Here at my farm, we're rushing to get lots of beautiful trees and shrubs planted. Fall is one of the best times to plant because the soil temperature is still mild.
Earlier this week, we planted two Liquidambar styraciflua 'Slender Silhouette' trees, American sweetgums, at the south entrance of my living maze. These handsome trees are from our friends at Select Horticulture, Inc. in nearby Pound Ridge, New York. As these trees mature, they will maintain their erect, columnar form, growing up to 50 or 60 feet tall and only about five to eight feet wide. I think they are just perfect for this space.
Here are some photos.
The slender habit of the American sweetgum ‘Slender Silhouette,’ Liquidambar styraciflua, makes it ideal for narrow spaces. I was so excited to acquire these specimens from Select Horticulture, Inc. I have several ‘slender silhouette’ sweetgums here at the farm already.
Here’s one of them in my maze planted two years ago. It’s towering appearance is so perfect at the end of a maze row. And, it attracts native bees and birds.
The deciduous dark green leaves are a beautiful star-shape.
I decided the trees would look great at this entrance to the maze, which is just off the carriage road. When planting any tree or shrub, always consider the size of a mature specimen when selecting where to plant it.
My gardeners and outdoor grounds crew started digging right away. The holes must be pretty wide – at least two to five times as wide as the root ball. The hole sides should also be slanted. Digging a wide planting hole helps to provide the best opportunity for roots to expand into its new growing environment. Once the hole is dug, it is amended with fertilizer.
The crew uses a tarp to collect the soil from the hole. This makes cleanup much easier and much more efficient.
Pete prepare the trees for transport. Notice how the tree is already showing its fall foliage. This early change of color can often happen with specimens that are not planted. It will be fine after it is established in the ground.
The tree is carefully loaded onto the Hi Lo and driven slowly up the carriage road to its planting location.
Then the crew slowly removes the tree from the fork and into the hole. When moving heavy trees, only hold it by the root ball and the base of the trunk – never by its branches, which could easily break.
The tree is also turned so its best side faces the carriage road.
The Slender Silhouette sweetgum is highly adaptable, drought-resistant, and easy-to-grow, but it does best in well-drained soil where it can get full sun.
Before backfilling, it’s important to stand several feet away from the tree to also make sure the tree itself is straight.
Here’s the second one going into its designated hole… very slowly and carefully.
In autumn, the American Sweetgum shows a kaleidoscope of colors, including vibrant yellow, orange, red, and purple.
Here’s a reddish leaf on the same tree.
The grayish brown bark will become more rough with deep grooves and narrow, slightly scaly ridges as it ages.
I like to water the root ball as fast as possible after it is in the ground and before it is backfilled. It’s so important to water and feed – remember what I always say, if you eat, so should your plants.”
Remember, don’t backfill any tree too deeply – leave it “bare to the flare.” The flare of the tree is the area where a tree’s trunk meets its first main roots.
The American sweetgum is deciduous, but It’s nice that we can all enjoy the foliage of the tree for a short while before all the leaves fall off for the season.
Two Liquidambar styraciflua ‘Slender Silhouette’ trees, American sweetgums. I know they will thrive here for years to come.
At my Bedford, New York farm, I have thousands and thousands of trees, and sometimes they have "babies" of their own.
Ginkgo biloba, commonly known as ginkgo or gingko, and also known as the maidenhair tree, is the only living species in the division Ginkgophyta. It is found in fossils dating back 270-million years. Native to China, the ginkgo tree is widely cultivated, and was cultivated early in human history. I have many ginkgo trees at my farm, especially in and around my Summer House Garden. Recently, I noticed many seedlings growing in the ground nearby, so I had a selection of them dug up and repotted so they could be nurtured in one of my greenhouses until they are transplanted in more permanent locations.
Enjoy these photos.
This is the great ginkgo tree in the back of my Summer House sunken garden in spring. This parterre garden is very formal and focused on the giant tree. The other green trees are younger ginkgoes. The ginkgo grows to about 50 to 80-feet tall with a spread of 25 to 35-feet at maturity.
The younger ginkgo trees are planted on both sides of the footpath in this garden. The ginkgo is considered both a shade tree and an ornamental tree and features a spreading canopy.
The leaves of the ginkgo are unusually fan-shaped, up to three-inches long, with a petiole that is also up to three-inches long. This shape and the elongated petiole cause the foliage to flutter in the slightest breeze. They are bold green in summer.
Starting in late September, one can see a slight change to the color of the leaves – they’re starting to turn. A couple of weeks later, many of the changing leaves are two-toned, with separate bands of gold and green.
Finally, Ginkgo bilobas turn an amazing golden-yellow and then all at once, after the hard frost, they drop their leaves – it’s a complex phenomenon of nature.
Female ginkgo trees produce tan-orange oval fruits that fall to the ground in October and November.
Here is a closer look at the fruit, which is small and fleshy – about the size of small jujube, or Chinese date.
Inside is a single hard-shelled seed enclosing an edible kernel. The kernels are often roasted and used in Asian cuisines.
This ginkgo tree is outside my sunken garden. Like the giant tree, this one is a female, and drops many of its fruits on the ground every year.
Many of them were pollinated by male trees to make these “babies.” I saw a large area filled with ginkgo seedlings just growing under the trees. Before blowing the leaves and weed whacking any unwanted growth in the area, I made sure some of these seedlings were dug up.
Adan from my outdoor grounds crew uses a shovel to gently dig around the base of the seedling, loosening the soil and exposing the root ball.
These “babies” are not difficult to dig up – it took only minutes to collect about 50 seedlings.
Each mature leaf often has a single vertical slit in the top center. This forms the fan with a cavity in the middle separating it into two lobes. Bi-loba means “with two lobes”.
Adan digs up as much of the root ball as possible when he extracts he plant.
Here he carefully places each seedling into a trug bucket for transporting to the greenhouse.
Ginkgo seedlings do well with a well-draining soil mix that includes a blend of peat, perlite, and vermiculite.
Seedlings can safely be potted into individual pots when they are large enough to handle.
After placing the seeding in its container, Josh backfills and tamps down lightly to remove any air pockets.
All these seedlings look very healthy – they should do well in these pots. Each one will grow into its own ginkgo tree.
Finally, the pots are loaded onto our trusted Polaris and brought down to the hoop house where they can be nurtured for at least a year before getting planted in their more permanent locations.
If you’re thinking of transplanting any of your hostas, now is a great time to do it, when the soil is still warm from summer.
I decided to redo a couple of my perennial garden beds - in particular, the two beds in front of my main greenhouse. These gardens had been planted with hostas and white lilies, but they started declining over recent years and needed changing. Hostas are hardy plants that can be easily transplanted and divided, so I instructed my gardening team to move them down to my giant hosta bed behind the chicken coops and under the shade of my stately dawn redwoods, Metasequoia, where they could spread and flourish.
Enjoy these photos.
This year, I noticed the hosta gardens in front of my greenhouse didn’t look their best. While still green and lush, the hostas needed more room and the lilies had started to disappear, so I decided it was time to redesign the gardens and move the plants elsewhere.
I had the garden crew start moving the hostas first. To move one, use a sharp spade, cutting into soil in a circle surrounding the entire plant and then carefully pry the plant out of the ground.
Alex digs out each hosta plant making sure to keep the root ball intact.
Each hosta was moved onto a nearby tarp.
The plants were then carefully moved into the back of a pick up and brought down to the hosta garden.
This hosta garden was first planted in 2020. I got the hostas as bare-root cuttings and kept them in a cold frame for several months until they were big enough to transplant. In all, more than 700 hostas were planted that first year. I’ve added plants every year since, and it’s grown beautifully under the shade of the tall Metasequoias.
Dawn redwoods are a “living fossil” that was rediscovered in China in 1941 after being thought to be extinct. They are a relic from the age of dinosaurs. Dawn redwood trunks are reddish-brown with vertical, shredding bark.
The dawn redwood has feathery, fine-textured needles that are opposite each other and approximately a half-inch long. Don’t confuse them with the bald cypress needles, which grow alternately. These dawn redwood needles will turn shades of red and brown before falling – it is one of the few deciduous conifers.
The hostas in this large garden are planted in groups by variety including ‘Wide Brim,’ ‘Francee,’ ‘Regal Splendor,’ ‘Elegans,’ and ‘Blue Angel.’
They vary in color, markings, shape and texture. My plan was to plant lots and lots of hostas in this garden bed. Their lush green foliage and their easy care requirements make them ideal for many areas.
The hostas are strategically placed, so like plants are together.
When planting hostas, one should dig a hole that is at least twice as wide as the root ball and just as deep.
And don’t forget to feed – I always say, if you eat, so should your plants. Here is Alex sprinkling Scotts Osmocote – an all-in-one plant solution containing essential nutrients and a unique resin that controls nutritional release.
Alex sprinkles some into the hole and also in the surrounding soil.
Osmocote particles include a core of nutrients – nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.
Alex works in an assembly line process preparing several holes at a time before planting.
Then he plants each specimen properly so that the eye is just at soil level. A hosta eye is a growing shoot that emerges from the crown supports up to 12 leaves. Hosta is a genus of plants commonly known as hostas, plantain lilies, and occasionally by the Japanese name, giboshi.
This time of year, hosta leaves typically turn yellow, die back, and go dormant for the winter.
Once planted, Alex spreads the existing mulch around them, so they look tidy.
Vigorous growing hostas can reach mature sizes in three to five years. Giant and slower growing hostas can take a little longer. I am so pleased with how well they’re doing.
Hostas thrive in sites where filtered or dappled shade is available for much of the day, but they can survive in deep shade. If you have the space and the right conditions in your yard, plant some hostas – you’ll love them for years to come.
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