Three Tales of a Tree

I was going to share a Tale of Three Trees. Instead, it's more interesting to give you three tales of the same tree.

This tree is a small apple tree in our side yard. In the 30 years our house has been in this spot it's grown small wormy apples once. It never seems to get bigger. It's a pain in the butt to mow around. So why don't I cut it down?

Sometimes it's my own personal bonsai tree. This is last week on one of our snowy days.

Here it is on a foggy winter morning in 2018

And a sunrise picture also from 2018

I was pretty good today. Editing and all that. Cleaned up the kitchen. Wrote my column for Ludington Daily News. Also wrote a shopping list. Good writers are versitile like that.

There was an LOL moment. I'll share.

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Philadelphia Flower Show 2020 - Bonsai

 
These are my favorite of the Bonsai from this year. I read the sign about the Pennsylvania Bonsai Society. They are one of the oldest in the US. Actually, I think it's very interesting that none of these trees seem to be the same as ones shown the other years I paid attention. You might think that some of the best would be shown repeatedly.

This is a Simpaku Juniper, Juniperus chinensis 'Shimpaku.' Raft style, 20 years old. Raft style is when a tree in nature blows over and side limbs become the upright trunks. So bonsai tries to simulate that.



Next we have another interpretation of the very same species of tree, also Raft style. This one is 60 years old.



This style is Informal Upright. It's another Juniperus chinensis, but the variety is 'San Jose.'


Also Informal Upright is a Japanese White Pine, Pinus parviflora, 80 years old.


And Even though this is very symmetrical, and I usually like things more off-balance, I do like this. It's a Jaboticaba, Myrciaria calofora, 36 years old. I had never heard of this tree and I'm still not sure. It appears to be also called Plinia cauliflora the Brazilian Grapetree. If so, it get purple fruits that grow directly on the trunk that are edible. At any rate, I think it's a good looking plant.


In other news: I went out and did trail blazing again today. Friend, Andrea, went with me. She scraped and I painted. We got just about a mile done.






Hike 100 Challenge 2020 is at 38 miles.

	See Bonsai 2010 See Bonsai 2013
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Meijer Gardens - Outside Details

 
Today I'll share some closeups of neat things from Meijer Gardens that were outdoors.

If you are at all familiar with the venue, you know that Fred Meijer had a huge sculpture collection, which is sprinkled liberally throughout the gardens. Maybe I'll show you more of that another day. Maybe not. Anyway, I liked this one quite a bit. It's like a little blip of Thailand dropped in the middle of Grand Rapids.



Bright red Burning Bush (Euonymous) paired with a Clematis in seed was really attractive.



I don't know if this is an oddity, or something I should be able to identify. Look at the ends of the pinnae on this fern. They have sprouted extra fingers. I don't know if this is an example of fasciation, or a characteristic of a particular fern. At any rate, it's weird.



More nice autumn color, this time from a different Japanese Maple.



This is some kind of weeping evergreen. It looks to me like an arborvitae, but I can't find any commercial ones that fall in "sheets" like this. I'm not a fan of weeping trees, but this was interesting because it's like a blue-green waterfall.



Finally, for today, here is one of the bonsai collection, a ginko. Very nice in fall color.


They also have some indoor exhibits, and I'll show some of those tomorrow.

In other news: Well, it was a frustrating day. I did manage to work on the book in the morning a little bit, but I had more computer trouble. I also had an appointment at the computer repair for this afternoon, because one of the issues was just a little tweak that needed to happen to finish the install of the new operating system. I also had a laundry list of some other tiny issues. So when the computer was being weird, I just shut it down and figured Sue could fix it all this afternoon. And she did! Every little item on my list is taken care of! That makes for a very quality day. Then I had bell choir practice. The only thing that's really frustrating is that I was energized to write, and it just didn't happen.

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More Matthaei

 
One more day of Matthaei Botanical Gardens "big picture," posts, and maybe a few more individual plants tomorrow. There is so much I could share from there, but other things are happening too, so I don't want to get totally hung up in Ann Arbor.

Anyway, I'll start with the bonsai collection. When I was there it was kept in a sealed off courtyard and the public only got to see them a couple of times a year. There's a club that meets regularly to work on these little trees. A few of the specimens were ones that were started so long ago that I must have seen them way back when.

However, I think my favorite is this one, begun in 2004. I'm drawn to the style that looks like miniature landscapes. That's sometimes called Penjing. I like the design aspect of the single trees, but ultimately the landscapes make my heart sing. This is a larch, Larix laricina. Keep in mind these are real trees, carefully trimmed so they look full grown but are only about two feet tall.


There is a small rock garden. I also love rock gardens. This one is not my favorite style, but it is more traditional. There was one section that had some lovely blooms.



I also wanted to show you the inside of the Conservatory, just to give an idea of scale. This is the tropical room. There is a similar-sized temperate room and a smaller desert house.



But I saved the "best" for last. It's only best because I also have a strong personal connection with this garden. It's a traditional Tudor Herb Knot Garden.

The knot is in the center design. This one then has four large beds arranged around the knot with paths between. The beds are divided by fragrant, medicinal, kitchen, and everlasting herbs.

The thing is... this garden was built from scratch during the years I worked there. See all those border plants. You might recognize the boxwood with the lighter green leaves. The other border plants that look somewhat blue-green are lavender (herb- pretty purple flowers- lovely fragrance). Care to guess how many of them it takes to surround those garden spaces? I don't recall the number of boxwood, but it's 2000 lavender plants. I know. I planted almost all of them. In one day. In the rain. I only helped with the boxwood... not nearly so impressive a memory.

But, again, from nothing, this is now a beautifully designed space with mature plants and plenty of educational opportunities.



In other news: I did a bunch of stuff for the Writers' Rendezvous, did some other little tasks that seem to take more time than they should, and wrote a chapter in The Bigg Boss. That took a while. I wrote half of it, scrapped it and started over because it was boring- a real snoozer. The newer version is much better. Called my friend Ester, and she helped me craft a missing piece of this entire book to make it immensely better!

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Japanese White Pine

 

Last week when I was out working I discovered a tree that is new to me. That's not saying much when it comes to ornamentals. There are many trees and shrubs planted in gardens that I might not be familiar with at all. But it was very pretty and I wanted to see if I could identify it. That was actually pretty easy.

The tree is young, and so far the growth form isn't much to look at, but I wanted to show you the overview.





When I looked at the needles and then I got really interested. Each one has a white stripe along its length. I pulled out a bundle and counted five needles per sheath, the same as native White Pine, Pinus strobus.



The cones are interesting too, with curved and rounded scales, looking sort of like the plates of some ancient crustacean.



It didn't take much research to learn that this is Japanese White Pine, Pinus parviflora. As it turns out, I may have seen it before, but not recognized it. The species is a favorite for Bonsai. Since I always look at the Bonsai display at the Philadelphia Flower Show (sure hope I get to go in 2015!), I may have some pictures of carefully trimmed ones. I just looked at former blog posts, and have not featured one however.

It's supposedly a nice ornamental for gardens too. I suspect this one needs some trimming to make it look less scraggly.

I don't think I'll forget this evergreen, and hopefully I'll be paying more attention to what's been done with the specimen next time I see it.

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Philadelphia Flower Show 2013- Bonsai

 
We get one-day tickets for the flower show each year. That really isn't quite enough time to see everything the way I would like to. I didn't see the bonsai at all last year or the year before, so I made an effort to see the display this year. Most of the entries are from members of the Pennsylvania Bonsai Society, which has existed since 1963.

I wish I had taken time to let the people get out of the way before I took this picture. I love the way the live tree hugs the dead bleached branch. This is a Shimpaku Juniper, 40 years old, and it's been trained for 38 years.



This one is Ezo Spruce on a rock. It is 18 years old with 12 years of training.



This one was the biggest surprise to me. I had no idea you could do bamboo as a bonsai. The Calima Bamboo is 25 years old with 20 years of training. I love the desert island look, and the extra tiny island.



Part of the section was professionally done by the Rosade Bonsai Studio. I liked theirs a lot, mostly because the plants were part of some larger display. Although they were all impressive, I like seeing the tree in some coordinated setting. This one is a homey "niche." The tree is a Contorta Quince, about 25 years old. It was just getting ready to bloom.


This one was just awesome! I think the little building might be the same as the one I showed in 2010. If it is, they've stained it a slightly different color though. This is just the top of the hill with the building. There were several more trees and the pathway curved down the hill. It just made you want to shrink and visit.



Our trail club hiked today over difficult footing. But I'm keeping my promise to bring you green stuff and bright colors for the next few days.

	See PFS 2013- Brilliant
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Philadelphia Flower Show 2010 - Bonsai

 

Can you believe that even with all I've showed you, and at least one more day of Flower Show pictures to share that I never did get to all the exhibits? Of course, I like to study things in more detail than some people do. I tried to hurry myself a little bit in hopes of seeing most things, but Cousin Maggie, David (Marie's son), and I quickly formed our own "slow" group, we just enjoyed whatever exhibit we found ourselves at. We did see all of the Bonsai.

Some of these trees had only been trained for a few years, and some as many as 40 years.


This is a fairly typical bonsai. It's an evergreen, but it didn't have a label telling what kind, like some of them did.


This is a group of Dwarf Hinoki Cypress. They are 60 years old, and have been trained for 40 years. Although I've seen some Bonsai, I missed the display at this show last year, so I did not really know that sometimes they can be a group of trees, like this. You know I liked the way this looks like a forest, ready for hiking!


Here was my next big surprise. I did not know that deciduous trees can be Bonsai too. This is Zelkova serrata from Taiwan, and is 48 years old. Since it is deciduous, sometimes it will have leaves, and sometimes it will be bare. I think that this would be quite an artistic challenge- to plan the growth form for both of those options. I don't think I'd care for a whole room full of these, but as a variation on the theme, I thought it was very interesting.


Finally, this was my favorite. It combines both the idea of the Bonsai with the miniature structure concept. I know that this isn't pure Bonsai, and I really do like the single, stark trees too, but the creation of a very realistic, tiny setting with real plants just fascinates me.