It’s mid-October and I saw some very sweet things at a friend’s garden on Crane Road in Ypsilanti yesterday. For me one of the most striking plants was this unusual brightly-colored shrub. It is Lindera angustifolia, an Asian counterpart to our native spicebush (L. benzoin).  The grower was very fond of this plant and said […]

We have a hot tub behind out house. We have mixed feelings about it because of its carbon footprint, and now use it only in spring and fall. But whatever . . it’s a super habitat for tree frogs. There are invariably four or five of them keeping warm under the cover. The interesting thing […]

Not only do they look like cherries, when the fruit of Cornus mas are soft, they even taste like cherries. Three specimens in a line on the west side of town were so laden with fruit yesterday that the branches were close to breaking. Usually (in my limited experience) this species produces fruit only sparingly. […]

GreenStreet Tree Care has been trimming trees around the North Campus housing units at Northwoods I, II and III, so I’ve gotten to know the greenery around there a bit. The original landscape architect obviously had an affection for choice but underutilized woody materials. Quite a few katuras, yellow-woods, tupelos and the odd species of […]

Let’s start with a remarkable sassafras on Pomona a block or so off Miller in Ann Arbor. Horizontal limbs are propped up at several locations. I don’t think the genetics of Sassafras albidum prepared it for an existence on this suburban street. What a beautiful landmark! From the sassafras, we can move on to a […]

I once grew a nice specimen of swiss stone pine (Pinus cembra). It’s a five-needle white pine of European origin, and it grows at a much more modest rate than our native Eastern white pine. Given that my specimen was likely one in only a very small number in my end of Washtenaw County, it […]

Lysimachia is genus of vigorous yellow-flowered plants, a fair number native to Michigan, and a small number common as garden specimens. They are called loosestrifes, but are unrelated to purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria). I believe it is illegal to import seed or other plant materials of this genus. Like I said, they are vigorous. Moneywort […]

I don’t know about you all, but when the temperature regularly exceeds 100 degrees, and it hasn’t rained in a millennium, and the water-well breaks down, I stop with the gardening. About the only thing I’ve done in the last two or three weeks is triage on some of those woody plants whose leaves are […]

These are among my favorites. I love the summer alliums that open up like a display of fireworks. They are easy from seed. If they like the site, they will reproduce prolifically. First up is Allium flavum, from southern Europe. It is a plant that is readily available through seed exchanges, and numerous dwarf forms […]

There are many young ash trees growing in woodlots and along fence rows in our area. There is also a small number of mature white ash trees that survived the original onslaught of the emerald ash borer. This spring I saw an enormous specimen off Maple Rd within city limits that was greater than three-feet […]