Green Thumb Sunday

My dogwood is blooming, a bit sparsely this year, I am afraid.

I never get tired of these beautiful blooms, though. They are simple and elegant, exotic without being weird.

Happy GTS! Happy Sunday!

GREEN THUMB SUNDAY -mini iris and LARCH tree, or Learning about Trees, part 3

This little mini -iris surprised me by being in bloom today. I think I'll get more 'minis', because they bloom earlier than the bearded iris, and multiply fast! Love the cheery yellow-white combo!
Also, my larch tree has finally 'leafed' out. Here are the needles in mid-April -

Lousy picture, I know, but those little buds are the needles coming out.

This is how they looked on May 1st -

Here is the tree today - it is a lighter green than the other evergreens nearby, soft and feathery looking.

One last closeup of the needles -

Happy GTS!

Learning about Trees, part 2

Maybe I am just finding something everybody else already knows about, but that is one of the great things about the internet- information is easily available. I am trying to learn the difference between pines, spruces, firs, cedars, etc, etc. Once you start looking, there are all varieties of evergreens that I have not paid much attention to, previously! I found the Arbor Day Foundation website, http://www.arborday.org/trees/wtit/ which gives an easy tutorial about learning to identify trees. Then it helps you identify more trees! If you are as ignorant about trees as I am, it is a good, basic resource.

So, we have a lovely tree in the front that I thought was a blue spruce, but now I think it is a white fir, a tree that is recommended as better than a blue spruce for our area (central Utah), because it has few pest problems, is a Rocky Mountain native, and has a nearly perfect 'Christmas tree' shape.

White Fir -Abies concolor

These pictures are all from my BYU tree tour, our white fir is big, but not THIS big! Here is a closeup of the needles -

Eastern Redcedar -Juniperus virginiana

This columnar tree is not a cedar, but a juniper. Hmm, I wonder what difference that makes? At any rate, it is the tree used to make cedar chests! I snuck in behind the bushes and smelled the tree, and sure enough, it smells great.

These last two photos are of the Douglas Fir, another Rocky Mountain native, which is also popular as a Christmas tree.

Douglas Fir - Pseudotsuga menziesii
Another fir tree. Short needles seem to be characteristic of a fir, long needles of a pine - ? I thought the cones were cool -

Next time I talk about trees, I'll try and show you the two larches (?) I think I have in our yard.

Learning about Trees

On a recent visit to Brigham Young University's campus (for a lovely women's conference), I scouted out some trees via the university's tree tour. They have over 100 tree on their tour, and a small booklet (available at the bookstore) with pictures and map to help you find and identify the trees. You can see the online version at http://pws.byu.edu/tree_tour/, if you are interested. I didn't have time to see ALL the trees on the tour, but I did see about a dozen or so.

Dawn RedwoodMetasequoia glyptostroboides

Next time I am 'in the neighborhood', I'll try and see more. This first picture is of a Dawn Redwood, a tree that was thought to be extinct at one time. This specimen was planted in 1962, and is about 70' tall. It is one of the oldest Dawn Redwoods in North America. Here is a closeup of the needles coming out.

Ohio BuckeyeAesculus glauca

Being from Ohio, I thought this was a bit ironic. BYU has played OSU in football, occasionally. (Thought I don't believe BYU has ever won!).

European Larch-Larix decidua

This Larch was a tree I particularly wanted to see, because we have one in our yard, and I wanted to make sure I was correct in my identification. I do not know much about trees, and so I am always trying to learn more. The Larch and the Dawn Redwood are the only two 'evergreen' trees that are deciduous, if I am remembering my master gardening classes.

Bald Cypress -Taxodium distichum

This is the last tree I wanted to show today, we (I managed to drag people along!) got a big laugh out of the description, which explains how the tree trunk is 'strongly buttressed, especially in wet areas with cypress knees, occurring only near water.'

Here we see the Sassy One
demonstrating how buttressing works on a nearby tree trunk.

So now I am wondering, how many colleges/universitites also have 'tree tours'? If you know of any, please let me know in your comments!