tree of the week

Before posting this bygl-alert, I had planned on reviewing the many cultivars of Chinese or Kousa dogwood that have entered the market in recent years, including Cornus kousa crosses with Cornus florida (our native flowering dogwood).  I will do this soon, but cannot wait. This is such a year for the kousa dogwood in my side yard that I must share pictures of it from this season right now.

 

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  You are all waiting for BYGLQuest 3 results, I know you are...Soon. For now, though" 

  There are variegated sweetgums. There are upright sweetgums. There are those who are driven to distraction by sweetgum fruits, cool though they are.  There are the multitudinous fall colors of sweetgum, There are the winged stems of many sweetgums. There are the truly wonderful monoecious flowers of sweetgum. There are sweetgums in the snow. There are sweetgums that range from Florida to states north of Ohio. Liquidambar styraciflua, you of the twice-named gum, we barely know ye!...

  I have decided to take my cue from Joe Cochran this week and instead of a single tree (or shrub), select several that spoke to me in November. Starting with the scarlet-and-gray Japanese maple pictured above.

  The three-flowered maple continues to grow and thrive in my backyard and the more I see it planted at the Secrest Arboretum in Wooster, at the High Line Park in New York City, and elsewhere, the more I enjoy this tree. This Asian maple will become a small to medium-sized  tree (20-25 feet). Like its cousin paperbark maple, it has exfoliating bark but the bark is not as papery or with the cinnamon color of Acer griseum.

 

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