Color in the Garden...Theory for Trees and Shrubs

Farther south, Acer capillipes might be a better choice. Or possibly yet another snakebark, Acer rufinerve.

But "White Tigress" is pretty darned good.

But Acer tegmentosum "Joe Witt" might be the best of all.

Scott

Scott,

Where did you find the 'Joe Witt?' I'd be interesting in photographing it on one of my junkets. Was looking it up and ran into Cornus alternifolia 'Winter Orange' Anyone heard/tried this one out?

Are these maples as difficult to underplant as the Norways and Silver maples? Maybe that was gloria's question, can they be used in an ornamental plant grouping? I like to see large shrubs/small trees with perennials, as there's only so much room for huge specimen trees on small suburban lots.

OMG 'Joe Witt' looks like he's waiting in line to use the bathroom!

Ernie,

Haven't heard of "Winter Orange." Sounds intriguing. I'd like to see some cultivars of C. alternifolia offered, especially non-variegates.

That photo of "Joe Witt" was taken at Washington Park Arboretum, Seattle. A major junket, but a worthy one. I think Stanley and Sons has been offering JW the past two years. You might check it out. I have never seen one in a regional arb. I planted a JW two years ago and it has grown strongly and with remarkably white bark.

Acer grosserii hersii is another good snakebark. Dawes has one mislabeled as A. davidii. I think they plant to name it. Really good striped bark and a very nice symmetrical form, which sometimes is lacking on snakebarks. Here is a shot of the bark.

Scott

Here is the whole tree at Dawes, but it's not a great picture.

Edited to add: I'm growing this one two. Second year, from Seneca Hills Perennials. This a very strong grower, even among snakebarks.

Scott

This message was edited Feb 11, 2007 3:53 PM

Scott,

Is the Acer grosserii hersii growing north of the visitor's center right by a turn off to a memorial? I remember it having a nice, pyramidal shape which your picture seems to confirm. I always thought it would make a very nice tree. Maybe I'll have to look up Seneca Hills and order one.

Ernie

Ernie,

That is the very spot. Good memory!

Scott

Well, Scott, I have been absent for awhile, but I thought I should respond to this post. Color, "wasted on perennial and annual devotees"!!!! Huh?? Wanna fight?? Put up yer dukes.....

Seriously now, nearly all of what you have said I agree with. Sort of. It is a matter of good garden taste, which We, being Mature Gardeners have, and our neighbors who plant golden barberries next to their Bloodgood JMs and blue spruce and varigated sunburned hostas and yellow striped zebra grass just don't have.

I do, myself, like floral color, as you know from having seen my pictures. Sure, good foliage and form are great. Bur so are masses of floral color in overflowing abundance -- clematis and geraniums and roses and salvias and catmints, teeming with the activity of hummingbirds and butterflies and bees. Not everywhere in the garden, of course. I actually love red and orange in the garden. It is a matter of dose, and what they are planted with.

But we are talking trees here, right? I tend to like em green, and like you, if they don't have decent fall color and/or good fall fruit, they sure better put out in other areas. I do tend to like some chartreuse shrubs and trees, they are very useful planted with herbaceous plants that pick up the same colors in flowers, or have color opposites. Sambucus 'Sutherland Gold', perfect shrub for a blue and yellow border. 'Black Beauty', great with loads of other surrounding green, and with a rich pink or cerise clematis scrambling up through its branches.

Having said that, I rarely like burgundy foliage in shrubs and trees. Just looks uinnatural. I really don't like any of the red-burgundy JMs, the ubiquitous Bloodgood -- ugh, in most circumstances. Give me a good green any day or a cv that has some spring color and then turns green. I too tend to like colored foliage more in the spring and less later in the year, perhaps with the exception of white variegated foliage. Cornus kousa 'Wolfeye' is a beautiful plant at all seasons, so is C. alternifolia aregentea.

In writing this, I realize that I do like colored foliage on shrubs and trees better in general when it is placed in a mixed border setting with herbaceous plants too, and not just by itself. Somehow, adding the floral color to complement the foliage makes the whole thing more tasteful and artistic. It pulls that whole area out of the garden as a larger whole -- like a painting on a more neutral wall. That's where I think it works best in my hands.

But orange and watermelon colored azaleas??? Even in spring???? Next to the pink cherries and redbuds and brown red brick house??? C'mon, Scott, I thought you had taste...............

"like a painting" . . . thats what I long for. And that's why the old English writers are still relevant today--for their vision of composition--borders and canopy and vistas. After all and plant never occurs all by itself. Context--thats what the garden is all about. Thanks, David 5311.

Me? Have taste? I'm not so sure. "Orange and watermelon azaleas?" Actually, it's even worse. I was thinking of the azalea "Karen" when I wrote that garrish colors early in the spring are almost forgivable. As you know, "Karen" is a color that is hard to describe. Magenta-fuschia-ish. Very bright. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, Rhododendron mucronulatum is a pure species that blooms even earlier and almost as loud. If this is permissable for a species, it should be okay for a cultivar, and therefore okay for me. I mean, pre-Easter, when my gardening sensibilities are still a bit groggy and I'm still just glad as ever that it's no longer winter.

Scott

garrish colors in Spring:

Practically every antebellum house in this historic town has a swath of purpuly Pride of Mobile Azaleas, with a background grove of Magnolia Grandifloria--punctuated by dogwoods as many as the size of the lot will bear. It is by definition SPRING.

Yes, there is no guarantee of taste in the antebellum south, nor in the south as a whole, nor from the past............

BTW, is it "garrish" or "garish"?? I thought the latter. "Garrish" just seems so, well, tasteless. Like something from Cincinatti south....

Just funnin', of course

http://www.pbase.com/mrd/image/41546731

Azalea Pride of Mobile


Forgivable.

This message was edited Feb 13, 2007 3:21 PM

David 5311: Come now. that war was over a long long time ago. Besides YOU are south of Traverse City where I grew up. Heh. Heh. We always thought of people from Ann Arbor as Southerners when they came up to hunt deer in our woods. Always managed to shoot a dog, or a heifer instead of a deer.

LOL, gloria! Thanks for the chuckle. I needed a laugh today. It is 11 degrees and we have 5-8" of snow on the way. Garish ior not (I like it!), bring on the antebellum south with its camellias and azaleas. Heck, bring on Pride of Mobile! Doesn't look the slightest bit GARRISH to me!

With 5-8" of snow tonight, I think the suthunuhs are going to have the last laugh.

In Greensboro, Al. at the moment it is 77 degrees. A tornado just passed across the southeast edge of town. As I write we are being pelleted with baseball sized hail. The dogs are under the table.
May the snow continue to fall on your head David5311. I think Ill click on the Pride of Mobile one more time.

As I write this, we are having one ice storm. I can hear frozen rain slashing against my window, almost an erie sound. Stranger still was the sound of my hackberries, all encased in ice, swaying in the wind when I came home. 16 hour shifts the last two days at the airport. I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be uglier still!

Oh, and garrish/garish. I wish I could claim it as one of our local quirks, but, no, I just can't spell.

Scott

So far as I have been able to figure out there is no spell-check on this site. It doesn't seem to bother most people.

Aw, cm'on. Spelling doesn't bother me either. I was just yankin' Scott's chain...........especially in the context of a discussion about "taste". Just like color, taste, it all depends on the context.