Our Trees are Stars of Film, Poetry, & Books: Arbor Day Tree Tips to Grow Inspiring Native Trees at Your Home

 

Hands down, my favorite tree as a main character in the Avatar film is The Tree of Souls, the giant willow tree that is the Mother tree, that is the sacred soul ~ the connection to spiritual and guiding forces. 

There were also those magical floating trees. Ahhhh… 

It was pure heaven for me. And seeing it in 3-D is about as magical as it gets for a tree and nature lover like me. 

Ents are trees in Lord of the Rings. Their leader is Treebeard of Fangorn forest. They are similar to the talking trees in folklore around the world. 

In researching my homage to trees for Arbor Day this year, I learned more about The White Tree of Gondor that stood as a symbol of Gondor in the Court of the Fountain in Minas Tirith. 

There are the apple trees in The Wizard of Oz, the Whomping Willow Tree in Harry Potter and the Tree of Life in The Lion King. 

Why do trees so often inspire not only filmmakers but poets, fine artists, musicians and well, all of us? 

The Grass is Greener on the Other Side, But What Happens to the Trees?

Can you say, Verticillium Wilt? (And why should we care about it?)

I daresay most of us don’t have a clue what Verticillium Wilt is, nor how to pronounce it, never mind why we should even think about it; no less care enough to be mindful about this plant disease.

But you know I’m gonna be that garden designer and horticulturist who will explain why, why, why, this rather seemingly obscure disease needs some reckoning.

I pursued the ahem, “root” cause of the Wilt and didn’t just look for a treatment (as elusive as that is), and at the same time, my curiosity fueled my next steps. I researched, discovered, theorized, and then test-drove my assumptions with a soil expert.

I believe we can all learn from this case study of a Duchess Designs’ client story issue. And we can learn oh-so-much learn from the brilliance of the renowned soil expert, George Lozefski, who is the Field and Education Outreach Coordinator at the Urban Soils Institute, and who also is a School of Professional Horticulture instructor at The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG).

See, while I’m getting a wee bit ahead of myself, it helps to understand that ever since a wonderful new client this season asked the Duchess team to work for him and his family, the old maple tree in the front yard that was recognized and beloved by generations was a paramount concern. He told me his daughter loved to climb in the tree -- he shared a photo of her taking one last climb up into the limbs’ embrace (just like I did as a kid, I’d sit in the crotch of my favorite backyard tree and read.)

Client's sweet, tree hugger daughter enjoying a last climb in the tree. (I drew the heart on her face to protect her privacy)

And while me and my Duchess Team were prepping for the removal of the tree,

Duchess team, Julie & Darin relocating perennials as part of tree removal prep

a young man stopped to say he’d grown up in the house and loved climbing the maple tree all through his childhood. Oh, the fun... The shade for the house, the beauty of this old soul…

When I was first was called in to scope out the property for the gardening and horticulture work, the owner, Bob, and together we walked the yard and ended the tour at the tree. He asked, “Is it dead?” It broke my heart to point out that with no leaves (and it was early summer) that yes, regrettably, the tree was dead. Initially I was convinced that the tree was damaged and compromised by the heavy machinery that was on-property during the home’s renovation. Most folks don’t realize that repeated, sustained construction driving around a tree’s roots leads to compaction from those trucks, tractors, or equipment within the root zone that compresses the trees’ pores and cuts off oxygen. I’ve seen this happen with pool or patio installations. Then there is the issue of paint, cement, or siding plaster rinsed out over roots… There’s no end of the environmental damage that can occur during a home renovation or construction.

My research reinforced the fact that, of course, roots are one of the most vital parts of the tree. “The roots are responsible for nutrient, oxygen and water uptake and anchoring the tree in the soil. In addition, energy rich chemicals are stored in the roots. Trees draw on these energy reserves to get them through emergencies like drought, defoliation, insect attack or construction damage.”

So the root and compaction was the first of the 0ne-Two punch. Or the One-Two-Three punch-fest! I figured the tree might’ve been compromised from the equipment but I also thought that the strong tree could have been able to bounce back. Moreover, this kind of construction damage can take years to manifest itself. That’s why homeowners usually will blame the tree’s death to something else and unrelated. So what took advantage of this beloved tree?

Soon, I was connecting the dots.

Suburban Soils
While everyone, including me, couldn’t help but admire the client’s country-club green, thick lawn, I also know that it takes a lot of chemicals to achieve that emerald carpet. A lot. Further, this lawn was not laid in with sod but rather with the Power Seeding method. There is also the Hydro Seeding, Slice Seeding, and Overseeding.

One company I found online even recommends that “In the same way that a farmer plows and turns over a field every year, your lawn needs to have the soil conditions enhanced through aeration.” While part of that is true in terms of aerating the soil;

suffice to note that all this power blowing of the seeds into the soil, also helps destroy the soil structure, George Lozefski explained to me later.

This lawn seeding approach helped fuel the disruption of the symbiosis between the soil and the tree. George pointed out that blowing in seeds most likely helps destroy the soil structure. “There is a very thin layer of turf to topsoil layer that fungus and bacteria can infiltrate,” said.

Here, I’ll flash forward to the day the arborists came to take down the grand dame, maple tree.

Bob’s daughter asked if we could save some trunk pieces for her - she would later create a memorable homage from the two handsome pieces I selected for her. What a lovely garden sprite she is.

On that auspicious day, the skilled arborists worked their artful craft. Soon, all that remained was the stump that they then began to grind.

But before they could finish that, the cutting away revealed something. The owner of the tree company called me over.

He wanted me to see what he was seeing.

There was something visibly brown in the tree trunk. There was no getting around it. We could readily see it was Verticillium Wilt.



Afterwards, I began my research on the Wilt in earnest. I wanted to understand what environmental elements could triangulate at such a deadly crossroads.

Or as Mary Ellen Salyan wrote in her paper on soil-borne pathogens for the Master Gardener’s WSU/Skagit Co. Extension Office, Washington: “In order for (soil) disease to exist and thrive, the exact environmental conditions, in concert with a host and a pathogen, must be present simultaneously.”

I learned that the fungus can be transmitted to garden soil infected from a few sources. Once the fungus is in one location, it can be easily spread in the soil via tilling, digging, and moving soil around in any other way, and by water and wind.

Remember all that power seeding and hydro seeding and slice seeding jettisoning grass seeds into the newly aerated / disturbed soil? That act sets up the soil for problems. Then, lawn care companies use nitrogen-rich fertilizer on the lawns. Undoubtedly, nitrogen gives a powerful growing boost, making the grass grow quickly and become a deeper green.

Even some starter fertilizers contain two parts of nitrogen and one part of phosphorus and potassium. The N-P-K rating many lawn-care companies recommend for grass typically is: Big - Small - Small. They say grass needs a lot of Nitrogen and a little bit of the other stuff. That’s the essence of what some recommend: 21-3-3! That’s a lot of nitrogen! Wow.

All that nitrogen, coupled with the soil disturbance - and the power of irrigation - excess moisture and soil pH are catalysts for these pathogens to thrive - creates a kind of witches brew that is detrimental to soil health.

Further alarming is that our ever-increasing warmer winters here in the Northeast allows pathogens to survive.

While it’s true that nitrogen does indeed turbo-charge the plant’s green and growth, George explained to me that the nitrogen also stimulates the growth so much that it can in turn, weaken cell walls ~ a plant’s stems or walls can collapse, further exposing the plant to pathogens. It’s a kind of horticulture death spiral. George also pointed out - alarmingly, I might add, that Nitrogen that is so key in fertilizers is used in the production of explosives (!). Further, he said that excessive plant growth can cause problems with yields in commercial agriculture. “A good soil is a delicate balance and our job is to maintain that equilibrium,” he added. And it’s so easy to establish and maintain this balance. George explained that soil is the fabric of health improving water and air quality. Don’t disturb the delicate balance… At the same time, he said there is no “Easy Button.” It does take work but at the end of the day, there’s really no other choice.

“There is no less of a concern when George points out that most folks want to hit the “easy button” when it comes to maintaining good soil health. “Weeding is work,” he says. Tell me. Me and the Duchess Designs team weed more than ever. :( The mow, blow and go guys spread the invasive “lawn” weeds on their mowers, blow into the ornamental and edible garden beds. And don’t get me started on the invasive vines that creep, crawl, take over, and overwhelm homeowners to the point where they bring us in to mindfully weed out. Yes, it takes work but you can just spray your way to garden health. There’s just no excuse for poor land management, George says.

The Link from the Soil to the Tree

In a nutshell, Verticillium Wilt is a “serious fungal disease that causes injury or death to many plants. It is a disease of the xylem, or water-conducting tissues, in the plant of more than 300 plants, including woody ornamentals, most noticeably elms, magnolias, maples, redbud, and viburnums. Caused by the soil-borne pathogens Verticillium dahliae and V. albo-atrum, these wilts are prevalent throughout the tropical and temperate regions of the world. They exist in the soil primarily as mycelia that infect belowground plant tissue.”

Soil borne pathogens - whether pesticides or herbicides - are an overapplication of chemicals, explained George. “Soil-borne pathogens prefer to live within the soil, causing root disease.”

Symptoms

Symptoms of Verticillium Wilt vary somewhat in different host species and also within species due to varying environmental conditions. These might include sudden wilting of small branches, yellowing of foliage, stunting of growth and premature defoliation. Vascular tissue appears as a dark ring in cross sections or pin-point dark spots.

Life Cycle

Verticillium species are opportunistic fungi that persist in the soil as saprophytes. The organism overwinters as mycelia or microsclerotia, a dark, condensed mass of mycelium that collectively acts as a propagule, which germinates under favorable conditions. Infection begins in the root area where the resting hyphae of Verticillium germinate and penetrate feeder roots. The fungus also can enter wounds in the root area. The disease spreads within the plant by mycelium or spores called microconidia that travel in xylem vessels to other parts of the plant. Where the spores lodge, new hyphae grow and increase the infection. The infected plant tissue becomes necrotic (dead) because the vascular tissue is clogged with mycelium, conidia and by-products of fungal metabolism. It’s like having mushrooms block the plant tissue! As a result water flow is restricted and the plant wilts. In the plant, the fungus moves upwards and plugs the vascular system of the plant that is responsible for transporting water. It’s the plugging of the vascular system that causes the typical wilt, and eventually leads to plant death.
The necrotic tissue is what causes the dark streaks that are symptomatic of this Wilt disease.

Integrated Pest Management Strategies

1. Sanitation. Remove affected annuals and perennials or prune damaged areas of trees and shrubs. Pruning disease-damaged branches and foliage plus increasing the vigor of trees and shrubs may help to keep symptoms checked. Be sure to sterilize pruners between cuts.

2. Plant resistant or tolerant species. This is the best way to manage this disease. The fungus can remain dormant in the soil for a decade or more in the form of resting structures called microsclerotia, which survive drought and cold. When a potential host is planted near the microsclerotia, the roots of that plant stimulate the microsclerotia to germinate and produce spores. They attack.In areas that are irrigated, the disease can more readily spread.

While not an environmental requirement for the fungus, stressed plants, often brought on by environmental changes, are easier to attack than healthy plants, so any conditions that will stress the plant but not directly harm it, the Verticillium sees its opportunity and moves in.Treatment

While it’s generally understood that the Wilt is not treatable and fungicides are not generally effective or practical. You can apply a commercial fertilizer that is low in nitrogen, high in phosphorus to help counter balance all that rich, rich, nitrogen that’s been applied. You can also look to solarization; utilizing the sun to help burn out the fungus. You can also plantgroups of plants that are resistant to Verticillium Wilt including, gymnosperms, monocots, members of the rose family, oaks, dogwoods, willows, rhododendrons, azaleas, and others.George noted that the biggest environmental impact of pathogens - the overapplication of chemicals, is the toxicity level in water. The pathogens deplete oxygen levels; kills algae and fish; Phosphorus gets into the groundwater and damages oh-so-much. Eventually, that ecosystem is eventually destroyed.

I’m stepping up onto the soapbox now!
We need balance! Please practice conservation and sustainability. We need to utilize more of our native plants and create a native biodiversity to help fend off the soil borne pathogens.

Good gardening and horticulture is a mix of science and art. Artful lawn care is a mix of science and horticulture. Just think of all the elements in the yard and/or garden as part of the whole cloth - not a list of separate items managed as vertical silos. Further, because our suburban and estate gardens are not islands - distinct from the neighborhood, George shared with me a working example of the perils of not practicing good home maintenance. “Say there are two estates or homes (for those of us on the more modest scale!) on the same side of the street, one kind of below the other,” George said as he laid out the scenario. The homeowner on the down side is practicing good regenerative farming or gardening, using non-invasive plants but then the homeowner on the up side is practicing environmental pollution, i.e. overapplication of chemicals, downstream water toxicity and more. Further, he adds, too often the chemicals are applied in huge quantities. So you can readily understand the result - the good homeowner suffers because of the other…

What to do about Establishing and Nurturing Good Soil:

Take a baseline soil test. If there’s no evident problems, George suggests repeating the soil tests every couple of years to determine the quality of the soil. For edible and for turf, you want to calculate how much lime and nitrogen is present. You can send the soil sample to your local land-grant universities including Rutgers, Cornell, or UMass here in the Northeast US. Others can call and ask your local universities.

Curiously, there is no test available for pathogens… I see opportunity here for someone to come up with such a test. I’m hoping that George’s Urban Soils Institute might come up with such a test. And one for plant tissue testing, while they’re at it! In the meantime, he recommends that if you are growing edibles to do so in raised beds.

“Whether it’s your backyard or the forest, it’s a huge problem,” claims George when discussing the big picture of good soil management and not practising regenerative gardening. Lack of a plan and its execution exacerbates or accelerates the problems. I advocate that in suburbia, homeowners need to be more mindful of their gardens and landscapes. I recognize that the aggressive approach of chemical treatments appeals to the short term or “easy button” that George characterized. However, in the bigger picture, long-term solutions are indeed the recognized better land management. And if one doesn’t practice this for the environment, please consider your family, and pets.

The decimation of the soil due to improper watering and chemical over-application leads the plants to become like an addict ~ dependent on these false nutrients. George points out that it’s so very beneficial and truly easy (no easy button needed) to add compost to the lawn to add beneficial fungi to the soil. It’s a natural fertilizer. “Healthy soil takes care of itself,” George reminds us. When I noted that most of my garden design clients probably wouldn’t want to have compost on their lawns, he suggested to add the compost at the end of the autumn season so that not only is it what I suspect he meant as an unobtrusive season but also the winter rains will help store those good nutrients for the spring.

In my own garden talks I advocate for “leaving the leaves” in the autumn. Why every leaf has to be blown off a lawn and out of the garden beds is a mystery at its funniest and a downright shame at its reality. There is just no need to sanitize a garden or lawn like this. Leaves are a free and natural mulch. And the critters that are part of that healthy ecosystem will be forever grateful.

George recommends that when it comes to fertilizer, look to organic nutrients including different forms of organic materials including bone, fish, and blood meal - they are not synthetics and it’s better for the environment, he added.

I further suggest as most horticulturists do, to limit or abbreviate the amount of lawn space. Ask your mow, blow, & go guys to aim the blow out into the lawn vs. the garden beds. Further, ask them to use a mulching mower so that no clippings get spread into the ornamental or edible beds.

Soil is the fabric of health, George reiterated. Think of it as a mantra… Just like our own human guts, we need to have to have the appropriate microbial balance. Get the good fungi!

What to watch that will bring home the magical world of good, non-chemical microbial fungi in your soil? George recommends the Mycorrhiza miracle of Fantastic Fungi. If you think the internet is cool, check out this network of plant organisms that naturally benefits us. Here is the link to the magical film's trailer. 

And there are two transormative tree books that I highly recommend: The Hidden Life of Trees, by Peter Wohlleben 

and The Overstory, by Richard Powers. 

Thank you, George. I so appreciate you accommodating my many questions linking the soil to the lawn to the tree to the garden. I learned so much from you already! We will all look forward to the Urban Soils Institute’s (USI) Virtual Symposium this October. According to the organization, USI is a holistic access point to education, exposure, experiences, research, resources, people, collaborations, connections, and relationship building, uniting in soils. Very exciting. I suggested to George that we all become Soil Ambassadors!

I sincerely hope that this garden case study can serve as a cautionary tale. It’s a true- life horticultural story that highlights the need to take all factors of a property into account. It teaches us how all elements of a property are indeed connected. The plants are not just tools for privacy ~ although they are masters at concealing. It’s not that the plants are there just for beauty ~ although they provide unparalleled glamour. It’s more about thinking of the plants and yard/property, as part of an ecosystem that extends from your yard to your neighborhood, and beyond. It’s a thinking person’s endeavour. You can do it.

And the glamour of the good fungi? Wow. Dazzling.

* The resources I used for this feature are in quotes and are a result of my extensive online search. Where not cited in the text, I have aggregated the content to make what might be an esoteric or obscure topic more readable and pertinent to you and your gardening professionals. Sources include: The Morton Arboretum, The Missouri Botanical Garden, Garden Tech, and Iowa State University. * The top-rate arborists are Hufnagel Tree Service - I’ve worked with them for many years. Trusted, certified arborists. Thank you, Mike.

Learn How to Celebrate and Honor Trees on Arbor Day - And Every Day

Celebrate and Honor Trees 

Today, many folks might ask, “What is Arbor Day?” While you can find out everything you need to know by visiting the Arbor Day Foundation website, the thumbnail is that Arbor Day was founded in 1872 by J. Sterling Morton in Nebraska City, Nebraska.

By the 1920s, each state in the United States had passed public laws that stipulated a certain day to be Arbor Day or Arbor and Bird Day observance. ... On the first Arbor Day, April 10, 1872, an estimated one million trees were planted.

We’re still playing catch-up for all the trees we cut down...

On that first Arbor Day - there were parades, and more than 1,000 people who came out to hear speeches and celebrate the trees.

Today, Arbor Day is set aside to raise awareness of trees - around the world - and the important role that they play in our environment.

I just wish more folks would get excited about our trees. They are the lungs of the earth. Trees absorb CO2, removing and storing the carbon while releasing oxygen back into the air.

And while the environment has experienced a cleansing during this covid crisis because we are not burning fossil fuels like we were due to stay-at-home restrictions, the concern is that we haven’t changed our lifestyles - rather just hit the pause button. Once we close the covid chapter, we will most likely go back to polluting our environment. With a vengeance. And that will be even more sad because we now know that areas with heavier pollution condemn their citizens to more risk of coronavirus.

We can modify our behavour. Take this gift that Mother Nature has extended.
Learn about trees, including what native trees are in your area that you can grow in order to improve your part of the world, while helping the pollinators.

Trees can boost the market value of your home by an average of 6 to 7 percent, according to Dr. Lowell Ponte as featured on the Arbor Day website.

Landscaping, especially with trees, can increase property values as much as 20 percent, according to the Management Information Services/ICMA.

And “Healthy, mature trees add an average of 10 percent to a property's value.”

The USDA says, “The net cooling effect of a young, healthy tree is equivalent to ten room-size air conditioners operating 20 hours a day.”

Plus trees help with runoff to protect the soil and our water.

Learn about planting trees in groups rather than a solo star. Visually, this creates a focal point. iF you have the space, a grove of trees can be a reflection point when planted near water; they can create a walkway; and create a view. Furthermore, I always suggest Cluster Planting of trees. Here, Penn State Extension describes why this is good practice:

Cluster planting is done by strategically installing plants in groups of threes, fives, or higher odd numbers to block specific views or prevailing winds. Cluster planting provides an attractive, natural-looking screen without walling off your house and yard like a fortress. By planting clusters away from your house, you also provide backgrounds for interesting flowering and fruiting shrubs that are visible from your deck or living room. Additional cluster plantings can be used to create groves. The combined effect provides screening and an interesting design, allows for good airflow, and accommodates walkways through your property.

Learn how to prune your trees.  Hire the best arborist. Make a date every year with these "rock stars" of the horticultural world in order to maintain healthy trees.

There’s a million reasons to love our trees. And to plant a million more trees.

You can also lobby your local governments and petition the power companies to stop cutting and hallowing out the street trees. They can invest in underground technology. Not only will that effort save our trees but it will also better protect everyone during the huge superstorms that will inevitably arrive with ever more frequency because... We are not safeguarding the environment and we are cutting down trees with abandon. Full circle.  sigh...

Last year I read the Pulitzer Prize winning, The Overstory novel by Richard Powers. It is a profound, life-changing read that I highly recommend.


Bill and I were most fortunate to view The NYBG YouTube presentation of the author’s talk at the Garden. I encourage you to take the 30 minutes to watch and learn…

As a child, I loved to sit in the crotch of the cherry tree just off our screened in porch, and read. I was that much closer to heaven...

Trees are a wonder. Plant trees. Yes, hug them.

Oh, and I learned a new word from my "Hortie Hero," Charles Yurgalevitch from NYBG on Arbor Day: Silvics - it means the scientific study of trees and their environment. Love that! 

Yes, truly love your tree. Go sit under a tree… From a safe, social distance. We’ll all be back in our parks, forests, and woods soon…

What's your favorite tree?
I love so many, including the native Paw Paw (you can make fabulous desserts with the fruit. I made panacotta with it!).  I also love the trunks of birch, sycamore, lacebark, and cherry, to name a few.

Here’s our Kwanzan Cherry Tree in our front yard. She is so very glamorous. We love her.

Cocktail Conversations with Plants & Trees? Yessss! Learn the Language of Plants

Photo: Peter Wohlleben presentation screenshot

Did you know that trees nurture their offspring; that they wage war, that their roots are like brains, and that they feel pain? (That fresh cut grass is actually a cry for help!)

These concepts and more were presented at The New York Botanical Garden at the Fifth Annual Humanities Institute Symposium: Plant Intelligence.

I had a conflict in my work schedule and woefully regretted to have to miss this recent lecture at The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) when I read the invitation in the Adult Education brochure.
This is what grabbed my attention, in a big way:
“Trees may appear to be strong and silent, but they can “talk” -- to one another, to other plants, ad to animals and insects. Discover how trees communicate via chemical signals in the air to warn each other of insect attacks, as well as through complex fungal networks underground to transfer nutrients and resources to one another - and sometimes to assist their sick tree ‘family members.’”

See, I’ve been working on a children’s book -- and in my story the plants talk to one another - and to the fauna and insects -- and yes, some deserving humans.  In my children’s writing class, I’ll never forget how one man couldn’t abide that plants could talk -- he thought it too unbelievable even for a child to imagine. I reminded him that his story was about a talking truck (!) and wondered how that was so plausible…
More on the challenging world of writing a children’s book soon. I only wanted to bring it up here as it fuels my passion for learning more about how plants do indeed talk.  And they have a lot to say...

My intense interest in plant language is not a reference to the previously kooky scenario of folks talking to their houseplants - chatting up their begonias and African Violets to insure better growth.  No. We're talking science and adventure and exploration of new worlds.

This emerging field of study is rather a consequence of advanced technology and testing that allows us to more readily understand how plants communicate.

You could say it’s like the rosetta stone - except it’s more of a "rosetta or Rose plant" - a bit of our human first steps into the mystery of understanding plant language.
It’s not them - it’s us! We just needed the tools to better communicate with them.

The lecture at NYBG featured the irrepressible Peter Wohlleben, author of The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate,




And Stefano Mancuso, author of Brilliant Green and Plant Revolution  (who, as I understand it, was socked in due to weather and unable to present.)



and Janet Browne, Historian of Science, Harvard University was the moderator.

In the video, Janet notes it has long been common that plants don’t communicate, nor do they have the ability to think or move. To whit: the “couch potato” and “vegging out!”
Ouch - that’s not nice.

On the other hand, horticulturists long believed plants possessed parallel functions to animals.
Enter Carl Linnaeus and Charles Darwin to change people’s minds about plants and their sex lives!

At the lecture, Peter helps us understand plant life - a world brimming with activity and communication. 

We learn plants communicate on a time scale that is different from ours. Meaning trees, especially, take a looooongg time. After all, they live a long time.  He cautioned tree huggers to be patient. 

Plants are living indicators of an unknown world of communications - they are sophisticated - and not just sedentary animals, as some have ignorantly referred to them as.

I think you’ll be fascinated by the presentation: Peter has a great sense of humor when discussing the plants’ and trees’ communication capabilities (you’ll laugh at his description of how a tree “eliminates!” Ahem.

You’ll be touched learning how they can reflect emotions and feelings and bond for life with their tree family. 

Trees have memory. 

Offspring learn from the parents. 

Peter provided the example of a young sapling that doesn’t drop its leaves soon enough and the winter snows and frost cracks the wood - and it feels pain - but the offspring learns from its nearby parent when to drop its leaves next time when the season demands.

Technology can now register radioactive sugar molecules permitting us the ability to track how a mother tree can talk to and nurture her offspring.  For example, she won’t take as much water during a dry summer in order to feed her child… 

Moreover, plants have the ability for kin recognition. Incredible...
Here is the link to the entire video of Peter's talk:

During the Q&A, when asked if he had any direct communication with a tree, Peter replied without missing a beat - saying  "All of us have -- albeit via a one-way communication." 

What?  How's that? 

Yes, he says research shows that our blood pressure lowers when we walk among trees. 

Trees act like medicine, he added. 

What have trees taught him?  Patience.  Living more than 200 years can have that effect...

More cool tree talk: Oaks can send out “fear branches” when surrounded by beech trees that are intent on killing the oak. There are "gang wars" in the plant kingdom! 

Bark beetles hurt the trees. 

Beech can taste the saliva of deer and can begin a wound-healing action.

Besides roots as brains and a kind of communication internet for plants, fungal networks act like neural networks - adding a method for how trees communicate in a kind of two-way/win-win symbiotic relationship with the fungi.

Trees and plants have instincts and reflexes - just like animals - and their emotions are drivers of their instincts. Isn’t that fascinating to discover? 

Plants have social lives and can learn from experience as they struggle for resources and interact with their environment. 

What Plants Talk About

The weather? The new neighbors? Like us, plants have a lot to say.

Yet another plant talk “must see” is a favorite of mine: The PBS documentary, What Plants Talk About. The visuals are breathtaking. The time lapse videos of plant communication, the interaction of plants and pollinators and predators is stunning. It’s discoveries are that “whoa, how’d they capture that,” mesmerizing images.  Click on the image and link above to watch the documentary.

I highly recommend you grab some popcorn and sit back and enjoy this astonishing look at the plant world just beckoning for more research, exploration, and the opportunity to talk to us.

Here’s the documentary overview:
“When we think about plants, we don't often associate a term like "behavior" with them, but experimental plant ecologist JC Cahill wants to change that. The University of Alberta professor maintains that plants do behave and lead anything but solitary and sedentary lives. What Plants Talk About teaches us all that plants are smarter and much more interactive than we thought!”

Networks Plus 

Speaking of working together, while I have you, I thought you’d like to know about a new partnership at the Garden. NYBG has teamed up with one of my favorite enterprises: Blue Apron, the pioneering meal-kit company. Both will promote community well-being and raise awareness of the benefits of sustainable gardening and cooking with fresh ingredients. How nice is that?

As part of Blue Apron's commitment to making delicious home cooking accessible and bringing families and communities together, Blue Apron is aligning with NYBG's Edible Academy, a new state-of-the-art garden-based education facility that will open on June 14, 2018.

The partnership includes seasonally rotating kid-friendly educational signage in the Edible Academy's Green Thumb Gardens, used by school groups, drop-in families, and community visitors.

Now you can bring the children to the Edible Academy, enjoy a true “happy meal” -- all while having a lovely conversation with the nearby plants and trees.

Cheers!

Green-Wood Cemetery: History & Horticulture in Brooklyn

I love history.  I adore horticulture. I'm mad about Brooklyn – so the Metro Hort tour of the National Historic Landmark cultural institution was a particularly appealing hortie “hat-trick.”

Metro Hort is an association of horticultural professional group in the NY Metro area. 

Some years’ back, I worked at an iconic, beloved star of Brooklyn horticulture – so it’s nothing short of utter embarrassment that I never hopscotched over to Green-Wood Cemetery – ever.

No, it took the scheduled Metro Hort tour to embrace the full-tilt tour. 

It was probably all the better this way.

I had time to take it all in – and to enjoy the history and horticulture with fellow enthusiasts. I learn so much from their informed questions and plant chatter along the tour.

The recent excursion was led by Art Presson, Superintendent of Ground Operations, Green-Wood – and alumni of The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) School of Professional Horticulture  (SOPH) who obviously knew how to play to his audience. 

(The tour was on one of the very few hot and humid days this summer in what otherwise will forever be known as the “Goldilocks Summer” – as in not too hot/not too cold.) 

Presson’s talk was inspired and enthusiastic over the course of a two-hour plus assembly.  

Art Presson (L) Green-Wood

He tailored the points of interest with a heavy dose of plant selections, maintenance insight, landscape design anecdotes, and just the right pinch of intriguing New York history with a dollop of gossip - about who is buried there along with their stories. 

Art Presson explaining Leonard Bernstein's grave & story at GW

Cemeteries’ Link with Parks and Horticulture

A little background might be in order prior to the tour hort review.

I’ve had the privilege to travel rather extensively and consequently have benefitted from “travel as teacher.” 

Along the way, I’ve so enjoyed the Arcadian beauty of some of the world’s great gardens and cemeteries, including Paris and Havana.

Why, I wondered did the folks there – entire families -- visit the cemeteries in droves?  Did they have a heightened respect for their loved ones?

Perhaps…

But it turns out, there’s a somewhat banal yet fundamental reason for what lures the masses to cemeteries.

And the reason is just as overlooked and intriguing from a garden history standpoint.

It's the trees, the gardens, and the open spaces that really attract the people to visit.

See, most European cities – and for a long time here in the “New World” -- there were no parks – no place to go to get out of the squalor of cramped, stale apartments and dirty, disease-laden tenements that was the norm in the 1800s and 1900s.

So citizens flocked to cemeteries. 

They are pretty, well maintained with wide boulevards ideal for strolling, and they offer shade trees and green lawns and as a lucky-strike extra – hardscapes and art in the form of monuments and statues. 

Oh, and history.  Visitors could discover and talk about some of the famous people who had ornate and elaborate edifices built to adorn their final resting place. 

It should go without saying that in those days, it was rich people who could afford to be buried in such style…

A bit of garden history, too, is in order – I’ll be brief so as to get back to the Green-Wood tour – and I’ll just write this mainly from memory so please feel free to correct me if I’ve gotten something turned ‘round!

City parks came about by and large for health reasons. 

City fathers – and they were all men at that time – conceded that urban life would be greatly improved with green spaces. 

They realized the poor needed to get out and breathe clean air and take in the sunshine. If only not to spread disease – and presumably to keep working…  

Frederick Law Olmsted (FLO) and Calvert Vaux won the commission for New York City’s big park dream; drawing up plans for Central Park that were greatly influenced by FLO’s role as the general secretary of the US Sanitation Commission.

Living in NYC, FLO saw the “health effects of poor sanitation in tenements” and thus proposed that "his proposed Greensward would function as the "lungs of the city"- green open spaces where city dwellers could breathe clean air.  ..And the emphasis placed on good sanitation-on well-drained land, circulating waterways, sanitary facilities

Key to understanding all this is: Constructed parks were not land preserved but created landscapes. 

Think about it.  

This acknowledgement enobles and exalts landscape architecture and garden design.  

The parks were a direct link with public health.

The parks’ beauty and romance came later in the planning and design stages.

The enduring landscaping genius of Central Park and Prospect Park is a reminder of what good design can do. 

When showing off Central Park to out of town guests, I always point out how these designers dropped the roads below the park land’s green spaces – like hidden or sunken roads - in order to keep the vistas all garden and idyllic-looking without those carriages and later cars interrupting Eden…

FLO and Vaux (that sounds like a Twitter account) took a lot of their inspiration from the newly built parks in Europe especially Birkenhead Park in England.

It’s said that Green-Wood’s landscape and design was an inspiration for Central Park’s landscape design.

The parks were designed primarily in the Romantic style of landscape design – popularized by Lancelot Capability Brown and America’s first landscape architect, Andrew Jackson Downing   

Downing embraced and promoted the natural style of landscape gardening.

This look sought to borrow from Nature and amplified and celebrated the Arcadian view of life.

Natural landscaping was in contrast to the sculpted – some say tortured  -- landscape design of Versailles and the Le Notre era of landscape design.

I’ve attend quite a few lectures and presentations on the history of these two landscape design periods and find that the contrasting approach and execution of the designs are not only fascinating; likewise the relationship with and impact on urban planning, public policy, health, lifestyle, real estate…

  

If you want to ahem, dig deeper on subject of garden history be sure to visit Garden History Matters maintained by my esteemed colleague and garden friend Toby Musgrave.

Garden History Matters offers online classes, too.  Check it out.

You can also get lost in garden history reading about the Pioneers of American Landscape Design at The Cultural Landscape Foundation

OK, so now we can see how cemeteries can be thought of as PP: Pre-Parks and BB: Before Botanical (gardens).

Viewed in this way, it’s easier to understand why Green-Wood is such a cultural attraction and why it's a must-see for history and horticultural buffs.

Green-Wood Cemetery

Green-Wood was founded in 1838.  It’s bluffs and vistas are breathtaking. 

In fact, it’s the highest point in Brooklyn.

You can see Manhattan’s skyline, the Statue of Liberty and beyond.

The statue of Minerva in Green-wood, salutes Lady Liberty from her line of sight -- just three and half miles apart.  

Art Presson & Minerva

I can tell you that just walking into the cemetery is transporting – the gates and architecture can’t help but make you feel like you are indeed crossing over into an otherworldly place. 

It’s all a bit of Chutes and Ladders – or illusions and dreamscapes -- as the landscape is up, down, round because of the topography.

The plants are weeping, creeping, and act as shape-shifters - often taking on the look of an animal or bird.

Now a National Historic Landmark, visitors have used the main road to take in what is referred to as “The Tour” of the nearly 500 acres there.

Why not start this tour with the majestic trees? – especially as so many trees in our area took a hit after the three, “Evil Sister Storms” of Irene, Sandy and Athena.   

Then there was the Million Trees NYC Bloomberg initiative (haven’t heard much about that in awhile).

Green-Woods’ grounds host some truly majestic tree beauties…

For “Arboreal CSI” enthusiasts, Green-Wood’s Chestnut Hill is a rare opportunity to see what Presson says are the King’s (as in British – hey - this is an old place!) markings on the trees.  Plus the pre-blight chestnut trees are a true gift because the trees now claim to be a blight-resistant breed of Chestnut tree.

Presson and his staff of 37 seasonal workers lovingly care for the huge, old trees at Green-Wood. 

For example, the team inoculates some of the infected beech trees with phosphate once a year to arrest their bleeding canker plugs.

In addition to the Chestnuts, we saw Beech, London planetree (Platanus x acerifolia), the stunning Camperdown Elm (Ulmus glabra ‘Camperdownii’), showy English Hawthorn (Crataegus laevigata), Sourwood (Oxydendrum arboretum) – Presson urged us to come back in the fall for this orange color show, and “senior-citizen” Kousa Dogwood: that are 60-70 year olds!

There are also Chinese Fringe Tree (Chionanthus retsus), Turkey Oak (quercus cerris), and Linden, (Tilia cordata), whose lifespan is measured in centuries. 

Isn’t it comforting to know that if you are buried here there is a stately tree such as the Linden to be your eternal companion -- or what passes for eternity?

Plus the Lindens have a heady, distinctive fragrance …

 

Kousa

Green-Wood also features one of the most curious trees: the Franklinia alatamaha.

I’ve used this “racehorse” of a landscape tree in my design clients’ garden art because I love the “lost camellia,” its history and near-death extinction that in spite of everything continues to live on.

So it all that surprising that the rare Franklinia marks the Green-Wood grave of the father of the painter of Whistler’s Mother.

Presson, too, is incredulous that the Franklinia tree marking Whistler’s grave continued to thrive even after being moved. 

Further along our tour, Presson and his team visibly winced showing a couple of elephantiasis/pachyderm-looking 130 year old beeches that have been tattooed: scratched and scraped into by visitors leaving their mark. 

Why do people hurt trees? 

I digress to emphasize cultures – even artful ones – who revere their trees.

I just watched “Avatar” in 3-D on our new home screen last night  - wow. 

Pandora’s flora Fantasy Botany pops out to almost touch you. 

Point here is in the film, the tree is so revered by the native Nav’vi – their Hometree is sacred – it embodies their life force and they worship it as they do The Tree of Souls – the link to their ancestors via their mother: Mother Nature.   

I wrote about it on Garden Glamour in 2010 the year the film debuted: The Glamour of Planet Pandora in the film, Avatar - even describing the fantasy botany’s taxonomy!

But I have to believe many more visitors to Green-Wood come to admire the trees -- grand monuments unto themselves – giving the ornamental statues and mausoleums some serious competition in the beauty department. 

Plus the outstanding bird watching is like viewing “tree jewelry.”

As a somewhat humorous anecdote, we were told that sometimes, the hort team might be cutting a tree only to find a gravestone on the inside! 

After the “three-sister storms,” Greenwood applied for a grant in order to recreate their cultural landscape. 

Presson’s team is also in the process of completing a tree survey of every tree on the grounds.  They will look to accession plants in their future database.

The tour presented yet ever more beautiful trees: the Weeping Beech are astonishing!  

From a distance they look like something out of a Lord of the Rings movie: haunting, cool, purple-dark 

Inside it’s like being in a cathedral.  

It’s a spiritual experience to commune with trees like this…

From a horticultural, plant perspective; Presson described how he and his team – have been looking to move the design to one that embraces more perennials and shrubs – and certainly more Native Plants. 

He pointed out astilbes, lilies, and allium, noting the Natives are not only good looking but easier to care for than the lawns that once occupied so much of the grounds.

He gets a lot of his plants from Michelle Paladino at Gowanus Nursery 

Presson says Paladino, a former gardener for  Martha Stewart Living has a good aesthetic and design sophistication, inspires his work.  Often too, “I leave it to Michelle to work up the garden design and plantings.” 

Firsts & War History

The first Civil War Memorial is here in Greenwood.

Not just a tale for buffs or Ken Burns fans, this is a heartwarming story – as most every noteworthy personality buried there is. 

This intrigue is about the two Prentiss brothers, Will and Clifton, who died in the Civil War fighting on opposite sides.  

None other than Walt Whitman was tending to them in the hospital.

Later, he paid for them to be buried in Green-Wood.  

Here, the two brothers finally rest side by side. 

What lies between them is a story worthy of a book and a movie. 

Find out how the VA changed its monument policy because of Green-Wood and the Prentiss brothers

Green-Wood now is home to not only New York’s Civil War Soldiers’ Monument, but the Civil War Project that has documented more than 3,300 Civil War veterans and their stories.

Green-Wood offers more than a few war stories – starting with George Washington’s Battle of Brooklyn.  

There is a garden area and series of monuments there that Presson described as the statues of soldiers based on a George Custer model that later became the default cemetery infantry memorial.  “We asked the Veterans group and there was no argument there.” Their molds were widely distributed in the US and were remade of Brooklyn zinc.

Subsequent to the tour, I researched the background history of the copper-plated cast zinc process.

Painted Cast-Zinc Statues sold by J.W.Fiske -  “The earliest known zinc solders were made for the City of New York Civil War Monument (1869) in Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery.  

Famous folks buried at Green-Wood

There are just sooo many famous people here. 

Presson’s ready knowledge and sweet gossip about the illustrious dead made the visit like one of those parlor games where you’re asked if you could assemble a dinner party with anyone from history what would the guest list look like?

Well at Green-Wood, the party is on!

We saw Leonard Bernstein’s grave – his wife and daughter next to him with a ring of rhododendron marking the spot.

Presson pointed out Charles Ebbets’ from the road -- and me and another Metro Hort baseball fan just had so scamper up the hill to take a photo.  

I wanted the shot for my sweet cousin, Teri who is a loyal Yankee fan. 

I don’t think Mr. Ebbets – who famously owned the Brooklyn Dodgers wouldn't mind as she is a true lover of the sport. 

And aren’t the Dodgers sorry now that they moved from “trés Brooklyn?!”

PS.  Mr. Ebbets' middle name is Hercules – god of strength and adventure – a rather fitting moniker don’t you think given all his Brooklyn dealings?

The Tiffany clan is here too. 

Tiffany

And talk about a "girl" that get’s around. 

There is also a somewhat naughty statue that has come to its final resting place in Green-Wood.

It seems the very, very big topless statue was never popular with NYC’s Mayor La Guardia when it was placed near City Hall in lower Manhattan.  

In fact he hated it so much he had it moved to Queens.

I’m convinced La Guardia hated a lot.

I just finished writing three chapters as a contributing author for Savoring Gotham, a book that will be published early next year on the history of NYC food.

My research found Mayor La Guardia hated everything from food push carts and farmers markets so much he banned them, leading to indoor markets and eventually supermarkets. 

It was said he even hated the Good Humor man!

Back to topless statue.

The story is that while she called Queens home after being exiled by La Gardia, Anthony Weiner (of Twitter fame) insulted the – ahem, art – and so she was sent to yet another borough, Brooklyn, when Green-Wood said they’d take it.  Travel expenses were a cool $50K.

Today, it has its own spit of an island and doesn’t appear to moving any time soon (despite not having traveled to the remaining two boroughs on its Gotham passport!)

We also saw the fancy graves of some of New York’s notorious: Boss Tweed, Bill the Butcher – from Gangs of New York, and Peter Cooper.

Cooper’s grave is extra special. 

We came upon it after emerging from the giant weeping birch tree composition so I was already feeling rather ethereal.

Here is a Peter Cooper’s circle.

It is poised on a landscaped design and engineered spot, marked for prestige and efficiency - right where the glaciers stopped. 

Beyond is a very high ridge hill and out of sight but beyond the ridge is Flatbush Avenue.  Now it makes sense how this boulevard got its name, right?

Cooper was a patriot, philanthropist, a sage, a designer, a revered New Yorker – key to so much of the city’s history. 

You can spend an afternoon learning how he formed the fire and police departments, and Cooper Union for Science and Art.

And a curious link to Jell-O!

But his design aesthetic might explain the beauty of his simple, elegant grave.

But not everyone at Green-Wood is rich and famous.  We learned that one could buy a grave for $15 in 1850 on the Hill of Graves located on the edge of the cemetery that looked surprisingly open in terms of land and plot availability.  

Presson said he’d love to put a meadow landscape design here. 

There is a wall that elevates the land up to around knee or waist high and London Planetrees topping the sweeping ridge.

We Metro Hort members agreed this garden concept would both respect the landscape and the simple, regular folks who are laid to rest there.

Sealing the affirmation was when we learned that it was Meadow Avenue we were walking on bordering the Hill area for the proposed meadow!   

If you didn’t adhere to genus loci before – well, surely this was “divine design!”

Presson said, “Maybe it’s trying to tell us something.”  Indeed.

Plant lovers will thrill to learn that all the streets in this special, natural place are named for all kinds of botanicals.  Presson said GW got the idea from Cambridge.

It seemed too, that the monuments are as unique as the people they are celebrating. 

They seem to whisper stories of achievement, intrigue, and romance. 

I wondered if monuments were designated by the deceased or created and put there by family members…

A more classical, ornamental pleasure garden design was on display in the area surrounding the Castle, built in 1910 by the architectural firm of Warren and Wetmore – the same firm that designed the resplendent Grand Central Terminal.

With respect to cultural landscape and sense of place, Green-Wood added an Asian element nine years ago to its portfolio.

Here is a superior, more modern or contemporary landscape design that pays homage to the area’s burgeoning Asian population and culture with a Tranquility garden comprised of classic elements of water, fish, bamboo, and plants, including cherry trees and bamboo.

Visit

It goes without saying that the famous, infamous, notorious, and noteworthy are laid to rest in Greenwood Cemetery.  Pre Plan your visit via the website: Green-Wood  

You’ll be talking about the horticulture and history for a long, long, time.  

Enjoy the beauty and the stories.  

Here are more of my images.  Like Italy and the Hamptons - the light at Green-Wood is ethereal.  

It changes the landscape perspective; it inspires.  

And like a true work of art compels you to gaze upon it over and over and over again.

 

 

Metro Hort talent & friend