Fresh Growth on Douglas Firs

Back in the Land of Evergreens (and Alders)

Greetings from the Emerald City! I am settling in to the Pacific Northwest after enjoying a most excellent roadtrip from Philadelphia to Seattle. I will resume blogging in June with a post frequency of 1 – 2 times per week on each blog: AppleJade, Arboreality, and Brainripples.

At Arboreality we will be exploring the woods of Western Washington and other localities within reasonable driving distance.

At AppleJade we will be discussing healthy, happy lifestyle through attitude, gardening, cooking, and simple, green living.

At Brainripples we will be sharing methods of creative exploration, successful approaches to working independently, and unique perspectives from featured artists.

You will also find me blogging at the Pennwriters Area 6 HQ, a new blog created as a resource for writers living in and around southeastern Pennsylvania. I will be blogging with other Pennwriters about local news, events, information, and of course – writers!

If you are a writer in the Puget Sound Area (Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, Kitsap Peninsula, Bellingham) and would like to join my newly forming Pennwriters Seattle Critique Groups, please contact me for more information.

Finally, I look forward to sharing thoughts and of course images of local forests from the Cascades and the Olympics. I will also be enjoying the opportunity to garden in two different locations, which means plenty of veggies, herbs, and flowers to share with you.

PS - Today's image is of the trunks of Red Alder trees nestled in the Kitsap forests.

Evergreen Goodness: American Holly Among the Pennsylvania Hardwoods

Winter Tree Planting Ideas

I realize we’re well past the winter solstice and holiday season, but many of you are still looking for information about tree planting for your live Christmas trees. Here in Eastern Pennsylvania, I still haven’t planted a tree for the season – the weather, soil, and timing just haven’t been right this year, so I’ll need to wait for the spring thaw. (Tomorrow is Groundhog Day in the US, so we’ll see what Punxsutawney Phil has to say about it!)

Live Christmas trees are an excellent way to celebrate the return of a new year. You can keep them indoors for 7-10 days, and then plant them as soon as the ground is ready (soft enough to dig). If you’re going to bring the tree indoors be sure to keep it cool and moist (but not soggy); watering with ice cubes works well. Take the tree back outside as soon as possible.

If it’s not the right time to plant your tree, just keep it somewhere outside where it gets a little light, but is protected from the wind. Protect the root ball by packing leaves or old hay bales around the base of the tree. (Placing the tree on the leeward side of the house helps too).

When you plant your tree, be sure to prepare the soil wider and deeper than the rootball will reach. Mix in compost to lighten and nurture the soil, and plant your tree just a little high in the hole so that as it settles, it doesn’t sink into the earth. (And remember: NO MULCH VOLCANOS).

The first year of your new tree’s life is critical: be sure to keep your tree regularly watered (but not waterlogged) through the dry months. Your young tree needs to establish a new root system before it can withstand drought on its own.

Fertilize and mulch your tree in the autumn when the water requirements are not as intense and your tree is focused on root development. This will help it grow strong healthy buds for the next spring, and remind you for another year of the return of the sun and warm season after the long, cold winter.

For other ideas about Christmas trees, check out my earlier articles:

Planting Live Christmas Trees for the Winter Solstice

I'm Dreaming of a Green Christmas (Garden Rant)

Deck the Trees with Strings of Berries

Forests of Seabeck

More from the Washington Woods

I’m not certain of the identity of the plant in the foreground… but it certainly is lovely! If you have any suggestions, do let us know. Despite its appearance in this image, it is not a rhododendron. Those leaves are soft, not waxy and rigid. (Some suggestions include cascara, but the jury’s still out on that one.)

Sculptures of Trees and Stone

Xris at Flatbush Gardener is hosting the upcoming Festival of the Trees, and has proposed the theme of “trees in the concrete,” all puns intended and otherwise, to help spark the creative.

This seemed like a perfect opportunity to share a walk through the Topiary Garden at Longwood Gardens.

Toward the end of last summer (2006), after my own encounter with blog ennui, I began to explore my local area to shake things up. Pennsylvania is still new to me, and Longwood Gardens was a great find. I took hundreds of pictures (and will be returning in May for spring blossoms).

The Topiary Garden was a first for me. I may have seen pictures of topiary before, and seen a few nice coppices here and there, but I’ve never been in a full-scale, Alice-in-Wonderland-esque topiary garden – and boy was this one cool.

Animals, geometric shapes, flowers, and gorgeous stonework truly set this space apart from the rest of the gardens. It was impossible not to have fun in there!

The topiary are crafted from yew trees: Japanese yews (Taxus cuspidata) and English yews (Taxus baccata), which bear lovely red fruit.

According to the Longwood Gardens website,

"Gardeners shear these topiaries every July and August, and it takes years to develop the desired forms. The garden today includes more than 50 specimens in 20 different shapes."

When we came upon the Topiary Garden, we’d already spent the day walking all around the gardens, and it was just about to rain. Big, purple-grey clouds gathered as we were greeted by deeply colorful roses, and a low stone wall.

The topiary may look rigid – but when you get up close, they’re actually incredibly springy! All the branches love to play and dance, so you can get up close and make the shapes wobble and wiggle and wave with the slightest touch of hand. The gardeners are true artists – you don’t see many exposed cuts -- just nice, smooth needles carpeting all sorts of amazing shapes!

When we finally exited the Topiary Garden, we were met with the fire-eyed Chinese Foo guard dogs, and a warm afternoon rain. Despite its meticulous manicure, this garden is amazingly vibrant and friendly!

Festival of the Trees 10 Now Online at Words and Pictures

Come one, come all to the monthly Festival of the Trees! Issue 10 of the Festival of the Trees is now online at Words and Pictures, courtesy of Roger Butterfield. You don’t want to miss this – he’s put together one amazing collection of tree, forest, and wood related posts!

If you would like to participate in future Festivals of the Trees, or would like to be a festival host, please check out the Festival of the Trees coordinating blog for more information.

PS - Is the header loading better now? I went back to Zoto, so I hope the load time is faster.

Frozen Pine Needles

Winter is still very much alive in this neck of the woods!

Guest blog at Garden Rant: Christmas Trees

I have been invited back to guest blog again at Garden Rant and share some thoughts on Christmas trees.

You’ve read my thoughts from earlier this week on live Christmas tree planting, now you can see what I have to say about cut trees too in my article I’m Dreaming of a Green Christmas.

Thank you again to Amy Stewart, Michele Owens, and Susan Harris for inviting me to share my thoughts with their readers. Rant on ladies!

What's ahead at Arboreality:

Yesterday I spent my afternoon exploring local preserves and interviewing Bill Gladden, Director of the Department of Open Space Preservation in Chester County. Next week I’ll be sharing what I learned, with plenty of pictures too!

The Forests of Chateau Mumu

Each of our two vacation resting places had their own unique forest character. If you think there are a lot of pictures in today's post, you can imagine how many I had to leave out!

Chateau Mumu, our first stop, was nestled in among a stand of young deciduous trees, dominated by what I believe to be either Chestnut trees, Chestnut oak trees, or possibly Chinkapin oaks – or perhaps both, or something else entirely! They stood out to me because I had not previously seen trees with these big, wonderful, toothed leaves. Further investigation will be needed for certain identification, especially since I'm still stumped by many oaks. File the tooth-leaved trees under mystery.

Other oaks, Sugar maples (Acer saccharum), Sassafras (Sassafras albidum) and the odd evergreen also grew in the woods. I was particularly surprised by what appeared to be three young Douglas firs (Pseudotsuga menziesii), the likes of which I have not seen in almost a year (where once they dominated my landscape in Washington). I can’t imagine what Douglas fir might be doing in the Poconos, and I didn't see any of their cones around, so I’ll leave these up as mystery evergreens, to be identified at a later date.

The forest floor at Chateau Mumu may have been even more exciting than the rest of the woods. Great piles of fallen leaves scattered amid rain-soaked mosses and Pennsylvania stones made for fun investigations by the puppies, and plenty of fodder for my camera.

As always, suggestions for identification of the mystery trees is welcomed and encouraged. Next week I’ll give you a full review of the places we stayed, and of course, many more pictures from our adventures in the surrounding forests and parks!

Norway Spruce, and Other Evergreen Trees

We don’t see nearly enough evergreens here at Arboreality since I left Washington State. Today, I thought I’d share one of the more prominent evergreens here at the farm: the Norway spruce (Picea abies).

You might remember me sharing the Norway spruces with you last winter, when I fell in love with their beautiful cones! We have a few enormous Norway spruces growing around here, which, along with the Eastern white pines, are some of the primary evergreens at the farm.

With all the deciduous trees losing leaves, the conifers get to take their turn in the spotlight. There are other evergreens around here which I have yet to identify... I'll have to make that a winter project!

And then, of course, there’s our up-and-coming Christmas tree from last year, the Oriental spruce (Picea orientalis). I can’t wait to find out what we’re going to plant this year. I have my heart set on an Eastern hemlock, but we’re mostly limited by what live, healthy evergreens we can find at the garden shop at Christmas time.

What are your favorite evergreens? Ooooh… it’s so hard to pick just one!

Sunset on Treetops

I actually snapped this one last night as the sun was setting, but went off to have fun and didn’t get around to posting. Last night brought one gorgeous sunset I tell ya, as evidenced by the golden treetops.

Arbor Day Tree Blogging

Around the world, people celebrate Arbor Day at different times, but the purpose is always the same: to celebrate the trees.

In my new home state of Pennsylvania, Arbor Day is celebrated on the last day of every April. If you are interested in learning more about Arbor Day, it’s history, and the many dates upon which different countries and states celebrate this special day, you can visit The National Arbor Day Foundation online.

What better excuse than Arbor Day to share a large selection from the plethora of trees that I have gathered for you at Arboreality?

I offer you these tree images in celebration of Arbor Day, and wish you all a wonderful, leafy-green, Happy Tree and Forest Day!

Roadless Area Conservation Act of 2006

One of the great things about moving some place totally different is the thrill of seeing new places, meeting new people, and having new experiences. Moving from Washington to Pennsylvania has been a great adventure, and it’s really only just begun.

I started looking into Pennsylvania’s government and representatives as soon as we decided on moving. Admittedly, I still write to Washington State Senators Murray and Cantwell whenever I write to Pennsylvania Senators Specter and Santorum. I guess I still feel like I have their ear, being from Washington originally.

Here is something from Cantwell’s work that I hope you will all take a moment to read, and if interested, support:

Senator Maria Cantwell’s Websites:
http://www.cantwell.com/

http://cantwell.senate.gov/

From the office of Senator Maria Cantwell:

For the past six years the Bush administration has waged a war on the environment. Cloaked in Orwellian names such as "Clear Skies" and "Healthy Forests," George Bush has slowly undone thirty years of environmental protections. Just last winter the Senate Republicans launched a renewed attack on the Arctic national Wildlife Refuge.

Now George Bush has set his sights on our last, untouched forests. The Bush Administration has reversed existing protections and is opening over 58 million acres of untouched forests across the United States to development. Only by working together can we stop this destruction of this national treasure.

Last Thursday, I introduced the Roadless Area Conservation Act of 2006. This bill would block the Bush administration's attempts to open these 58 million acres of pristine, roadless forest by permanently protecting them against logging and road building. I need you to join me in this fight. This week, I will be asking my fellow senators to cosponsor the legislation and today I ask you to join me as a citizen co-sponsor of the Roadless Area Conservation Act.

Add your name as a citizen co-sponsor to this important legislation now.

Sincerely,

Maria Cantwell

There are many things you can do to help support this legislation. Here are just a few ideas:

- Sign online at Maria Cantwell's website to be a citizen co-sponsor of this legistlation

- Write to your congress women and men

- Share this information with others

- Visit our National Parks, and see for yourself just how beautiful, wondrous, and important America's wild places are for everyone.

Ranunculus, Ridiculous

First off, SpiderGirl was right about the ranunculus. The little yellow flowers which I call buttercups (as SpiderGirl pointed out, a type of ranunculus) are in fact, winter aconite (ranunculaceae, Eranthis). My landlady was kind enough to let me in on the secret of their exact common name (and kind enough to offer that I could dig some up and bring it over to my cottage!) Rock on!

Second… I’m in love with a spruce cone.

It’s ridiculous. It’s disturbing. It’s leaning towards dendrophilia!

Ok, it’s nothing untoward… nothing obscene...

Here’s the story: Monday, I was walking my month’s rent check to our landlady and landlord, when one of the great evergreens in their driveway gave me a gift: a cone!

I think you’ll agree that it’s just gorgeous… I picked up two, but I like this one the best – especially because it has a little twig of needles still attached. While I’m not certain of the species, after looking online I believe that this is likely a Norway Spruce. Interestingly, it appears to have already tossed its seeds out of the cone. I can see the groves under the platelets where they should be, but they are all empty.

Anyways, I’ve simply fallen in love with this beautiful cone. I love the feel of its shiny platelets, its uniform radial symmetry, its delicate fragrance, and its pretty little twig. I’ve been carrying this cone around for two days now. It’s been sitting on my desk next to my laptop when I write, and following me around the house while I work.

Is there an 800 number I can call to get help for this sort of thing? :)

Have you ever brought cones into the house (or kept them on the dashboard of your truck) and watched as they opened and closed their platelets? I don’t mean rapidly like fish gills, but slowly over time?

Later today, or perhaps tomorrow, I'll be sharing some more images from the stone ruins. Last night I took some great pictures showing how the trees have taken over what was once a large farm house.

Brachiation

The other day, UltimateWriter commented on the prospect of climbing these trees… I continue to look up wistfully into the branches, but have yet to venture into the above.

In these images you can see some ideal seating in the lower branches, and have a better view of what I’ve been talking about with the divergence from the primary trunk into several stout, parallel branch/trunks.

The bottom image shows one of the largest branches to be cast off in the last big windstorm. This behavior has influenced my theory that this tree is somehow naturally inclined to grow in such a non-uniform manner. There is evidence of previous similar breaks along the tree, as well as places where limbs were sawed off to prevent them from encroaching on the cottage.

Around the area I’ve investigated several other trees of apparently the same species and roughly the same age. While they all show evidence of this same type of divergence in their structure, few show as many different branch/trunks as this one!

Of needles and cones

We’re still investigating our first mystery tree in Pennsylvania, which is a species of evergreen growing just outside my cottage. Unlike other evergreens I've known, this one has some unique growth habits which we will revisit in a day or two.

By my best educated guess, what we have here is an Eastern White Pine. However, until that is confirmed, we’ll just keep looking and hypothesizing.

In these images we see the needles and cones of our specimen. I’ve placed them in front of my hand so that you can see them better with the contrast from the background, and so that you have a sense of size.

I’ve also included an image of the leaf litter… there are so many beautiful things to see on the ground, and in this image we have the benefit of golden sunset light!

Feeling lyrical...

Oh mystery tree,
big evergreen
what do you think
when you look at me?

I hear you singing
all night long;
wonder at your
whispering song.

Upon your branches
birds alight,
they emerge from rain
to dance for their food,

while you, sweet mystery
stand on with pride
extending your fingers
long and green.

Outside my window,
the squirrels nitter
looking in at me
with deep perplexion;

they ask, ‘why do you
hide in there,
with a great loving tree
so cozy out here?’

© 2006 JLB

Mystery Evergreen Tree

Good morning and happy Monday everyone!

As promised, this week we’ll be looking at an as-yet-unknown evergreen tree. There are actually a few of them around me, but we’ll investigate a couple in particular which you can see alongside my cottage in the Friday, January 27, 2006 entry. These evergreens, while appearing to me to be some type of pine (based on needles and cones), are unique in their overall growth pattern from other evergreens I know.

What I know
In my experience, most evergreens grow in some sort of conical, tapering pattern. There is typically a single trunk (unless there was a split somewhere in the tree’s history, which sometimes results in two main trunks). From this single trunk one usually sees branches of progressively younger generations as one heads towards the crown, resulting in the standard conical shape. Deviations from this shape often include bent tops, disproportionate sides, or the die-back of lower branches leaving most of the greenery near the top of the tree. Western red cedars also appear to have multiple trunks on occasion.

What I see
The evergreen trees beside my cottage are completely different. There appears to be one primary trunk at the ground level which diverges around 1.5 meters from the ground. At that point it becomes several branching trunks, all of which curve up vertically to parallel what appears to be the original trunk. The branches do not follow the standard pattern with which I am familiar, but rather appear to break off and resprout much like you might see in a Big-leaf maple tree.

At first, I thought this was the result of some strange pruning… but after this last windstorm, I’m rather convinced that it is the natural growth habit for this species. Why? Because during the storm, the tree cast numerous branches, some of them large, to the ground. I can clearly see where new branches are likely to resprout, continuing the somewhat random growth pattern seen in this image. I can also see that what originally appeared to be a major hack job on behalf of the gardener is in fact more likely to be the natural loss of branches in previous years.

As seen in last Friday’s entry, the over-all outer shape of the tree is indeed semi-conical and somewhat tapering… but when you look up their skirts, there is an entirely different story in these trees.

Are these trees simply some type of White pine with a rather unique history, or are they an entirely different species? Conjecture is welcome, as are questions.