tunamelt,

Ahh, yes, the oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia), one of my absolute favorite plants and fairly underused, also. The leaves and form are nice, the blood-red fall color is outstanding, flowers are great, and it looks good in the winter with the exfoliating bark (especially when planted in front of a tall dark evergreen). It kind of has it all.

It needs lots of space, so don't crowd them in too much.

This 120' sucker is right by my apt. It's actually a historical landmark.

Moreton Bay Fig trunks are the best. LA wouldn't be LA without them. I know where I'm living once I go bankrupt:

I hear you on the scent tunamelt, but being a visual person I look at the lilac I adopted when I bought my house with disdain most of the year. I also have a few clematis montanas that I adopted. They have a beautiful scent, look good, and provided great screening from your neighbors. That said, I would get a less vigorous and less pedestrian clematis if I had the choice.

me likes the oakleaf hydrangeas too. with hydrangeas in general, i prefer lacecaps to hortensias.

Ahhh the Banyan Tree. Love those suckers too. There's one in Old Lahaina on Maui that literally takes up the whole block way cool.

Garpike - Are both photos of a Moreton Bay Fig? That first photo is impressive

e - I have a clematis, but it didn't do too well this summer. After doing some research I got concerned it might be due to a magnesium deficiency. Stole some of my mom's compost (as I haven't started my own yet) am hoping this replenishes some much needed nutrients. The prior owners didn't know anything about gardening and so I've got some work on my hands.

mdler - I live five blocks from your Aama mater, between Straight Street and McMillan.

too easy!

Erre I meant to werite alma mater. Oopsy

you mean oopsy daisy.

{ image deleted }

RAE - based on the old map I live in a Zone 6 region. Do you know off hand the hardiness of ghost plant and Aloe marlothii? You've got me intrigued.

Oh and also, does anyone know if the new Climate/Hardiness Map has come out yet? A new one was supposed to come out this year but I haven't heard anything. Anyone, anyone?

Okay last image from me for the evening, seriously.



The river birch tree. The bark is absolutely gorgeous. I am lucky enough to have one living beside my deck. I like to sit and admire it sometimes.

errr Poczatek... that's a fairly disturbing daisy. i think it needs watering

it's an oopsy daisy

Uh oh. Um, Poczatek, you see something different than the rest of us. Trust me, this has happened to me before. You have an anti-hotlink image.

And it's gross.

don't need a new hardiness map, every zone shifted north by one. so the old zone six is already a zone seven, zone 4 where I live is now zone 5... in the mountains, the treeline has moved up at least 1000 feet, so in the desert southwest, many alpine plants/animals are going extinct cause its so hot at the tops of the mountains...

That reminds me. No more images.

WHAT! I posted a pic of a friggin daisy...and that's what I see even if I log-out...seriously...what are you talking about?

Oh my god...I see it now - that's messed up. I would never post that. It was a harmless photo of a daisy. Why someone would be so damn protective of it is another mystery. Paul? Can you delete it?

TK - You're kidding me right? I knew about the whole mountain plant issue, but I had no idea there was that great of a shift in the zones. I figured some areas would change just slightly. That's probably the most disturbing thing I've heard all day. F***ing Global Warming.

Seriously though, that "daisy" photo is really gross, is there anything that can be done?

Tubgirl attacks archinect! LULZ!!!111!1

tm seriously... this climate shift has been in the making for at least 15 years and most apparent in the northern latitudes. Most parts of the country now have at least 1 month more growing season with the average last frost/average first frost each shifting by at least 2 weeks. Its great for the northern states with increased farm production - but we're loosing our sugar maples and other boreal trees that can't take the warmer summers or need the cold to kill their pests.

send paul an email about removing that image. I still don't understand the problem with hot linking - its not like most sites are hosting themselves off of a dsl or dial up line or are they?

TK - I knew there was a shift, I just didn't realize it was that dramatic. Yeah, the whole sugar maple issue makes me sad, I remember hearing about that on NPR :-(

Unbelievable. So what is a more reprehensible act...finding an image of a daisy through Google Image Search and inadvertently "Hotlinking" it, thus "Stealing Bandwidth"....OR....disseminating indecent (and in many places illegal) scat porn without warning? The "owner" of the image and whoever provides their redirecting software is a criminal. I am taking this right to the top at google, because a simple "X" would serve this purpose more than the offensive image here. Unacceptable. There are no "Hotlinking" caveats in my google browser. A perfectly good thread, ruined.

Poczatek - I just emailed Paul, I'm hoping the image can be removed.

My favourite plants at the moment are Gardenias, Magnolias, and Tulip trees. The Tulip trees were my favourite thing about Philadelphia. Can I grow a large one here in North East Texas? Anybody know?

Sarah, you should be able to. Tuliptree grows clear down to Central Florida. It does perform better in a more mesic environment like near bottomlands and creeks, but it will take drier conditions as well.


Daniel

mesic = moist & damp
xeric = dry

just some landscape urbanism vocabulary of the day.

i thought tuliptree was a "mesic" riverflood plain tree. i doubt it is native or would work in "xeric" texas. am i wrong?

Is there a native plant you can think of that would look similar to the Tulip tree? I like the larger than life flowers that are on it, so if there is a tree that is indigenous to Texas that meets that, I could swing that way.

i'll defer to the landscape architects. i bet there are ornamentals that would be similar, but i don't think the tuliptree would grow natively in texas.

jafidler,

East Texas is not much different then the rest of the Southeast U.S. The ecotypes start to change and get drier about 100 miles east of Dallas/Ft. Worth.

Sarah,

Cottonwood (Populus deltoides) might be a good substitute, just in case. It is one of my favorite shade trees with those silvery leaf undersides and striking bark patterns. It also get good yellow fall color.

http://oregonstate.edu/dept/ldplants/images/pode506.jpg

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/factsheets/trees-new/images/populus_deltoides.jpg

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/factsheets/trees-new/images/populus_deltoides3.jpg

When you said NE Texas, I was thinking near Arkansas, no?

well, we have high humidity, and when there isnt a drought, it rains through most of the winter months, november, december, january and february. Dallas has expansive clay, and at my house its black, if that makes a difference I dont know. I know that magnolias and gardenias do well in the area, but I dont know if they are 'mesic' or 'xeric.'

I have also seen Tuliptree used as a street tree and seen it growing on hills and knolls, so it is not mesic-obligate.

Danial, you are my new favourite person on Archinect. You seem very patient and helpful.

here's a nifty little site with tuliptree facts. it's not native to texas, but cultivars may grow there.

Here's one of my recent favorite ornamental grasses:

http://museum.utep.edu/chih/plantimage4/muhlenbergiacapillaris1.jpg

http://museum.utep.edu/chih/plantimage4/muhlenbergiacapillaris2.jpg

http://museum.utep.edu/chih/plantimage4/muhlenbergiacapillaris.jpg

Muhlygrass (Muhlenbergia capillaris). It is a native grass. It gets a bit overused in Central Florida, and I think it gets spec'd a lot in Texas as well, but it is sparsely used elsewhere. I have heard of it growing in the Memphis Botanic Gardens and Longwood Gardens in PA.

BTW, how do I get hot-linked photo's to show up in the post?


Daniel, RLA

Regarding Tuliptree,

Per Dr. Ed Gilman, Horticulture department at the University of Florida:

http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/trees/LIRTULA.pdf

quinoa?

Daniel-
Look at the bottom of the page. Below the "Post of Response" area. The directions are in gray for posting both articles and images. Can't wait to take a look at those links you gave. Unfortunately I gotta get back to work as I an dead smack in the middle of a busy project :-/ The tuliptree intrigues me. I take it does well in south western Ohio as it seems to be the Indiana state tree?

Daniel, thanks for that tip. I saw it used during a plant class in Palm Desert, when the sun was low and backlit the plant. Magical.

tunamelt, sharkey goes down to zone 9, and ghost plant shivers at 7. (It seems Dave's Garden is becoming a beloved web resource, though I still regularly worship San Marcos.)

Okay, my turn. There's an empty lot on Pico Blvd. in Century City west of Beverwil Drive with a type of grass planted on it. Well kept. I'll try linking an image next, but if it doesn't work, pardon my French:

Anyone know? I dunno, you know.

We have spots of that grass in illinois...the deer like to lay in it and you can tell where they've been - I want to know, too!

So that flower I posted way back is called a Jewelweed or a "touch-me-not." When you brush against one of its ripe seed pods it explodes and scatters the seeds in an impressive fashion. That's what I'm all about, propagation through explosion.

Hmmm, sounds like a weed to me.

Recovering Automotive Enthusiast,

My guess is tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea).


Daniel, RLA

Isn't jewelweed a natural soother of poison ivy? Or am I thinking of something else? Whichever plant it is I was thinking of planting it in my yard, as I'm very allergic to it and have it growing in my yard.

Is there a way to actually plant moss as a ground cover. I'm looking for something to substitute grass that grows very close to the grown and is low maintenance. My first thought was something moss-like.

RAE- that's a cool photo. I wonder if the look is partly accomplished by sculpting the ground below

FOG Lite, that was a stumper. The source of your image seems like a great site.
Poczatek, I took that picture during the Great L.A. Walk the weekend before sharksgiving, walking from downtown to the beach. This field happened around mile 10, and some of the walkers (I guess after seeing nothing but concrete for 10 miles), were caught prancing around joyously here. (I swear, this is not representative of people in L.A. We're actually all on our cell phones.)

mondo 'monkey' grass has a great mounding form, is low maintenance, and can take some abuse/walking... mostly zones 6-9






moss is high maintenance and very fragile...


there are some 'no mow' grasses being developed.

Ok, now I'm confused. The link says the Tulip tree flowers are green/yellow. The tree I was told in Philadelphia was a tulip tree had large pink/white flowers/petals. Is it not a tulip tree? I can't for the life of me remember what it looked like when it wasnt blooming. But in the spring, it was all flower, no leaves, and then they would fall to the ground and make a huge mess.

And yes, the Muhly grass is planted extensively around our highways and over passes.

Sarah,

Sounds to me like a saucer magnolia (Magnolia soulangiana). A white version is the yulan magnolia (Magnolia heptapeta).

Definately NOT a tuliptree- which is a big canopy tree.


Daniel, RLA

Thank you, Daniel, I think that's it. tunamelt, it was flat, and it seemed like the clumps were spaced three feet apart. I think they also used this under the bridge of the Art Center in Pasadena for slope erosion.
mdlr, that's a great eucalyptus. I've heard architect's like E. citriodora because it grows fast and doesn't draw attention away from the building. But I could see your's around that handsome brown wall of the new MarmolRadziner in Echo Park.

i believe you're thinking of a magnolia, sarah. same family, different genus. magnolia's are far more common than tulip tree, and i believe are hardier. they are commonly planted as ornamentals, tulip tree not so much.