Plants that Have Stood the Test of Time

The Fourth of July celebrations are over – the fireworks, parades, hot dogs and strawberry shortcake. Leading up to the Fourth I paused to think about the gardens of Thomas Jefferson, one of the authors and signers of the Declaration of Independence. He lived and gardened at Monticello, his estate in Virginia. According to the Monticello website, Jefferson planted (or ordered and supervised) the planting of 160 different kinds of trees and shrubs as well as perennials, annuals and vegetables – and kept notes of everything. Monticello still grows almost everything he did.

 

Jefferson grew one of my favorite trees, the Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis). It is a wonderful early-summer blooming medium-sized tree and I’ve had one for at least 10 years. It is suitable for a part shade location or full sun. In the wild (New Jersey and south) it is found mainly as an understory tree. It blooms in early summer with small pink blossoms that seemingly pop right out of the bark. Cold hardy varieties are common now and it is rated to Zone 4.

 

Jefferson loved peaches. He grew over 30 kinds of peaches but we can grow just a handful that are sold here in New England. A few will survive a Zone 4 winter, but Zone 5 is better for peaches, with winters that never drop below minus 20.

 

All peaches do best in full sun, meaning six hours of sun or more per day in summer. They are self-fruitful – they self-pollinate and you need only one tree to get fruit. Apple, plums and most pears do need a second variety that blooms at the same time for pollination. Most fruit trees are said to”Not like wet feet.” So don’t plant them in an area where the soil is usually wet.

 

The ‘Reliance’ peach, developed at UNH has been around for decades and is one of the better cold hardy peaches. It is productive and tasty. Other good peaches are Red Haven and Madison. Contender is well thought of, but I have not found the fruit very tasty, and a lot my fruit has rotted on the tree. Other growers love it. Try to taste peach varieties before planting one.

 

Jefferson was intrigued by sugar maples as an alternate source for sugar, but they did not do well down there. Virginia is a bit too hot. In my experience, if you have an old maple that is declining in health, try giving its some garden lime. Spread it not just under the drip line, but go out much farther because the roots do.

 

I gave lime to an old maple because I read about an experiment in 1999 at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Station in northern New Hampshire. Scientist found that acid rains had depleted calcium in soils there. They distributed calcium (using crop dusters) and it found increased health in stands of sugar maples and red spruce. I‘ve given my old sugar maple several applications of lime over the last 25 years and it is doing fine. And don’t park cars under your maples as root compaction is not well tolerated.

 

One of Jefferson’s favorite trees was Southern Catalpa (C. bignonioides). That is hardy to Zone 6, but I grow northern Catalpa (C.speciosa) and love it. I planted mine 8 years ago as an 8-foot tall tree that came in a 7 or 10-gallon pot. Now it is 30-some feet tall with a trunk diameter of 12-inches a foot off the ground. My catalpa blooms vigorously in late June or early July each year, producing cream colored flowers that are 2-inches long and flecked with purple inside, growing in panicles. The seed pods look like foot-long beans.

 

Catalpas can get 60 feet or more tall, and are a bit weak-wooded, so they are prone to wind damage or blow-overs. My solution? I use an extension ladder to get up to a spot 30-feet off the ground each fall and cut off all growth that occurred that year. I top it. That keeps it from getting too tall – it can and does grow up to 5-feet in a year. Of course, at some point I won’t be allowed up a ladder. So far, so good. I’ve done it for the last 3years.

 

Jefferson loved lilacs, as we all do. If your lilac has not produced many blossoms in recent years, it may also need a treatment of garden lime. Lilacs do best with soil that has a neutral pH – around 7.0, and lime will help get the pH closer to neutral. By now they have already set their buds for next year, but add lime or wood ashes now while you are thinking of it.

 

A shrub liked by Jefferson is called the Carolina Sweet Shrub (Calycanthus spp.). I grow it, but found it a bit fussy. I moved mine twice to find, like Cinderella, the fit that was “just right”. I first tried it in full sun and the leaves scorched – despite plenty of moisture. After the second year I moved it into shade, but it didn’t get enough sun and did not bloom much. Finally, five years later, I moved it under a big pear tree, where it gets filtered sun all day and it blooms and grows vigorously. The blossoms are a deep wine red, up to 2-inches across and shaped like little peonies. Some specimens are very fragrant, though mine is not. It blooms in early summer,

 

Like Jefferson, I like keeping a list of what woody plants I grow. Since I bought my house in 1970, I have planted at least 118 different kinds of woody plants, and about 95% of them have survived. And I’m still going to plant a few more. I make it through winter and mud season each year, in part, because I want to see what plants survived, too.

 

Henry may be reached by e-mail a henry.homeyer@comcast.net or by regular mail at PO Box 364, Cornish Flat,NH 03746.