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Garden Notes
Homegrown meets Sunday, Jan. 17, from 3 to 5 pm at Agricultural Hall. Under discussion: seed ordering, seed sowing, catalogue exchange.
Nancy Weaver (left) and Karin Stanley led a walk at Polly Hill Arboretum Saturday morning. Photos by Susan SaffordArboretum's winter attractions
If there is wintry weather, one of the nicest things is being able to enjoy it. It helps to have clear skies, beautiful surroundings, and adequate winter apparel; add congenial company and you are all set, birding binoculars optional. Twenty-two chipper walkers met Nancy Weaver and Karin Stanley at the Polly Hill Arboretum Saturday morning for the Arboretum's monthly guided winter walk.
Winter pares everything down. Sunlight is pallid. The color palette is subdued, though nevertheless thrilling. Winter stillness seems quieter. Air seems purer: less encumbered, empty of scent and particles. Distractions of flower and foliage are fewer. All of which sharpens the senses.
Nancy Weaver points out the possum haw winterberry, a favorite of winter birds.The areas near the visitor center contain so many evergreens that they seem an unseasonable, intensified green. Nevertheless, differences prevail among the broadleaf evergreens: rhododendron leaves curl limply, dark and dull in the cold, while the hollies' glisten and hold themselves briskly to the sun.
Interesting specimens, like Edgworthia chrysantha and Cornus sanguinea 'Winter Flame,' make claims upon the eye. The Edgworthia, planted in several spots near the visitor center, features ball-like flower buds at the ends of bare stems. Nearby, the muscular trunk of Stewartia monadelpha writhes in brown torment. The cluster of glowing 'Winter Flame' strikingly fronts the deeply green, gleaming, and heavily berried backdrop of Ilex 'Pernella,' a Polly Hill introduction. Nearby a corylopsis seems on the verge of bud-break. One silently implores: be sensible!
Battalions of hungry robins cruise through the Holly Park in search of fruit. They can strip everything in sight in a matter of days. Holly berries are an important wildlife food. The berries of the various Ilexes are mildly toxic ("Common Poisonous Plants and Mushrooms of North America," Turner and Szczawinski, Timber Press, 2003). They are not the first-choice foods of wintering birds, significant because they are available later, in the crunch, when more desirable food is gone.
Magnolia branches prepare for early blooming with furry terminal buds.Snowfall allows for better tracking: which plants attract deer and rabbits? Snow has laid flat the remains of forbs and grasses in the west field, normally delicate attractions in their own right (see the classic winter walker's guide, "Weeds in Winter," Lauren Brown, Norton, 1976.)
Much inspection of lichens and seed capsules follows, as we make our way around the western reaches of the collection; both are present at all times in other seasons, but they are either obscured or their minor details are too modest to compete for attention when there is so much else to observe.
A beach plum, whose hoary tufts of lichen would hardly have elicited comment in summer, is now remarked over. It is slated for removal: PHA policy on deaccessions is that they are always substantiated, justifiable, and well thought-out. This plant's age or location has caused failure-to-thrive and now its yellow flagging represents a planting opportunity for another specimen.
Rhododendron leaves react to cold weather by curling.We search for signs of flowering on the witch hazels, which ring the walls of the northwest corner of the west field. One year ago hybrid forms were abundantly in bloom by now, but today the plants are prudently restraining the fragile thread-like blossoms inside their protective bud scales, awaiting a more propitious time (greater likelihood of pollinators). The branches are, however, loaded with many recently spent seed capsules.
Visually, there is something unavoidable about magnolias and magnolia buds, especially in a stripped-down winter landscape. They draw the eye unerringly to themselves, furry flocks of ambiguous entities perched among the twig-scapes. Read More...
