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Initially posted on meristemhorticulture.com.
This previous week I had the pleasure of giving my first face-to-face plant presentation since February 2019 on the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Backyard. The Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Backyard was based in 1873, and the unique design known as for the intermingling of vegetation and animals as an alternative of them being cordoned off into totally different areas. Earlier than we arrived, I had assumed that fall colour can be a factor of the previous, however I used to be thrilled to see we have been nonetheless bushes holding onto their leaves. And, the horticulture was glorious with many appropriately planted specimens reaching good measurement and good labelling. My presentation was on woody bushes and shrubs, and I scurried across the backyard searching for glorious specimen photographs so as to add to future talks. I wished to share a couple of of my favorites with you.
Ginkgo biloba was in its full glory. All through Cincinnati, I noticed quite a few giant specimens draped with gold. I admired this refined contrasting mixture between the foreground tree and the nearer Hydrangea quercifolia ‘Pee Wee’.
Karen enjoys having enjoyable with fallen Ginkgo leaves. This shot is one we recreate steadily when she finds good high quality leaves of any tree on the bottom.
Fothergilla main ‘Blue Shadow’ colours up fairly effectively in fall.
Seeing Hamamelis virginiana in bloom was an surprising delight. They’ve simply began flowering in Nacogdoches.
In the principle a part of the backyard, bushes have been nonetheless displaying spectacular fall colour. These Acer rubrum ‘October Glory’ are among the finest I’ve ever seen.
One other tree that was blazed purple was Quercus coccinea. It’s an excellent native oak and among the best for purple fall colour.
Viburnum × burkwoodii ‘Mohawk’ was one other plant sporting stunning purple foliage. It was launched by the US Nationwide Arboretum in 1966 and has beautiful pink buds that open white within the spring.
This picture is just like the one above, however right here you possibly can see the impact of the leaf above shading the decrease leaf from daylight and principally stopping the manufacturing of anthocyanin, the compound that offers leaves their crimson colour. This statement is without doubt one of the causes I consider that the purple pigment is produced to help with managing photo voltaic radiation as an alternative of discouraging pests.
Sorbus alnifolia held its stunning pink fruit amongst fading foliage. Whereas I’ve learn the place it will possibly develop 50 ft tall, I believe I’d slightly have the branches nearer to the bottom to understand these peachy pomes.
Diervilla is an underutlized native shrub that grows in a couple of scattered counties all through the southern Appalachians. Seeing the autumn colour on cultivars like Diervilla rivularis ‘SMNDRSF’ Kodiak® Black is bound to extend its recognition. I additionally admire the species’s quaint yellow flowers in the summertime, and the foliage on this cultivar is darker throughout the rising season.
Black gums or tupelos produce dependable purple fall colour. Nyssa sylvatica ‘Wildfire’ was lit with autumnal reds, oranges, and yellows.
Mild beams by means of the stained glass leaves of Parrotia persica. I believed I’d see extra hints of purple in them, however the specimens I noticed have been a transparent yellow.
Magnolia macrophylla provides an entire new definition to the that means of leaf litter. A few of these leaves are larger than sheets of paper.
As a naturalist I used to be so touched and saddened seeing the memorial to Martha, the final Passenger Pigeon that died on the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Backyard in 1914. I keep in mind studying in Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac, “Males nonetheless stay who, of their youth, keep in mind pigeons; bushes nonetheless stay that, of their youth, have been shaken by a residing wind. However a couple of many years therefore solely the oldest oaks will keep in mind, and in the end solely the hills will know.”
I’m a sucker for crabapples since we actually can’t develop them effectively within the south. Right here the fruit of ‘Bob White’ Malus brightens a dingy sky.
Among the finest and largest Cotinus obovatus I’ve ever seen was on the entrance entrance to the backyard. It was completely glowing on this cloudy afternoon.
Earlier than we left I needed to see the large photo voltaic panel array within the car parking zone. What a intelligent concept to make extra use of pavement! The 6400 panels present round 20% of the park’s vitality.
One ultimate shot of Carol Reese, an early mentor of mine who additionally gave talks Friday, yours really, and Karen standing within the Underneath the Sea part of their Christmas gentle competition. Don’t you simply love the jellyfish?
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