I caught a terrible cold this week, plus I had an emergency request from a client, so I’ve delayed my next post about last week’s visit to Blithewold. But I promised tree porn, so here it is. These are a few of my favorite trees on the grounds of Blithewold.
To the left is a photo of one of the tallest giant sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum) east of the Mississippi. Yep, you read that correctly, right here in little Rhody is a giant sequoia. It was planted in 1911 and is about 90 feet tall–a munchkin by California standards but still pretty impressive.
Below is another giant sequoia–this one was planted in the 1930s. As you can guess, Blithewold’s landscape
architect at the time, had a lot of fun and was very creative. Who else was planting sequoias on the east coast?
By now you’ve noticed that my puny digital camera was no match for these hulking tree specimens so you’re getting to see mostly the trunks of trees. I tried to make them as artistic as possible…but what I really need is a camera with an expensive wide angle lens.
Aaanyways, below is a weeping European beech, Fagus sylvatica ‘Pendula.’ Different varieties and cultivars of European beech are all over the boulevard that Curt and I take care of in the summer, but none so big as this one, which was planted in 1900.
It might not look like much (the camera!) but it’s huge. The branches around the trunk aren’t shrubs, they’re the weeping limbs of the beech.
Last but by no means least is the weeping
pagoda tree, Sophora japonica ‘Pendula.’ (Again with the ‘Pendula’–now you know what it means when you see ‘Pendula’ in the Latin name of a plant or tree.) I thought this particular one was fabulously sculpture-like.
Are any of these as impressive as your favorite tree?
Earth Friendly Gardening 