Red Maple

I did a quick tally on my archives at this site, as well as on NYPAOS and realize I have posted about a grand total of seven maple species: Acer griseum (paperbark maple), A. capillipes (snakebark maple), A. palmatum (Japanese maple) and A. pseudoplatanus (sycamore maple) here on Planted Cloud, and A. platanoides (Norway maple), A. saccharum (sugar maple) and A. campestre (hedge maple) on NYPAOS.

 

And yet, I've never mentioned Acer rubrum, or red maple (AKA: swamp maple), which is one of my favorite of the genus.  While the fall color is highly variable (despite the common name, the leaves on this species sometimes aren't red, but yellow and orange, too), I love this plant for its spring flowers.  The photo above was taken about two weeks ago.  It's of a 25 year old specimen at my folks' place.  As you can see, the new stems are red -- they turn this color in winter/fall -- and the buds are fattening up.

 

Here's the same tree, two weeks later.  The buds have flowered into tiny puffballs of marginally diminutive flowers of petals, stamens and pistils.  The tree is monecious, which means that there are female and male specimens of the tree.  Which is a wonderful segue way for me to implore you all to pick up a copy of Dirr. At first glance, his reference book is pretty dry.  But when you really read through all his descriptions you pick up wonderful passages like the following: 

I have assessed the peculiar sexual preferences of this species -- actually quite kinky for in a give population of seedlings staminate, pistillate, monoecious and monecious with hermaphrodite (bisexual) flowers occur; an interesting anecdote concerns male trees in a 25-tree popularion on the Georgia campus that grow much faster than their seed bearing sisters; my supposition...so much stored carbohydrate is required for fruit formation that vegetative growth is reduced.  

It's simply not often enough that one employs the term 'kinky' in reference to a tree!

Anyway, back to the tree.  In addition to being highly variable in fall color, red maples differ greatly in their cold tolerance, depending on where they were first grown as seedlings.  A seedling from the south may not perform well at all in northern climes and vice versa.  These are reasons that there's a tremendous market for red maple cultivars ('Armstrong,' 'Autumn Glory' and 'October Glory' are a few classics).  Indeed, if your client wants red fall color on a red maple guaranteed, you don't want to take your chances with generic nursery stock.

Check out my Contribution to Yesterday's 'Grown in the City', also Daffodils

I've mentioned my friend John's blog 'Grown in the City' before and I've begun a regular contribution to it, which debuted yesterday.  The subject: Hamamelis or witch hazel.

I've written about witch hazel on NYPAOS several times before, but yesterday's post is a touch more in depth, so definitely check it out!

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Another plant that is in bloom right now, which I've also covered on NYPAOS is the cheery daffodil.  Check out last year's post on Narcissus here to learn more about the different categories of daffodil and how to determine them.

More later!

Petticoat Daffodil

I'm not sure I can think of a cuter common name for a plant than 'petticoat daffodil.'  I mean, really.  The botanical name, bulbocodium, means 'woolly bulb' which is somewhat (conversely) less cuddly-sounding.  Paghat's Garden quotes a great line of Mother Goose that refers to this plant: 

Daffy-down dilly has come to town

In a yellow petticoat and a green gown.

Of course, this specimen is a white cultivar, which I think is somewhat less striking.  The fine, threadlike leaves and the small white blossoms get lost in this planting, near the USBG.  I much prefer the straight species and its yellow flowers.

I blogged about daffodils and their many classes on NYPAOS.  As you can see, N. bulbocodium has a greatly enlarged cup and small, flared perianth.  Like many other bulbs, this species is native to the Mediterranean, specifically Spain and Portugal.

Pygmy Date Palm

My aunt (of the "Norwegian Maple") has been in Florida this week and has been sending me pics on her iPhone.  It's been fun to identify the plants, or if they are unfamiliar, to look them up.  I'll be posting most of them next week, wrapping up the last of these escapist, tropical themes before we move head-on into spring. 

I was delighted with the photo she sent me above, as it's a nicer pic of Phoenix roebelenii than any of my own.  The genus name should sound familiar since I blogged about its cousin, Pheonix dactylifera, just last week.   

Here's a shot of a pygmy date palm, growing in a lackluster spot in Jean Nouvel's Parc del Centre de Poublenou.  Pygmy dates, as the common name suggests, is a smaller version of the regular date palm.  It's often used in containers or in small areas.  It demands a regular supply of water but can handle both full sun and partial shade. You can eat the dates on this species, but they aren't as fleshy or sweet as the regular date palm.

 Those of you New Yorkers may remember the June we had two years ago where it rained 25 days of the month.  I had a desperate rant about it on NYPAOS and posted this photo of a rooftop bar.  At the time, I was focusing more on this band of people, happily drinking a magnum of champagne, ignoring the deluge.  I had failed to point out the Phoenix roebelenii.

Portea

Last week, at Longwood Gardens, I saw the bromeliad below, which is called Portea and is native to Brazil. 

It reminded me of a plant I had seen at the Philadelphia Flower Show last year and when I got home to my computer, I checked the NYPAOS archives.  Turns out I was thinking of Aechmea. 

The similarities are great -- they are both in the Bromeliadaceae family, which means they are closely related to pineapples, and they both have hard, serrated leaves.  Aechmeas are more popular -- most people have seen the 'Silver Vase' Aechmea before - but Porteas are equally prolific in their native habitat on the east coast of Brazil.

Kalmia Buds

As I have mentioned in the past on NYPAOS, I am always wowed when I see a really glorious specimen of Kalmia latifolia or mountain laurel.  Particularly if it's not growing in the wild, or along the Garden State Parkway.  This specimen at Longwood Gardens similarly impressed me.  

 

The foliage is dark and glossy and not a sign of chlorosis to be found.  Best of all, a small tease for spring: the plant was loaded with flower buds.  

Protea

A long, long time ago (well, almost three years ago) I posted some pics of hothouse flowers from a Parisian shop.  One of the shots was of Protea nerifolia, or protea. 

Here's a few thriving in the Longwood Garden conservatory:

This was in their Mediterranean collection, which is a greenhouse kept at lower temperatures than tropical stock and in a drier environment.  Mediterranean plants must be the toughest to house in a conservatory; they demand lots of sunlight and very little moisture.  And even then, this specimen looks like it's struggling a wee bit.

 

The species name, nerifolia of course refers to the leaves' similarity to the foliage on Nerium or oleander.

Norway Spruce and Rockefeller Center

I have some new material scheduled for later today, but for now, let me direct you to last year's NYPAOS post on the Norway spruce (Picea abies). Norway spruce is typically the tree that is selected each year for Rockefeller Center.