What's Hot Now: Deciduous Magnolias

Magnolia stellata

One of my fondest memories of attending The University of Texas at Austin happened on the north mall, in the shadow of the Tower.  On this mall was an ancient Southern Magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora).  It's glossy green leaves and giant white blooms swayed gently in the breeze while I stared up at it, laying on the grass, rather than reading my Constitutional Law homework.

So imagine my surprise when I moved to Oregon and learned that magnolias could be deciduous.  And that they didn't have to be 40' tall and 80' wide.  Two of the loveliest trees of spring are Magnolia x soulangiana or Saucer Magnolia and Magnolia stellata or Star Magnolia.  Though both are deciduous magnolias and can grow into large, handsome trees, their blooms are quite distinct.

Star magnolia blooms are generally white and strappy, meaning that their petals are much longer than they are wider and they tend to open in haphazard shapes, rather than unfurling in a tidy shape.  I have seen some varieties that have pink blooms, though I suspect this is a recent variety.  I've only seen small trees with the pink blooms.

From onlineplantguide.com

Saucer magnolia normally has soft pink blooms with tinges of stronger pink.  The petals are heavier and waxier, such as you'd find on a Southern Magnolia, but significantly smaller.  Sadly, I didn't get a photo of a saucer magnolia in full, glorious bloom.  This spring, my children became accustomed to me pulling the car over suddenly to exclaim about various plants and take photos like some stalker.  Yet in all my stalking, so photos of saucer magnolias.

For spring blooming trees, it's hard to beat the deciduous magnolias.

Why This Does Not Work: Unsafe Berberis

One of the most important principles in landscape design is right plant, right place.  This means that the designer (or whoever is selecting plants) chooses a plant that fits the light, soil, and size of the place it is intended.  But here is another consideration.  Don't put a plant with razor sharp thorns along a public stair railing.

This is one of my favorite plants: Berberis or commonly called barberry.  It's a great shrub, sometimes deciduous, sometimes evergreen.  I suspect this is Berberis darwinii, the evergreen cultivar.  It has tiny flowers that pop against the foliage in the spring and tiny red berries in the fall that persist into the winter.  Berberis has some of sharpest thorns in the plant world and at 1 1/2-2" long, could easily impale a person or animal.  This is a great shrub for a hedgerow, since the thorns enable it to function like a fence, but it creates a great refuge for birds to safely nest.

However, it isn't a good idea along a high school stairway, growing through the railing and trailing over the handrail.  Sometimes, things just scream out, "What were they thinking?"  Most likely, they weren't.

What's Hot Now: Forsythia

For me, forsythia is the harbinger of spring.  (That and odoriferous ants.)  Forsythia's blooms explode on the scene in March, just as the chill of winter begins to ebb.  The bright yellow blooms appear before the leaves making it especially beautiful.  These small trees/large shrubs have multi-branch trunks that often arch gracefully.  What is often surprising to me is how huge these shrubs get.  Some forsythias can get to a width of 12'.  That's just one plant!  And it's a critical example of how it is important to consider mature size when placing plants.

We have a beautiful forsythia at the southeast corner of our home, where it gets maximum sun on our lot.  The problem is that the shrub is squeezed between the house and the fence line.  A space that is only eight feet wide and is one of the pathways that leads to the gate separating the front and back.  For the first couple of years, I tried desperately to prune it to push its height higher, so that the arching branches would arch well over our heads.  It didn't work.  So eventually, the tree/shrub will have to be removed.  Until I muster that courage, my husband gets angry at the forsythia every summer and "prunes" it, which means there are lots of random cuts made.  *Sigh*

Be kind to yourself and your plants.  Place them in spaces where they are happy and will be able to live out their lives.

Each is 10' wide and have been pruned.

The photos to the left and right are examples of how to use this shrub to maximum effect and of judicious pruning.  This is a slope where the forsythia has been allowed to arch down to the ground on one side, the downslope, making the forsythia seem huge and dramatic.  The upslope has been pruned to make the shrub appear tidy, without the low, arching branches.  It is very aesthetically pleasing.  Kudos to the homeowner who planted and cares for these shrubs.

What's Hot Now: Camellias

The beautiful camellia is elegant and for me, quite southern.  Here in the PNW, there are primarily two kinds of ornamental Camellia japonica and C. sasanqua.  Sasanquas have smaller leaves; smaller blooms that arrive in fall, and when the bloom begins to deteriorate, the petals fall of individually.  (He loves me, he loves me not....)

A lovely example of a double.

C. japonicas are what I'm spotlighting.  These are broadleaf evergreens that do best in bright shade or morning sun and afternoon shade.  They don't like the burning all day sun, even though it's the state flower of Alabama.  Japonicas have larger leaves that are shiny on top and a lighter green beneath.  (These shiny leaves are a plus in shady areas, adding brightness with their sheen that isn't often considered in a design.)  Blooms are single (simple open flower) or double (ruffles of petals.)  Different cultivars have different bloom colors and types and growth habits.  I did several drive-by portraits in my neighborhood and the smallest I found was 10' tall.  Japonica blooms fall as a whole flower.  Supposedly, samurais did not like C. japonica because it seemed like a head falling from the plant.

I have three Yuletide camellias, which are C. sasanqua, but I placed them in full shade and I've had one bloom in three years.  Sasanquas are supposed to be more adaptable, liking full sun to full shade conditions, but perhaps my full shade is too full.  I'm moving my three to a brighter area this summer/fall, so either they will start producing or they'll be replaced, perhaps with a nice nandina.

What's Hot Now: Heath

One of my favorite plants that transition winter to spring is heath, botanically named Erica carnea.  (The memory device I used in school to remember this name was Heath loves Erica, in honor of a classmate named Erica.)

This evergreen shrub performs well in full to partial sun, but I've also seen it shine in bright shade, such as the northside of a house, though not under trees.  The blooms begin as early as January and can last through April.  I've seen them most often in shades of pink and white.  They do not like wet feet, so make sure that your soil is well prepped with compost before planting.  Most mature heaths are 2-3' wide, so make sure to give it space to grow.  This is a common error, especially when you're impatient to get that full garden look.

Calluna on top, Erica on bottom.

Heath is often confused with heather.  The two are not interchangeable, as I was once mistakenly told.  Though they are both low growing evergreen shrubs, heather does not grow as large as heath.  Calluna vulgaris, as heather is known botanically, blooms in summer.  The fastest way to tell them apart though is to look at the leaves.  Actually, they have needles and awls.

 

Calluna/heather on left, Erica/heath on right.

Wow, I love macro lens! As you can see, the heather has awls, which I've always thought were shaped like ship anchors.  Other examples of plants with awls include cypresses and false cypresses (Chamaecyparis, which I LOVE!)  The heath has needles, rather like a hemlock, but much, much smaller.

 This is a great example of proper spacing for heather.  These plants are probably 3-5 years old and are more than two feet wide individually.  In the picture on the right, you can see my car keys to get an idea of dimensions.  The plants are spaced 3-4' on center, allowing plenty of room for growth.  I would have added some rosemary or lamium, to break up the monotony and add a cascading element.  But it's still an excellent example of heath.

Time to prune the ornamental grasses

After, early March 2014

You may remember this spot from a Why This Works post.  The landscapers have come in and trimmed off the ornamental grasses.  In fact, everywhere around town, ornamental grasses have been pruned in the past few weeks.  If you look closely at the root area, you'll see green shoots popping up.  Ornamental grasses grow from the root crown, not from the previous year's growth.  Some people hesitate to prune down to the ground, but in this case, it is necessary.  Any excess left up top will eventually decay and you don't want so much that it inhibits the new growth from popping through.  So get out there and get to pruning!

Extreme close-up of new growth on Hakonechloa macra.

It is coming....

Forsythia, just outside my living room window, is ready to burst!

Can you feel it in the air?  Have you seen the signs?  Temperature is warming, days are getting longer, buds are swelling, and spring is just around the corner.  Within two weeks, I'll have a dozen of choices for "What's Hot."  There is such excitement in the anticipation.

Hooray!  And just the thought of long, sunny days is helping me get through the dark season.

It is coming....