Flowering Dogwoods and Redbuds

 

Young Redbud

 

I love this time of year!  The flowering trees and the chartreuse leaf buds make the landscape look so vibrant.  Whose garden can hold a candle to Mother Nature’s design?  Most of us aspire to recreate that jaw dropping mass of color so prevalent in the natural landscape this time of year.  It would take a lot of perennials to match what our small flowering trees provide in terms of color impact.  I admit, I have a soft spot for dogwoods and redbuds.

 

Pink Flowering Dogwood





The purple flowering trees we are seeing in the landscape this time of year are Eastern Redbuds, Cercis canadensis (top photo).  However, there are non native Chinese Redbuds as well.  They get gorgeous purple flowers before the heart shaped leaf emerges, then turn golden yellow for fall.  Redbuds are in the Leguminosae (pea) family.  Plants in the legume family have nitrogen fixing properties so they improve your soil.   But even better, the flowers of the Eastern Redbud are edible (and make a great addition to salads), and the fruit, which resembles a pea pod, can be cooked and eaten when young and tender.  You get flowers, shade, soil improvement, edible pods, and fall color all wrapped into one!  What more could you ask for?  Oh, you want them to be hardy too?  Got it!

 

Flowering Dogwood



The white to pink flowering trees we see this time of year are dogwoods (pictured above).  There are native and non native varieties.  Our native Flowering Dogwood, Cornus florida, provides flowers this time of year before leaves emerge.  The flowers (petals are actually showy bracts), start out pink then turn to white, providing an interesting color gradient that seems to change daily (photo above).  There are many cultivars including varieties that have pink (middle picture) or yellow flowers.  The dogwood berries are loved by the birds and the fall color is burgundy red.  Dogwoods prefer moist, well-drained acid soil and a site that is shaded part of the day, although they can tolerate a wider range of conditions.  They can be susceptible to anthracnose if they aren’t healthy, so Redbud is a better choice if you can’t provide the habitat the dogwood prefers.  But if you have the space and the right conditions, why not grow both?         

Native Bees

Native Bees 

 

 

As I drive to the nursery, I look at all the homes nestled into farmland, each property like a unique piece of fabric in the landscape quilt.   The day progresses and I find myself talking to a gardener about planting flowers amongst their tomato plants to increase fruit yield or explaining why clover in the lawn is actually a good thing.  I drive to my consultation and I am helping a homeowner decide whether or not to clear out those “wild” areas along the fencerows near the farmers’ field and what to do with the vast amount of acreage that is lawn.   

 

 

Thanks to the media focus on Colony Collapse Disorder, most of us know the role that honeybees play in sustaining our food source.  But fewer people are aware of the fact that native bees are also important pollinators for crops. The honeybee, which is a non-native European bee, is essential for commercial growers.  The bees can be kept in hives and moved around from place to place, pollinating large monocrops upon demand.  Most of our wild bees on the other hand are solitary and require natural habitat because they are ground bees or wood bees.  They obtain nectar from a variety of sources instead of having a limited diet of the beekeeper’s choosing.  Supporting native bees seems to be the best insurance plan for our food crops. 

We have over 300 species of native bees in PA and they are the ones pollinating the majority of our summer crops.  As a gardener, you can do some simple things to support native bees.  If you have a large lawn, create forest or meadow habitat along the edges.  Allow clover to grow and flower in your lawn.  Plant borage with your tomatoes.   Let some of your basil bolt for the bees.  Leave snags and stumps in place.  Don’t use pesticides.  Plant Linden trees which provide a large amount of flowers early, when food sources are scarce.  Plant masses of diverse flower shapes and colors (Helenium and Mountain Mint shown above) that flower from spring through fall.  By providing food for our native bees, we ensure food for ourselves. 

More information on native pollinators in our area