Botany Buddy

Alright, I admit that I am a sap for cheesy music (as well as the good stuff) and I have a weakness for great song writers.  Writing a great song is so similar to designing a great garden that I just can’t help it. Today it’s Billy Joel.  I have been writing in app speak for about a week straight without blogging, and breaking out the Greatest Hits was a sure fire way to get me back to my native tongue.  Don’t get me wrong.  I love the challenge of trying to hone together information into perfectly worded phrases designed to interact with on another on a technical level.  Writing an interactive book is actually great because it reigns in my run on sentences and teaches me to speak without analogies and innuendos.   However, is it me trying to change myself to try and please you…or is it me?  I think as long as I continue to be myself that I will come through in the end.  That is the key to writing a great song.  Finding the best in all of us, learning to bring it out and bring us together with the most efficient use of words, patterns, rhythm, is at the heart of music, writing, gardening and all the arts.

One of the key things I have learned to do in all of this is not change me and to be myself.  I learned a long time ago as a designer that when I did my best work, I let myself come out and tried to blend it with the essence of my clients and the space we were working in.  The same is true with plants.  Plants do their best for us when we put them where they want to be, not where we can make them do what we want.  As gardeners, too often we ask this of our plants and our spaces only to change ourselves too in the end.  By butchering them and controlling them to the point that they are no longer who they want to be (people, places, or plants) they cease to be the things we love and become all to unfamiliar.

So while we sit and reflect this winter and lust over catalogs to find the perfect plants for the prefect spots, let’s remember that the perfect plant is the one that can be who it wants to be and bring out the essence of the space and ourselves in the process.   If we do this we will get the gardens we want because those spaces, our needs, and the needs of the plants that will live there will bring us the diversity we crave.  If we don’t we will just ruin all the things we love about each other and our love of gardening.

We’ve all been in that bad relationship, and as designers in our desire to create and be something different we can make the greatest mistake of all  “She’ll promise you more than the garden of Eden.  Then she’ll carelessly cut you and laugh while your bleeding but she’ll bring out the best and the worst you can be.  Blame it all on yourself cause she’s always a woman to me.” Sound like something we’ve all done to a shrub or two.  How often have we done this?   When will we learn that our plants, clients, spaces and selves are what and WHO they are.  Only when we learn to respect that and learn that we have to live together will we achieve that love we long for one another.    If we don’t we will just ruin all the things we love about each other and love of gardening.  So when we think of ourselves as gardeners let’s think of ourselves as cheesy songwriters.

“So don’t go changing to try and please me.  You never let me down before…Don’t imagine your too familiar and I don’t see you anymore…I would not leave you in times of trouble.  We never could have come this far…I took the good times.  I’ll take the bad times.  I’ll take you just the way you are.”

Since I started Botany Buddy and have been writing content for all of our upcoming applications, I have become somewhat addicted to reading all the old print trade magazines as well as blogs.  It seems like one of the hottest topics is and always has been lawns and the use of turf grass in design.  I have seen those that despise turf of any kind, those that don’t mind it as long as it is 100% organic, and those that think declaring your manifest destiny with acres of perfectly manicured turf is a symbol of the American way.  I hate to say it but you all my just be right, because what is actually the right thing to do may be dependent upon the situation you are in.

I always like to take nature as my guide.  Having spent the last five years designing and creating covenants for “sustainable” conservation properties, I have struggled with this dilemma myself and have come of with somewhat of a guide for decision making.  Like with everything else, I use nature as my guide.  If there was no place for grasses in our environment I seriously doubt we would have had the prairies, savannas, and wetlands to begin with.  All three of these situations are nature’s home to grasses, and they have very specific roles in the habitat of our wildlife and ecosystem as a whole.  Other than grazing,  The main roles of grass in all of these situation are erosion control, water filtration, and play.

Erosion control is pretty easy to understand, and there is a reason all best management practices in construction require very stringent seeding or sodding processes.  Once we killed the prairies, the winds blowing across the prairies would create the dust bowl and we learned this lesson the hard way.  Once grasses secure and protect disturbed soil the roots and thatch of the grass naturally convert the exposed subsoil into nutrient rich topsoil.  If you have ever lived in a brand new subdivision you see the emulation of this natural condition for the first ten to twenty years of its existence.  If you have lived and gardened in a 100 year old neighborhood you have enjoyed the benefits of the nice rich soil this process leaves behind.  Even in the woods, the herbaceous layer of perennials and in some cases grasses serve this same function.  The process of growing, dying back, and returning to the soil is emulated in our own lawn as long as we leave the thatch in place.

The other place grasses are most prevalent are in wetlands and river bottoms.  besides holding up the blooms of the beautiful wildflowers flowers for us to see better, grasses also are a vital filtration device for the water that flows through them.  This can be the same in our yards.  Running your storm water across a lawn is far better for the environment than channeling it in river rock or piping it to a storm water inlet.  Running water across 30 feet of healthy turf can remove 90% of the sediment and pollutants the water carries.  However this only works of you aren’t using even more pollutants to take care of the grass.  If managed responsibly, turf is actually one of the most ecologically friendly ways to manage surface water and drainage.  In the end the damage done poor drainage can be far worse than anything you can do with a lawn.

The final natural use of grassy areas I like to call “Play”.  If you have ever had the chance to see Elk emerge from the forest after an afternoon rain to engage in their courting rituals and graze you know exactly what I am talking about.  The same can be said for buffalo or deer, and it is not unlike watching  my daughter play games in the front lawn with a bunch of her friends.  The need for wide open spaces and battle our sense of claustrophobia is not only natural to us but most other species as well.  No matter how unnatural some can make a lawn look, wide open grassy spaces are very much a vital part of our natural landscape.  Unless a landscape is completely wooded they can look very unnatural without some form of lawn.  I have seen plenty of gardens planted to the gills.   Without a hint of negative space in the form of a meadow or lawn and they can look just as unnatural as a lawn.  Ground covers can provide this effect too, but if they grow lower than weeds it is impossible to keep them healthy and if they are aggressive enough to keep them out they are usually an invasive species.

In short the challenge to designing with lawns isn’t whether or not to do it.  The amount of sunlight and ability of the environment to support grass will determine that.  The challenge is finding the methods of installation and management that get it established quickly, and do more to benefit nature than we do to harm it in the process.  To guide you through these decisions I have put together this summary.  This in not a “How To”.  There will be an app for that.  Think of it as a “why to”…or to not.  I think you will find your answers come naturally and they will do more to help you succeed than any four-step program you buy and your local retailer.

Turf Grass Installation:

If you are looking for a traditional lawn, the two most common methods for installation are sodding and seeding. With soil preparation sodding typically costs from $1.00-$1.25 per square foot.  Seeding Usually Costs $.15 to $.25 per square foot.  However, this is very deceiving when you consider what it takes to achieve establishment.  To get seed to establish into a lawn in a landscape takes an average of 3-4 applications of herbicides, preemergents, and fertilizers per year.  It also usually requires at least one major aeration and renovation if not more, extensive watering, and frequent overseeding.  It also takes more water to establish the seed, and to maintain it in the hottest times of the year because it has less of a root system to support the blades.  This is just for one year, and it actually takes two full years of diligent, chemical ladent maintenance to beat the lifecycle of the weeds.   That is only if your timing is prefect and you don’t miss a beat.  Otherwise it can take longer.

There is no doubt that sod farms water incessantly, and pump tons of chemicals into the soil.  But the space that they pollute is limited.  They will typically get twenty or more harvests out of the same piece of ground.  They also tend to harvest and recylce their water and as a result are becoming more and more conscious of the the nitrogen levels and especially herbicides in it.  Due to the intense methods and irrigation, sod farms also produce a harvest ready turf in six to twelve months vs. two to three years.  This means it takes at the most 1/3 the chemical usage to achieve the desired thickness as it does to seed a lawn.  They are also strictly strictly regulated when it comes to run-off whereas homeowners are some of the biggest polluters with with their fertilizers running off right to the street and into the storm water system with no riparian buffer at all.  Numerous sources can be found to cite that homeowners use 10 times the number of pollutants on their lawns per acre than agriculture does.  This should make us think twice about how responsible we are.

Turf Grass Maintenance:

Mowing: The most environmental damage that results from lawns isn’t from having them, but rather how we take care of them. There are three main things to look at in the care of the lawn, mowing, fertilizing, pest/disease and weed control, and watering.  While treating pests, diseases and weeds directly contributes the most toxins to the soil and water, how you mow and water contributes to most to how much treating you need to do.  There is now greater deterrent to all of these other problems than having a healthy lawn in the first place.  Remember all of these other problems occur when what you trying to grow in the first place is weakened by not being allowed to do what it wants to do naturally.

Almost all turf grasses are bred from naturally occurring varieties that grow between six and twenty-four inches in height.  Now most of them have been bread to have thinner blades and can no longer hold themselves up naturally, but the closer we can allow them to get to that six inches the more they can do to take care of themselves and their space for us.  Other than specialty turfs like zoysia (which set you up for failure anyway), most common turf grasses shouldn’t be mowed shorter than three inches and should be allowed to grow at least two before mowing.  Not only will this make the grass perform better, but it will get tall enough to keep most weeds out, or at least hide them.  Your mower also pollutes, but that is a topic for another blog, hopefully the price of gas is starting to make you aware of that.

Chemical Treatments

Fertilizing: The two most common chemicals applied to lawns are fertilizers and herbicides.  Even organic chemicals, especially fertilizers, can create runoff if over used and pollute our streams.  Chicken manure is organic, and a great fertilizer, but you don’t want you well head next to the chicken house.  The best deterrent is to only use them when absolutely necessary.  Too often people throw down nitrogen every time their lawn looks a little yellow or brown.  Some times it just needs a simple trace mineral like lime or iron, or it just plain needs a break because it is too hot or cold out.  The only times that the need for nitrogen can be very obvious are in spring and fall when the grass is in prime growing season and it is still having problems.  Keeping grass growing in 100 degree temperatures is just as brutal as trying to keep yourself going and sometime we both just need a break.

Herbicides: Weed control is the second biggest polluter in lawn care.  It is also probably the easiest battle to lose.  That is why I recommend not even trying if you don’t have too.  My personal lawn is a mix of fescue, bluegrass and rye, but it also has some oxallis, nutgrass, and clover.  These weeds don’t get large enough to kill out the turf grass, and they provide fodder for the rabbits that keeps them out of my veggie patch.  When they go dormant in the fall, their thatch also creates a nice medium for overseeding the fescue that is slowly choking them out.   If you do have to treat something, only spot treat it, and only bother with things that can actually get big enough to kill out your grass or is a seriously invasive species like honeysuckle or crown vetch.

Pesticides and Fungicides: Aren’t used as often as other chemicals but can be just as dangerous to the water supply and wildlife even in smaller quantities.  Once again the question here is why bother.  Yes grubs will bring moles that tear up your yard, but grubs prefer clay and the moles help aerate and break it down.  Grubs also provide food for wildlife like wild turkeys and robins.  Treating fungus can slow down the organic processes needed to actually let your lawn and soil improve by itself, and the pesticides can kill the worms that provide the best fungicide and aeration of all.  Most of the problems you would treat for in the first place you can’t spot until the damage is done.  It is easily repaired with over seeding in the fall, and most disease and insect problems will usually run a natural course and disappear within a year.  In the end preventative treatments can do far more damage to your soil than the actual problems you are treating for, so think twice before applying or don’t apply at all.

Watering: I recently did a post on watering titled:  Plants Are Like People: Water With Love Even If It’s Tough. All of the same rules I go over there apply to turf.  A healthy turf can’t use more than an inch of precipitation a week, and should never be manually watered more often than once per week.  If you follow the instructions on the previous post you can get away with hardly watering at all.  We just came off of one of the worst droughts in the history of the Southeast, and in those years I never had to water my lawn more than once a month during the summer because I used the deep fall and winter  watering described in the previous post.  Also the taller you let your grass get the deeper the roots will grow.  If the roots are three inches deep, and you have watered deep enough to reach all the roots, you should be able to go three weeks without watering.  There are some common sense things you should do to prevent runoff like not watering the street or your driveway, but nothing is better for the environment than eliminating the need to water at all.

To wrap things up, lawns represent a vital part of our natural ecosystem.  They serve functions that are vital to wildlife and nature as well as our nature as human beings.  As long as we take nature’s cues on when to use them and don’t try to grow them where they don’t belong or want to be there is nothing unnatural about them at all.  What is unnatural is what we have been doing to them.

There is a dirty little secret in the gardening business that there are three things someone will spend 500 times what they spent on the plant on the supplies to grow them:  tomatoes, roses, and grass.  Next time you are in a garden center or big box store, look around and see what they have dedicated their space to.  Successful gardening is about getting plants to grow for us so we can focus on finding, growing and new plants.  If a lawn doesn’t do more to take care of the space it occupies either you are doing too much for it, or it shouldn’t be there in the first place.  There are natural uses and needs for lawns, we just have to take nature’s cues and think naturally about what we do with them.

When I started this post it was going to be an all out attack on Lawn&Landscape Magazine.  Over the past several months they have taken a corporate political stance that has ceased to be an educational service to their industry and turned into an all out chemical and economic attack on garden consumers and professionals.  Their publication has obviously become an effort to carry water for the equipment,  chemical and insurance industries that pay for all their advertising and write their content.  It has ceased to be an educational service to the industry.

The article that finally pushed me over the edge wasn’t the one last month on how limiting turf use to 4000 sf per yard was an attack on our ideals, or the one the month before on how landscape employees that are constantly exposed to chemicals and physical danger don’t deserve health care.  Instead it was this month’s on how the industry was being attacked because municipalities in Canada where restricting chemical use in residential and environmentally sensitive areas.  Their fear was that the socialist tendencies of these Canadians might drift south like a cloud of RoundUp and make us little salamanders in the states start caring about the future of our children and water supply.  The full article is here…water bucket and all:  Best Defense

As most of you who read me know, I have spent my entire career in the landscape design build business.  One of the things that has made this business great is that as long as I can remember is that nurserymen, landscapers, and gardeners are typically true tradesmen who learn, love and teach their crafts.  They are not just tradesmen, but true craftsmen.  Probably the most notable reason this industry has been able to grow as fast as the customers isn’t just the demand that has paid for it, but also the numerous organizations, associations, and schools that have collaborated and been a part of that education.  The main goal of all these groups is the advancement of the industry by networking and educating.  For the most part all the various state associations, the ANLA, and various other groups make this their calling.  These groups also have one other thing in common, they are all in the business of growing, and understand that to do it successfully you can never stop learning.  They also know that the most important part of learning is listening to their industry, and their consumers.

(This is where I originally paused to figure out how to handle this tactfully)  then…

This morning I woke up to this wonderful post from Garden Rant: “A Chemical Reaction” Makes the Case.  It chronicles the grassroots efforts of the Canadian people to protect their children and resources, and the woman who made it her life’s cause.  This is a wonderfully positive take on what happens when industry and government listen to the needs of their customers and in the end grow together for the benefit of both.  What happened in Canada is a case of consumers driving change and an industry growing to meet demand in trying times rather than screaming that they are under attack.  This is an example of what our industry has always been about when it is at it’s best.

Lawn & Landscape Magazine used to be dedicated to advancing and teaching a growing industry but has gradually become increasingly consumed with maintaining the status quo.  Now obviously for them the status quo is the never ending supply of equipment and chemical vendors who cover %70 of their publication with adds.  However, for the people in this business the future isn’t in buying up their vendor’s over saturated, unwanted, and unaffordable inventories, it is in learning their changing market’s needs and desires and adapting their businesses to them.  In short they need to learn, and education requires two things; listening and thinking.  Both of these Lawn & Landscape  has been too busy screaming how we are under attack to do.

Before I started Botany Buddy I had to go through some serious reconciliation.  I was giving up 25 years of designing landscapes usually for the sake of prestige and money.  It wasn’t necessarily desired by me, but by my clients who at least wanted to portray that image.  I was just paying for my gardening habit and overdosing on it with their money.  It was a viscous cycle, and for twenty years I watched the industry make the same mistakes as the clients.  Firms became more concerned about the appearance of the trucks and mowers than if the equipment best met the needs of their clients.  In the end, we even pushed this image to our clients, by focusing on the resale value of our product rather than how it made their lives or environment better.

Well as the false economy that paid for these false ideals has crumbled, a return to the values that started this industry are coming back.  In the last five to ten years sustainable landscaping has come into focus.  Everyday people are making decisions based upon their environments and lifestyles, and finding the essence in both rather than trying to create an image of a place that doesn’t exist.  Lawn & Landscape surely isn’t going to listen to little old Botany Buddy, and I’m sure after this Monsanto won’t let them promote my little $10 app.   That’s O.K., I didn’t get into this for them, I did it to return to my roots as a gardener, out of a love of the world around me, and to hopefully find a new way forward.  We may not be able to change the giant of industry, but maybe if all of us gardeners rant a little more, we can “uproot the gardening world” like the women of Garden Rant and change the world around them.

What happens when you combine politics, various county governments, Academe and community organizing?  Usually not much.  Having been been raised in Academe and involved in plenty of politics, when I first heard of a BYGL I definitely had my preconceived notions.  In fact the first image that came to my mind was the Spoofhound.  That was the name of my high school mascot. Rumor had it in the early days our football team was so inept at coming together and working as a team that the coach said they all looked like a bunch of  Spoofhounds.  The name has stuck as long as anyone can remember.  Of course when the teams are good everyone tries to change their name to “The Hounds”.  However being a dog lover I have always been fond of the name Spoofhound.  I couldn’t have been more proud of that name when they recently gained national notoriety for an act of selflessness that became a network and Internet sensation and showed how greatness can be reached when unlikely partners come together to do something good. (story)

When I first heard of  ”The Bygles” (at least that is what I call them), I have to admit I imagined somewhat of a Spoofhound effort in the purest sense of the name.  After all how could so many competing entities possibly come together to beat the odds for the benefit of everyone.  Anyone who has worked in horticulture or been a gardener knows that when you are working one on one with an extension agent it can be a wonderful experience.  However, if you knew what it requires to allow that to happen you would be surprised you had the chance to meet with an agent at all.  Typically University Extension Services are are funded by a combination of federal, state, and local or county funds.  Most are also usually torn between a university system and local governments.  This makes it really easy for someone be turned into a research assistant or someone who has to do the biddings of a politician trying to seek reelection.  Yet somehow through personal care and a love of their jobs by individual agents those of us on the receiving end are rarely aware of this paradox.  These agents are friends, educators, and ambassadors between the farmer in the field or the gardener in their yard and many different figments in ivory tours that hold the fate their existence in a very fragile web of funding and interests.

Somehow in the story of  ”The Bygles” all of these odds are overcome to create an effort more worthy of the name Superdog than a Spoofhound.  BYGL is a statewide newsletter put out weekly through the growing season by The Ohio State University Extension Service.  This seems like no big deal.  All of our local agents put out at least monthly newsletters, or at least most do.  However this one is different.  Every week during the growing season agents from every county in the state come together via conference call to discuss not only what is happening in their districts, but how diseases, insects, and trends are acting across the entire state and their region of the country as a whole.

For one day every week these people bring all of their local perspectives but put aside their local agendas to see how they can address these problems as a state and on a statewide level.  After the meeting everything is compiled into one document and not only faxed out to all of their various members and users, but also put together online where the report can be accessed.  Not only can the report be accessed, but through the effort of some dedicated agents and university staff, wonderful photos are taken and information is gathered to tell the story as it needs to be addressed today and not just recycled from some old files.  Not only that, they reach outside of their own circle to other agencies and resources, and all the appropriate links and references are included so people can quickly find what they need.  As a result they are able to address problems and needs for the entire state as an ecosystem rather than one county at a time, and over come all the bureaucratic odds.

As gardeners our biggest challenge is learning the ecosystems we work in and learning how to help the plants and animals in them to work together for the good of the entire garden.  Gardening can be challenging, but working across all the various bureaucratic boundaries, and hierarchies to pull this off has to be harder.  One of  ”The Bygles” likes to say “Information is not Education”  As someone with a philosophy degree, I have to agree.  Having managed lands in many states and across state and county lines, I have become familiar with many extension services and their resources.  They are loaded with information and are extremely valuable resources, but BYGL is definitely designed for education, not just to disperse information.

The last BYGL was just published for the season until next spring, but I highly recommend you check this site out.  I would be proud to call this dog a Spoofhound in the greatest sense.  *Note: when you go to this page the links to older newsletters are at the bottom.  The links at the top are under construction as they are archiving this years content.

Whenever I start talking about landscaping with nature people start to get all squeamish and think “Oh no…another weedy looking woodland garden.  Don’t get me wrong, I love a good woodland garden.  Real ones hardly even require planting.  What I am talking about is using nature as your guide in design.  I have been designing landscapes for over 20 years now, and the last five I have been blessed to do most of my work in the nature of the Southern Appalachians.  However, before that I spent fifteen years designing several hundred gardens in the heart of the city and the heat and cold of the Midwest.  Even in the most unnatural of places I learned that the more you emulate nature, the more beautiful things will be and the easier they will be to take care of.  After all, nature is beautiful and it does a good job of taking care of itself if we don’t screw it up.

There are some key things that nature does itself that when you look at the greatest of landscapes you will always find.  I could never squeeze everything into one post, but there are some key things that if approached from the outset will make the rest fall in place.  If we take nature’s lead on how it designs and plants its gardens we are bound to succeed and it is bound to be beautiful.  What I will explore are the main aspects of landscapes, how nature creates them and how we can emulate them.

The first thing that nature lays out in a landscape is the flow.  To understand this we have to understand that in nature and in the landscape it is the water that determines flow.  Where the water goes in nature so does the wildlife.  The migratory patterns of the birds and the animals are all tied to the water and their need to get to it.  In the garden it is people that flow, as well as the birds and animals that visit…including our dogs.  I like to make my paths and walking areas follow the drainage in the garden.  In high traffic areas I will make stone paths or place stepping stones inter-planted with “steppable” plants or ground covers.  In open areas, if I have grass at all, I will take water across it as well.  As water creates the valleys and flat areas in nature, doing this in the garden serves the aesthetic need of making the garden look like it was meant to be there.

As for the animals in the landscape people tend to take the easiest possible path, and so does water.  From a practical standpoint, the water won’t washout your beds or puddle and breed mosquitoes.  It will create moisture along the paths were smaller plants that require more water go, and it will dry out other areas for evergreens and shrubs that are more sensitive to water.  Animal migration can also create flow in nature and the garden.  The two most prominent animals in your landscape are dogs and mailmen.  Dogs are like the deer and other animals in the landscape that create migration paths that don’t follow the water.  If  I have a dog in a landscape, I will always leave a little maintenance path behind shrubs along a fence.  This allows them to patrol their landscape and creates airflow behind the shrubs so they don’t die out on one side.  With a privacy fence I also like to leave a small strip of lattice along the bottom to let them see out and increase air flow.  As for mailmen, I can’t remember the last time I did an urban landscape that didn’t have a path for them to go door to door.  Not only does it keep them from trampling the plants, but it gives an excuse to pull down the height of a house with the plantings without adding so many plants it looks unnatural.

Nature has two main types of scenery that you encounter, and so does any good landscape.  Olmstead called these the pastoral and the picturesque.  The pastoral are the wide open sceneries that allow you to get lost in the sunset and your mind to escape.  It brings out the grandness of the landscape.  In urban setting everything is usually boxed in and strictly defined by property lines.  These pastoral scenes don’t often occur naturally so you have to lead the eye to them.  The easiest way to do this is use tall things closer to your gathering areas to screen the neighbors beside you and taper down your heights to the corner where you can see the furthest.  Always make sure that what is in that corner is shorter than what is just behind it outside of your yard and this will lift your eye back up and create that escape.  The tapering of heights to the furthest point will also create a sense of perspective making your space seem larger than it is.

The picturesque are those scenes where your eye gets stuck and you are looking at a space like a framed picture that creates a scene.  In nature this may be a giant boulder you walk up to on a hike.  You get stopped in your tracks then totally engrossed in the lichens, ferns and wild flowers growing from its cracks.  Its becomes like an entirely different world to explore inside of another.  The same can happen in your garden by planting in the cracks of a wall or having a collections of planters or a piece of art on a fence.  Even a planter next to your door where that gutter makes it hard to grow anything else can have the same effect.  One thing to be sure of is to repeat the elements in that planter in the landscape around it.  By splashing a few of the impatiens in the pot on the ground around it, it will tie it into the rest of the landscape.  It will be just like the ferns that grow on that rock that also grow on the ground around it and lead you down the trail and on into the forest.

Plant diversity is crucial to any healthy natural environment and also any good garden or landscape.  Diversity comes in many forms.  What I am going to focus on here is the layers of a landscape and how they are dispersed.  Nature creates this diversity and uses the plants to care for the space and the animals in it.  So should you.  I like to relate the levels of the landscape to music.  Good music has always found its roots in the rhythms of nature and so does any good art, especially a natural one like landscape.

These rhythms come it two forms.  The first rhythm can be found in the layers.  Nature, good gardens and great music all have an upper, middle and lower range.   In nature this is made up of the trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants.  Neither nature nor a garden is in its complete form without all of these.  The trees provide the canopy and determine the amount of light and moisture hitting the ground, soil type and everything that will grow below it.  The trees create the homes for the animals and the home for everything below it.  Think of them as the ceiling and walls of a room.  Just like nature does, when designing plantings you should always start with the trees because they determine everything else.

The mid range is the shrub layer, and can also include smaller flowering trees.  They provide food for most of the wildlife. They also also create the depth of the landscape, just like midrange creates depth in music.  The shrub layer will do the most to take care of space for you just like it does in nature.  When you come across an thicket of huckleberry in the woods, it always looks perfectly groomed and placed as though it has been meticulously pruned even though man has never touched it.  Besides creating depth in terms of space and layers they also create new spaces to discover behind and around them providing for a sense of discovery and surprise.  This layer is not only rich in space creation.  It is rich in performance as well because these plants provide elaborate flower, berry , fall color and bark shows that create a tapestry of their own.  Not only do they provide the most fodder aesthetically, they also do the most to feed the birds and other wildlife.

The low range is the final layer.  In music it is the base that rolls along, providing the rhythm for everything else and fills the voids of the down times.  In plantings it is the herbaceous layer.  I would hardly consider a tuba or tympani to be similar to a Hosta or Astilbe, but they are.  If played properly they both are a delicate presence in the back ground that emerge and steal the show when everything else is down.  In the garden and nature the perennials quietly hold the ground while the mid range shows off all spring, then they tactfully take their turns showing off their color as the flowers of spring fade away.  Then they roll into a crescendo heading into fall only to step aside for the finale of the trees with fall color.  They are the fabric that holds the ground in place and takes care of the space for you.  Then they give you that little extra right when you need it.

Along with the layers all good music, nature , and gardens have rhythm.   The patterns in all great music, art and gardens can all be traced to those of nature.  The arts and particularly music really exploded in the last century when people stopped trying to create things just for the sake of creating them and started looking for inner meaning.  The rhythms of  jazz embody this and the greatest artistic nod to nature of all has to be syncopation.  When gardeners realize that everything doesn’t have to spaced in 4/4 (formally and perfectly symmetrical) that is when their lives get easier, and much richer.  Trying to make a garden embody a rigid structure is like trying to make a marching band embody dance.  It is next to impossible and everything has to be completely lined up all the time.  It is even worse in a garden because  it is even harder to make a plant do what you want than a teenager.

Plants need to be spaced to move you through the garden like the rhythm in music.  Then they will move you through the garden like music moves your feet.  Syncopate it…Put the weight of plants in one place to provide structure where you need it, but then repeat it tapering off in the direction you want the eye to move.  If you plant five in one place, plant three a little bit over from there and maybe more even a little further over.  This is how nature does it and it will intrinsically add depth to the aesthetics of your garden, and the movement to keep it interesting.

Nature doesn’t plant in intertwining plant sausages so why should be.  Think of the sausage method like the landscape at McDonald’s, it may be showy, but it has about as much depth as the food they are trying to sell.  I would much rather sit down to four hours of French cuisine with depth and rhythm that feeds my soul as well as my body.  Nature doesn’t plant its flowers in blocks of 300 only to be ripped out and replaced three times a year.  It plants them where the weeds would grow to take care of the space so they can dance with one other and the other plants in the forest to provide the richest show possible.  Out of the symbiotic relationships the ecosystem creates to grow emerges an equally complex combination of  outright beauty.

I could go into many other areas where nature is the best guide.  You could use materials that are native to your region.  Be it plant or rocks this always provides a sense of cohesiveness.  There are all kinds of great cues to follow when using water in the garden.  However, what I wanted to do here was help you learn to take your cues from the world around you.  Draw from not only from what makes nature beautiful, but what makes it work, and let it guide you in your own garden or artistic endeavors.  We have to quit creating gardens for the sake for feeding them, and start creating them to feed our souls and the world around us.  Most importantly when nature has created them for us, we need to quit screwing them up.

When people ask me how to water their plants I usually turn right around ask them for instructions on how to raise kids.  The point being you can’t know what to do for a plant until you get to know it like a person.  Raising plants is a lot like raising kids, and once you learn what works best for both of you the better off you both will be.  Too often people think that plants are like hardwood floors, that they need to be waxed at certain intervals, need to be kept perfectly clean, and that given the perfect routine treatment will always look shiny and new and age perfectly.  What they need to learn is that plants are like people and they need nourishment, security, and love; sometimes even tough love.

The overall goal of watering should always be to help plants get established quickly, and develop a healthy deep seated root system to deal with the trials and tribulations that lie ahead.  While you want to be diligent at giving your plants what they need to get established, you also want them to start to take less and less care from you.  If you have the right plant in the right spot, they should eventually be able to care of themselves.  That journey begins with security.  The best security a plant can have is not knowing that you will run out and water it at the drop of a leaf, but rather that it has plenty of water in the soil around it, not just in the hole that you put it in.

During the average growing season, most established plants can use no more than one inch of water per week.  To be able to stick to this you need to make sure that all of the soil in and around the planting area has a deep base of adequate moisture.  If it does, as the soil dries out immediately around a newly planted plant moisture will move from the surrounding soil to the soil in the hole through osmosis.  If you plant a plant into to an area where all of the surrounding soil is dry, when you water all of the moisture will move the other way and you won’t be able to retain moisture around the plant.  Whenever you are going to be planting an area, you should always water the entire area thoroughly.  Think of it as getting the nursery ready for that newborn you are about to bring home.  In the end it save you several trips to the store (or in this case hose).

The key to establishing healthy plants is the same as for kids.  You want to love them, but you don’t want to spoil them. Plants that are watered too frequently will not achieve the necessary root growth they need.  Instead, they will develop a shallow root system that you have to constantly water, and the roots will never get out on their own.  Nature very rarely waters more than once a week and manages to sustain itself and withstand times of extreme stress.  Even in those times of extreme stress nature will usually adapt and turn out stronger in the long run.  By having thoroughly watered soil, not only will moisture move toward the plant as it is needed, but the roots will move out to it in search of what they need. Watering too frequent and not deep enough will train the roots never to leave home.  Beyond just water needs deep watering will also help retain the nutrients in the soil by not washing them out of the soil because watering all of the time.

Anyone who knows what it is like to love a child should be well prepared to give a plant the love it needs.  Just like you want to make sure your child has everything they need to succeed in life you want to do the same for your plants.  The worst thing you can do for either of you is constantly react to circumstances.  In the end sometimes plants and children both need a little tough love.  Even if your plants have everything they need in the subsoil on the hottest of days they are going to wilt.  The last thing you want to do is run out there an water them.  That wilting action is triggering an natural response from the plant to dig in and grow the roots they need.  As long as that soil has the water the plant needs it will find a way to get it.  Just like your kids sometimes need to work through things, your plants need to do the same.

For those who need a little more specific information, these guidelines should help you be sure your plants to get established and encourage the  root growth they eventually need to make it without you.

Whenever installing a new plant be sure and water all of the soil around the hole. It is imperative that the root mass of new plants always be kept moist, as well as the soil around the holes they are in until active root growth begins. Adequate moisture needs to be maintained until the roots actually leave the hole that was dug for installation and penetrate the surrounding soil.  The best way to accomplish this is to actually water the hole you dug for the plant before you put it in it.   Actually fill the hole you have dug for the plant entirely with water and let it seep into the surrounding soil.  You will want to do this repeatedly until water begins to hold in the hole or seep out very slowly.  When you are planting the plant, water the plant while it is still in the container or burlap before putting it in the hole.  It is much easier to make sure it is moist before it is underground and covered with soil.  Once the water you put in the hole has drained, place the plant at the proper level,  and back fill the hole with soil halfway up around the root ball.   Once you have lightly packed the soil to hold the plant in place, fill the rest of the hole with water again.  Be sure and let the water soak completely in before back filling it the rest of the way.  Not only will this ensure the soil is wet, it will also remove any air pockets in the hole that could later cause roots to dry out or the plant to settle and lean.  Once you have finished filling the hole with soil, water it one more time.  The most common shortcut you will see a professional landscaper make is not following this entire process.  After 25 years in the landscaping business I would not be exaggerating if I said that 80% of the times that plants needed replaced or replanted it was because the installer skipped these simple steps and it wasn’t properly watered during planting.

Watering new plants after planting may be required more than once in the first week.  You should check daily to see if the plant needs water, but don’t water daily.  Stick your finger into the root mass of the plant as well as the soil around it and see if they are both wet.  If you find the soil is dry give it a little water.  If it is wet whatever you do don’t water even if the plant is wilting or showing signs of stress.  The only thing that will help it is growing the roots it needs to make it on its own.  Watering when it is not needed will actually prevent this.  You may have to water new plants a couple times a week in the first two weeks as the stress of planting can cause them to use more water, but ideally by the third week you should never have to water more than once a week.

Watering of established plants should not be needed (or performed) more than once per week, and combined with what nature gives they should not need more than the equivalence of 1 inch of precipitation per week.  If your soil is adequately moist beneath the  surface and all you need to do is supplement that top inch.  Watering too frequently will only keep the plant’s roots from reaching out for the moisture that is there.  In reality if you are using native species in a place with the proper light exposure, and in the right zone in terms of hardiness range, you shouldn’t have to water a plant at all after the first season.  In times of extreme drought you may want to water established plants, but good winter watering (the step below) should prevent the need for any sort of frequent watering.

Winter Watering isn’t something people usually think about.  However a plant has more of a chance of dying in winter from a lack of water than it does in summer.  The water that fills the tissue of a plant’s trunk and branches is actually what protects it from extreme freezing temperatures.  When matter freezes it expands.  When the cells of a plant expand, the gases inside can expand more than the tissue itself and cause the cells to explode.  If the cells are filled with water it displaces those gases and keeps them from expanding too far.  If a plant freezes when it is dry, it can literally freeze-dry the plant, making it impossible for the cells to retain water again.  The best way to prevent this is to actually water in the fall or early winter before the ground freezes.

Once the leaves and perennials are down for the season and you have chopped them up for mulch, it is actually the easiest and most efficient time of year to get water in the soil.  The water doesn’t roll off the foliage of the plants and lands directly where it needs to go.  It also is less likely to evaporate when using a sprinkler because the temperatures are lower.  Best of all the plant isn’t using it to grow (other than roots), so even in winter a good saturation can last a couple of months.  If you happen to get a warm spell in January or February, I actually recommend watering deeply a a couple of times over winter to establish that deep ground moisture before spring arrives.  It is much easier to do it in January than in the spring or summer than when the water is actively being used by the plants and foliage is emerging that deflects it.

Wilting and watering do not always go hand in hand.  I alluded to this earlier.  When a plant wilts, not only does it reduce transpiration, it is a natural reaction to reduce the amount of energy going to the leaves, and to divert it to other activities such as blooming, fruit production or root growth.  All of those are crucial to the survival of the species, and the plant will instinctively focus on those things when it senses stress.  Wilting is also a natural response in extreme hot and cold temperatures to reduce the amount of wind or light reaching the foliage to prevent desiccation.  More often than not, wilting is sign of healthy developmental activity in stressful situations.  If a plant wilts and is wet do not water it, the plant is just doing what it needs to grow the roots to succeed in life.  Think of it as tough love.

Stunted and shedding leaves can be indications of both positive and negative conditions other than moisture issues.  In the first months and even years after planting, leaves may shed or remain stunted and small to offset the lack of roots lost during transplanting.  Usually after several months or even a year, the same branches with stunted leaves suddenly show what seem like over-sized leaves, often three or four times the size of others. This is an indication that the roots are finally leaving the planting pit, and the plant is beginning to get established.  Burnt edges on deciduous foliage may be the result of a fungus rather than drought, which water will only exasperate.  When evergreens yellow and drop needles in the fall it is often a result of alkaline soil, and they are trying to acidify their own soil.  Watering them if wet will only cause root rot.  Just because you see these things happen it does not mean a plant needs water.  If you see these symptoms and the soil is moist you may need to dig a little deeper to find our what’s wrong.  We’ll have another post about how to do that digging later.

The main thing to remember when watering is the more frequent and less deep you water the more often you will have to water.  The sooner you learn what your plants really the need, the less you will have to give them, and the less they will eventually need. To some extent, your plants can be taught to live with your schedule, and the sooner you teach them to the better off you both will be.  Think of that deep watering you give your plants a couple times this winter as that Sunday afternoon pot roast or chicken and dumplings you make for your family on a cold winter day.  It will keep their little cells warm on those cold winter days, and help built the muscles they need get through the summer ahead.  It is also like the hearty soup that allows them to pull in all those nutrients from the soil below to fight off disease and stress.  Think of watering you plants as caring for someone you love…and they’ll be sure and love you back.  Plants are like people, so don’t treat them like a hardwood floor.

When Americans think of endangered species we rarely think of trees.  We think of birds such as the Ivory-billed Woodpecker or Spotted Owl, or maybe some fragile flower, crustacean or reptile.  Even more familiar to most Americans are the animals that we have hunted and caused the demise of ourselves, such as buffalo, wolves and bears.  All three of those we have tried to right our wrongs and reintroduced into their native habitat.  Hopefully we have made those efforts because it was the right thing to do.  Maybe it is just because we were able to see the damage we had done by no longer being able to reap the rewards of what we were destroying.

As people look at non-hunted species, sometimes they don’t see personal responsibility because they don’t kill them with their own hands.  Sometimes people don’t realize that something else they are reaping may be what is causing the devastation to something that seems unrelated to them.  Groups got really upset when people tried to protect the spotted owl by protecting the forests they inhabit.  The argument what that individuals had a right to profit from the forests, and the trees that gave a home to the owls were needed to make a living.  However while everyone focused on man vs. owl, they missed the forest for the trees.  No one realized that before they were done arguing that debate the trees that provided that habitat would endangered as well, making both the man and the owl lose.  Sometimes we have to realize that just because we have right to do something it isn’t necessarily the right thing to do.

The following is a list of American trees that have lost over 95% of their native habitat and are now considered endangered.  These trees are actually being produced more in commercial production now than they are reproducing in their natural habitat.  I wanted to bring this list to light not just to highlight some amazing trees.  I wanted to highlight how they have gotten to the situation they are in, and the importance every being has to one another when it comes to sustainability.  

Castanaea dentata (American Chestnut):  This tree is one of the most known stories of  eco-catastrophe in our countries history.  The Chestnut was the most coveted of all lumbers in the early part of the 1900’s.  As a result was the clear-cutting of almost all of the Southern Appalachians.  The practices were horrid, and reminiscent of a scene from a slaughter house, but of trees.  Lumber that wasn’t seen as fit to mill was left in place leaving entire mountains looking like salvage yards.  Stumps were left in place, and all of the ground vegetation was smothered under the debris.  Erosion was rampant, and as a result these wastelands became a breeding ground for what would become the Chestnut blight.  Species such as the black bear were almost completely lost, deer populations dissipated, and without the nuts to forage or forest to find protection from hunters Elk eventually disappeared.

Today you can still find a few old growth American Chestnuts hiding away, but for the most part they have disappeared.  They are definitely no longer a force in an ecosystem they once ruled.  You can find sprouts coming up as under growth in poplar/oak forests, but the blight usually sets in once they reach about 2″ in caliper.  This tree was once a staple of the forest.  Its nuts fed almost every creature that roamed the forest floor, including humans.  Today it is just trying to regain a footing.  There are active breeding program at Universities throughout the Southeast trying to develop disease resistant varieties, but for now it remains on the brink. 

Ulmus americana (American Elm):  In the first half of the 1900’s this tree was the most common street tree in the United States.  It’s arching branches formed cathedral ceilings over almost every street in every city.  It become an icon of American urbanism and the America Beautiful movement.  It fell victim not to greed of harvesting, or destruction of its environment, because this tree grew anywhere.  Rather it fell victim to careless breeding and commercialization that weakened the species.  While Chinese and European varieties were being imported for breeding to create fancy bark or brighter fall color, no one realized that they were weakening the species and importing a deadly disease that would bring the native species to its knees. 

Today, on very rare occasions you will find an old native specimen, but almost always it will be diseased.  For the most part this species is kept going in nurseries where young shoots are maintained as seed stock only to be hybridized with other varieties.  Many of these hybridized varieties are wonderful and are contributing to the urban landscape in a positive way.  Still, long lost, or at least hiding like a hermit in the remote corners of woods, is the majestic tree that once symbolized the industrial revolution, and the America Beautiful movement.

Pinus palustris (Longleaf Pine / Southern Yellow Pine):  The Longleaf pine was on of the signature trees of Southeast coastal regions.  This tree is very unique in that for the first eight years of its life it grows like a fireproof grass with no trunk elongation.   Then it shoots up and it sensitive to burns, but once it reaches about 10′ it becomes fire proof again and soars to heights of up to 100′.  This burning process is crucial to its reproduction and the culling of healthy forests.  The lush wild look this process creates was the image that was burned into the minds of explorers when the new world was being discovered.  The unique habit created by the juvenile plants provide habitat to all sorts of foul and wildlife and as their habitat has become endangered so have some of them.  Red-cockaded woodpeckers and indigo snakes are most at risk, but tourtouses are in line right behind them.

The fate of this tree has been doomed by two demands.  First and foremost the lumber industry.  Only a small percentage of these trees make it from the grass stage, which is most prevalent, to the full grown tree form and mature species have been harvested at an unsustainable rate.  Secondly it has suffered from development.  Its native habitat starts at the first dry ground rising from coastal marshes and rises up to about 600′ in elevation.  These are the prime development lands in coastal areas and as a result the first habitat taken to build homes and resorts.  What is not built is often cleared for agriculture.   The development has also led to fire control, and disrupted the natural growth and reproductive cycles of the species.  One final negative effect on the ecosystem is that these habitats were the primary riparian buffer for water coming off of the Southern Appalachian and Ozark mountains.  Along with their removal came the disappearance of lower level cold water streams, the silting and swamping of what were once fast moving rivers, and a host of other problems.

Quercus virginiana (Southern Live Oak):  Yes, this tree is the one we have embedded in our heads from movies like Gone With the Wind, and every other great southern movie or novel.  As we see them in all the urban settings and plantation gardens you would not think something this majestic could be in any sort of danger.  The Spanish soss and fern growing on its branches make it look as thought this species is drooping from the weight or its virility.  However, in its native habitat it is almost gone.  The boggy soil and forests of the deltas where it thrived have mostly been drained for drilling, sugar cane, and development.  These trees made up the buffers that used to protect New Orleans from the onslaught of hurricanes.  There ability to be uprooted and fall apart but continue to grow in the loamy soil that was once its home was the constant stability that held the delta together.  Now their native habitat is down to a few remaining national and state controlled forests.  Of course other species have been impacted, but the most famous impact was the damage from Katrina that was exasperated without the natural buffers these trees created to protect it.

Tsuga hetrophylla (Western Hemlock) & Tsuga caroliniana (Carolina Hemlock):  Both of these trees have suffered similar fates.  Both are the victims of over logging.  Unfortunately both were thought to be invincible as they grew like the Red Cedars of the Midwest on either coast.  In the East the Carolina Hemlock was hardly ever used for lumber,  They were usually casualties of careless Chestnut and Oak harvest and turned into pulp or used for fuel.  By the time the species was decimated people had realized it was a beautiful lumber and turned to the bountiful west coast for the Western Hemlock in its place.  Neither were able to come back as fast as they were being harvested and as a result the faster growing Tsuga canadensis (Canadian Hemlock) and various Pines have taken their respective places.

This has greatly changed the ecosystem of the forests elimating wildflowers and other shade tolerant plants that don’t tolerate the heavier shade of the pines.  Also, these native varieties could fully develop as smaller sized trees in the shade of canopy trees.  Whereas the Canadian Hemlock can grow in the shade but is naturally inclined to become more of a canopy tree.  The Canadian version is also more prone to the woolly adelgid do to the flat placement of the needles compared to the rounder needle placement of the native varieties.  Now the adelgid has set in, the Canadian Hemlock is dying at rates comparable to those of the Chestnut blight casualties.  This has forever changed the ecosystem of all the warmer climate mountain forests where the adelgid thrives.  Since the Hemlock also likes moist soils its decline is also increasing the light on mountain streams destroying native trout and salmonid habitat. 

Picea sitchensis(Sitka Spruce):  Another victim of logging, this species is also succumbing to the woolly adelgid.  One of the more tragic consequences of this parable is that this tree is the home to the endangered Spotted Owl.  When the fight over protecting the owl versus the right to harvest came to a head the harvest rate increased dramatically as it turned into a race to see how much people could harvest as while they still could.  As timber containing adelgid infested lumber moves up and down the highways it just spreads it even more.   In the end both the owl and the loggers are losing out as they are losing the tree they both covet so much.

Thuja plicata Western Red Cedar:  This tree has been devastated in its native habitat due to logging for pulp.  However, it is thriving and making a surge in cultivation.  As the Hemlocks and Junipers used in landscapes have become  more problematic and disease prone, this tree grows with relative ease.  It struggles to outpace the pines that are moving into the native habitat because the Pines grow larger and shade them out.  While in the landscape people are finding this to be a great native alternative to give the feel of a Canadian Hemlock without the adelgids or chemicals to keep the bugs at bay.  However do to massive logging its natural disbursement patterns have been disrupted permanently and it may never be able to reestablish itself against the more aggressive species taking it’s place.

These trees are just a few that are becoming more and more endangered everyday.  These trees I have chosen mainly because they have been in some way symbolic of American culture, have been a crucial part of the fabric of our forests, and have helped to convey the essence of the places we call home.  The point of this article isn’t just to create awareness of a few trees, but also to make us realize that everything we do effects far more than us.  As humans we have a capability that other species don’t:  to make a conscious decision regarding an other’s fate.

The causes and the impacts I have discussed in this post are far from all that has contributed to or been a consequence of these changes.  However with the ability to determine another being’s fate also comes the moral responsibility to do what is right for everyone and everything, not just ourselves.  Also comes a responsibility to learn as much about the situations, plants, and creatures whose existence we can alter before we make an impact.  Everyone makes mistakes unknowingly, but what determines the greatness of society or individual is how they use their abilities to correct or make amends for those mistakes and how what they use what they have learned moving forward.  Hopefully this will create another ripple in that pool of awareness that we can all pass on.

It was another beautiful fall morning in the Southern Appalachians, and as I was driving my daughter to school I couldn’t help but be overwhelmed by the clouds in the valleys, the orange hue of fall on the mountains and the vivid colors that were taking over the roadsides.   Escaping in all of natures beauty was perfect for taking my mind off the Radio Disney that was poisoning my ears.  However, just as the Radio Disney was creeping in and squeezing my brain like a vice, those colors on the roadsides did as well.  All of the sudden I realized I was missing the beautiful tones of the White Oaks and Sourwoods against the Hemlocks for the bright red of the Burning Bush against the Honesuckle and Maiden Grass.  As for that beautiful American Holly, I couldn’t even tell what it was for the Wisteria and English Ivy that had taken it over.  By the time I was headed back to the house, what started out as a beautiful relaxing drive was grinding me just as much as that Radio Disney even though I had put on Abbey Road.

That brings me to this.  It always amazes me how as designers and gardeners we are always looking for the next best thing and failing to recognize and reveal the essence of the environment we are in.  In our desire to make our space more perfect, some of the greatest damage to our environment has been done by some of the greatest minds our industry has known.  Here is Asheville the Oriental Bittersweet, Japanese Wisteria, Tree of Heaven, and English Ivy that are taking over our national parks were all the gifts of Frederick Law Olmstead.  In Kansas City it was Arnold’s Red Honeysuckle that George Kessler brought us with America Beautifulc movement.  All of these people have good intentions, but in todays world we can find the information we need to plant responsibly and still have plenty of great options from a  design standpoint.

There are thousands of invasive plants out there, both exotic and native that when taken out of their native habitat can do incredible harm to the environment.  This list is limited to the ten that I see most commonly used and pushed by the horticulture industry.  These are plants that are known to be doing damage to our native habitat and continue to be sold every day.  Why do they do it?  Because of demand from customers (hobbiests and professionals) that don’t know better, existing inventories (that keep getting replenished) and the ease of growing these plant in production and in one’s yard.  When I set out to create Botany Buddy one of my goals was to get this information out, and not only make it accessible, but make available in your pocket at any time.  This list is a fraction of the information consumers need but these plants account for a huge amount of the damage being done.

Ten Commonly Planted Invasive Woody Plants

Burning Bush / Euonymous alatus  This is one of the most popular fall color shrubs in production.  It’s vivid red fall color gives it the name.  It is tolerant of drought, ignorant pruning with gas shears extreme cold and keeps on growing.  As a result it has become a favorite in commercial landscapes and roadside plantings.  In zones 6 and up, the little red berry it gets is extremely viable and is spread by the birds that eat it.  Typically a simple hedge planting in the wrong location can spread to a radius of one mile within ten years.  The native plants they displace include Mountain Laurel, Rhododendron, and Hydrangea.  Which would you rather have?

Bradford Pear / Pyrus calleryana  I can remember when this plant came out in the 80’s and was marketed as “America’s Most Poplular Tree” for the fall color, spring flower, nice tight shape, hardiness, and its fruitlessness.  Besides being prone to ice and wind damage due to that “desireable” branching habit, this tree turned out to be anything but fruitless.  The small crabapple sized berries are a favorite of birds and so is its branching habit.  As a result these can now be found in pastures and waterways throughout zones 6 and up.  Even worse in waterways they are replacing canopy producing trees and raising water temperatures which hurts species such as the Southern Appalachian Brook Trout.

Japanese Wisteria / Wisteria floribunda  Introduced as a favorite for Japanese gardens, its agreesive vining habit will take over anywhere zone 5 and below if left unattended.  It can reproduce by rooting if the brances touch the ground, and in zones 7 and up has vibable seeds.  It is commonly found in Eastern forests along the Blue Ridge  Parkway at elevations between 2500 and 4000 feet.  The populations are highest around cities and especially the Biltmore Estate.  While the flowers are beautiful with the Dogwoods they can girdle and kill any tree they wrap around.  There is a native variety that is finally making it into production.

Japanese Spirea / Spiraea japonica  ‘Norman’ or ‘Anthony Waterer’ is the variety that is the main culpret as it spreads by root as well as seed.  There are many varieties that are supposedly not invasive.  However, all of them have the ability to revert and spread by seed.  One positive is that it is not a favorite of birds becasue the seed is so small.  It has to fall and touch the ground to germinate so some of those parking lot plantings might not be doing as much damage as we think.  If it does escape.  One single stem of this plant can flower and germinate into a colony ten feet wide two years.  This plant is destroying our native wildflowers throughout the Southeast.

Japanese Barberry / Berberis thunbergii  This plant is most commonly planted at your local McDonalds due to its attractiveness with the golden arches.  It is just an invasive as the chain in zones five and up and is as bad for the environment as their food is for you.  The plant aesthetically is probably as numbing to your palet as their food is to your culinary sophistication.  The beautiful red berry entices the birds like a toy in a Happy Meal entices my child.  The red leaves hypnotize the plant’s buyers from a distance like the arches that can be seen from a mile away.  As a result this plant litters our forests like McDonalds’ wrappers do our cities.

Empress Tree / Paulownia tomentosa This plant is not commony found in nurseries, but it is pushed by many major seed catalogs for its ability to grow ten feet a year.  I would think that would tell you something in itself, but people want instant results and that pretty purple flower in May and June.  The tree has nice leaves and a habit like a Catalpa, but most of the year its appearance is cluttered by the seed pods that will spread anywhere they can find soil and light.  This is one of the few invasive trees that wasn’t brought here for planting.  Instead, before there were packing peanuts there were Paulownia!  Before there was styrofoam the seed pods of this plant were used in wooded crates from Asia as packing peanuts, and the trees can now be found along all of the railways throughout the United States.  Unfortunately one of the first places those rails went was our national parks.

English Ivy/ Hedera helix  What would a formal garden be without it?  It would be a lot more interesting and a lot more sustainable.  It is defnitely time to give this plant a rest.  It should really only be used in the concrete jungle and even then limited.  There are many more intersting alternatives live Pachysandra or an all out perennial bed.  This vine spreads by root and can climb in the forest greatly weakending larger trees if not contained.  When allowed to reach heights of 20 and 30 feet it will often start to seed and spread even more.  I haven’t used this plant in over five years, and to be honest with you, my designs, clients, and environment are far better off for it.

Butterfly Bush / Buddleia davidii  This plant is finally starting to make people’s radar as an invasive.  It is one of those that has exploded in variety and popularity over the last fifteen years.  It is still new enough the effects are just starting to take root.  However, in all zones, if these seed falls into a wetland or moist area and gets temperatures above seventy degrees for over a couple weeks, it will germiante and spread.  It is most commonly a problem in warmer mountain and piedmont areas thought the US where moisture running off the mountains provides just this environment.  The seed is a favorite of finches so they move the seed form the plant to summer wilflower patches that share ideal growing conditions.

Scotch Broom / Cytisus scoparius  This plant is to the West and coastal areas what Japanese Spirea is to the rest of the country.  It has naturalized throughout most of the West Coast.  The low growing bushy habit takes out everything in its way, and it has beautiful flowers and evergreen foliage to boot!  This makes it a favorite of growers.  There are hundreds of varieties in production, and the tollerance to drought and long bloom time make it a favorite of retailers.  As for all those little California and coastal wildflowers look out!  This one is eating them all up.

Norway Maple / Acer platanoides  This is probably the most planted invasive tree, but most unknown to be invasive.  This plant had been quietly taking over Poplar forests for the last hundred years.  Poplar being fast growing, straight  and light is now the most popular trim lumber.  It is often selectively harvested leaving just enough light for the seeds of the Norway Maple to germinate and establish quickly.  With yellow fall color like a Poplar’s, from a distance youwould never know the forest had changed, but the natural progression of the forest has.  As the Poplars get older, weaker ones are supposed to fall and thin over time allowing room for grand Oaks to establish along with the legacy surviors.  However, the  fast wide growing maples stunt the forest progression  making 100 year old forests look like they are only thirty years old.

This is just a start and I could go on forever, but these are the ones that I see go out on trucks every day and find hiking in nature every day.  Some people take it personally against invasives and think of the plants as “Evil” or “Bad”.  A wise 90 year old piano teacher once told me…”A weed is nothing more than a flower in the wrong place at the wrong time.”  What we have to remember is that the weed didn’t put itself there.  Either we did, or we created the conditions for it to get there.  There is no greater pervention to the spread of invasive plants than knowledge and education, and both of those are far cheaper than trying to repair the damage that they do.

All of the plants in this profile can be found in Botany Buddy’s Tree and Shrub Finder, along with more photos and information including the native habitats, native ranges, and  cutural information.  Botany Buddy currently profiles 1300 trees and shrubs and our library is constantly growing to bring you the valuable information like this that you need.

Get to the root of the issues!

There are two main things to consider when choosing a plant to purchase. First, choosing the right plant for the right spot, and second selecting a quality plant to buy. As for choosing the right plant for the spot, there’s an app for that!  Botany Buddy’s tree and shrub finder was designed specifically for this purpose. As for choosing a quality plant to purchase, this post for that.

Trees and shrubs come packaged for sale in three main forms: containerized, balled and burlapped and bare root.  The best of these to buy will depend on what you are using them for. Containerized trees and shrubs are ideal for planting in prepared beds, individual holes in the ground, or in pots. Balled and burlapped plants are best when planting in beds, or individual holes in the grounds, but do not do as well in containers.  Bare root plants do best in pots or directly in unprepared ground. Larger bare root plants (shrubs over 6″ tall or trees over 12″ tall) perform best if planted in pots in the spring and allowed to root out before planting into the ground later in the season.

There are several factors to look at when choosing a plant to purchase depending on the packaging.

1.) Bare root plants can never be allowed to have the roots dry out. Healthy bare root plants will have small white fibrous roots it they have been properly cared for. If they have dried out they may be brown but still be viable. This can be determined by scratching the root to see if it is green or white underneath. If it is, pruning them back by 20% and immediatelysoaking them in water and root stimulator (Vitamin B1) can cause the roots to sprout new growth. If the roots are dry and brittle or soft and smooshy don’t buy the plant.  The roots are probablydead.

It is also important that bare root plants have an equal or greater amount of root growth than plant growth.  Pruning back the top can solve this but it not done correctly may hurt the plant’s eventual shape and removes valuable nutrients stored in the bark that can be used for establishment.

2.) Container plants should never be allowed to dry out. Whenever purchasing a containerized plant, remove the pot and inspect the roots. The rules on healthy roots are the same as for bare roots. If the plants have small white fibrous roots they have been properly cared for. If they have dried out they may be brown but still be viable. Just scratch the root to see if it is green or white underneath.  If it is, score the roots and rough up the ball when planting.  With immediate watering they can be caused to resprout.  However it typically takes an entire growing season for the roots to get back to a really healthy state.  This can greatly affect survival and slow down growth.  The energy stored in the branches of a plant can keep it look completely healthy for an entire season even if the root system is dead.  This is why you should always inspect the roots.

There are also signs to look for that you should completely avoid. Some plants may have been left in a pot so long that the roots will have girdled themselves. They will have circled around the pot so many times that they are strangling themselves and will eventually cut off their own circulation.  Another symptom of being in a pot too long is that the plant may have used all the soil in the the pot and be nothing but a mass of roots.  They can still be kept alive in the pot with daily watering and regular fertilizing, but once planted it creates an air pocket that eventually causes the plant to dry and freeze out over winter.  If the pot is big but fells surprisingly light, or blows over in the nursery with just the slightest breeze this is probably the case.  This makes them easy to spot from a distance.  These roots are a little tight, but healthy!

Finally, the plant needs to have enough root mass to support the plant. A plant should have ten inches diameter of pot for every 12” of height on top. On trees, they should have 20” diameter of root for the first caliper inch of truck, and 10” for every inch of trunk after. If an evergreen is grown in a pot, the width of the foliage and branches should not be more than 50% wider than the width of the pot. It is acceptable for a plant to have been pruned back to stay in a pot and can be benefitial to the long term habit of the plant, as long as the roots have not out grown the pot.

3.) Balling and burlapping plants is typically reserved for very large shrubs, over 24” in evergreens and 36” in deciduous plants, or for trees. Very rarely are plants bug by hand in the field due to labor costs.  As mechanical digging has grown in popularity, so have the problems associated with it.  As a result it is recommended that if all possible you hire the person selling the plant to install it with a warranty on both the plant and the labor.  I would never buy balled and burlapped material from a mass retailer that doesn’t specialize in plants.

Healthy balled and burlapped plants will have been dug when the soil is moist but not soggy. They are typically grown in soil with a little clay to help hold the ball together, and will be wrapped in natural fiber and bound with biodegradable twine. Balled and Burlapped plants should always be shipped within 24 hours of being dug and immediately covered in mulch or gravel, and watered upon receiving. The roots or outer edge of soil should never be allowed to dry out. Once they have, it can take over a year for active root growth to resume. Any time roots can be seen emerging from the burlap into the surrounding mulch you can be assured the root system is healthy and has been well cared for.

These balls are actually a little small.

There are a few things to always look out for when selecting a balled and burlapped plant. Never buy a plant that has a mushy or crumbly ball.  Most likely the roots have been broken apart. Balls that are dry and hard with no sign of new root growth emerging from the fabric are probably not viable no matter how good the top looks. When the ball is lifted from the ground, if the bottom falls out or the burlap sags like a wet diaper, the plant has been sitting in water for a prolonged period of time and the bottom has rotted out.  At the top of the ball there should be a string encircling the trunk of the tree or base of the shrub. If this sting has cut into the bark, or the bark has grown around it, the plant has probably been girdled and will most likely suffer or die. Finally, many nurseries will rewrap the ball with fresh burlap if a plant has set on the lot too long. If the plant looks like it has been on the lot awhile, but the ball does not, don’t be afraid to look under the burlap to see what is underneath.

Sizing the root mass compared to the top.

There are a few standards that should be met regarding the size of the ball. The size of the ball needs to be proportionate to the top of the plant depending on what type of plant it is. Also when selecting a tree, it is best if the ball is large enough to support the top without need for staking.  Some good standard ratios for ball size are detailed below.  These numbers are based upon ANLA standards, and adjusted for the reality of current digging equipment and techniques.  The are also chosen to make sure you get the best stock, not the minimum standard.

Coniferous and Evergreen Trees 18″ of ball for the 1st 3′ of height and 10” of ball for each additional 1′ of height.

Coniferous or Evergreen Shrubs 10” of ball for the 1st 1′ of width, and 6” of ball for each additional 1′ of width.

Deciduous Trees 18” of ball for the 1st caliper inch of trunk and 10” of ball for each additional caliper inch of trunk.

Deciduous Shrubs 12” of ball for the 1st 1′ of height and 12” of ball for each additional 1′ of height.

Broadleaf Evergreen Trees 18” of ball for the 1st caliper inch of trunk and 10” of ball for each additional caliper inch of trunk.

Broadleaf Evergreen Shrubs 12” of ball for the 1st caliper inch of trunk and 6″ of ball for each additional foot of height.

Balled and burlapped plants are always best handled by experienced gardeners or professionals.

There are many more things to take into consideration when selecting plants such as the branching structure, disease, the shape, and variety, but the most important thing to the health of the plant is the roots.  We will bring you more on pruning and shape later, but when buying at tree or shrub they almost all have pruning issues.  Mainly becasue the are being pruned to grow roots, fit in a retail space, and sell…not Grow!  That topic needs its own post. 

As for disease and insects, those are common as well in nurseries.  However, on deciduous trees, as long as the damage is limited to leaves it won’t matter.  They will fall off in the fall, and you really don’t want much growth in the first year.  So if the plant has a nice shape and is green some spots on the leaves won’t hurt.  As for evergreens, if it has an orangish or brown cast avoid it.  There are probably mites in there!  Evergreens with a determinate growth rate cannot grow from old wood if it the loose branches, so be sure the plant is healthy.  However, if nurseries killed everything that got on their plants they would probably killing you too. So if you see a tree that doesn’t have scarred up bark, and broken branches everywhere, but has a few spots on the leaves, as long as it has the root system and has been handled as described above you should be successful.     

The bottom line is if you want to be successful you have to dig a little deeper and get to the root of things.  As long as you water a plant well and keep it wet until you get it in the ground you should be succesful if you start with a healthy plant.  Have you ever wondered why retailers guarantee plants?  It is because they know if you get it home, it has a better chance of  surviving than if it stays with them. 

Next Weeks Blogs…Planting and Watering: Learn how to keep things alive and make them thrive!