfully.