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Tree Talk

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Another One Bites The Dust

Listening to Freddie Mercury on the iPod has been the soundtrack to this summer's gardening. Another one bites the dust describes what happened in my yard with the torrid heat and lack of rain. I have scanned catalogues for years and have often ordered things inappropriate for our climate zone. Sometimes they bomb out and sometimes they do very well. I generally assume if I find a plant for sale locally that I should have a reasonable chance of growing it successfully. I follow with three "cool" plants that I have failed with over three times. Every good plant man (and lady) knows that after three attempts you plant something else.

I have attempted the Franklin Tree Franklinia alatamaha in multiple locations over the last fifteen years with little success. This is the only plant I know of that has bright red fall color at the same time that the large white flowers with yellow stamens are finishing up. It is native to a river bank in Georgia and is now extinct in the wild. (My first hint?) I planted the most recent one next to the kitchen window so I would see any signs of wilt over the morning coffee. The plant arrived with a bit of pachysandra in its tub which I foolishly left in place. It took five years but the pachysandra won. It was a record for me as I had killed multiple other Franklinias over time much more quickly. I think that John Reiner at Oakland Nursery now has the staff hide the Franklinias when I show up. A Shishigashira Japanese Maple now has the location and is thriving.

I have killed multiple different cultivars of the Korean Fir over the years. First the common Korean Fir, then multiple examples of 'Horstmann's Silberlocke'. This tree has beautiful recurved needles that show their silver undersides, coupled with purple colored upright cones. They all met a grim and horrible fate. I have one surviving Golden Korean Fir which gets smaller every year as it languishes in the back garden. They want to be in Portland, Oregon (or Korea).
Firs in general are tough to grow in Ohio.

The third example I have owned of the Bristlecone Pine (Pinus Aristata) is nearing death as well. This beautiful small pine has resin flecked needles. Thousand year old Bristlecone pines live in Colorado subject to extremes of heat and cold in the Rockies but they don't like Upper Arlington.

I must now state that if you are reading this column while looking past your thriving Bristlecone Pine and Korean Fir at your beautiful blooming Franklinia with its first hint of fall color, please do not call or write me. You are experiencing what the Germans call schadenfreude.

And another one gone, and another one gone....

Charles J Hickey
Vice Chair, Upper Arlington Tree Commission

Parks & Forestry Division
Parks & Recreation Department
City of Upper Arlington
3600 Tremont Road
Upper Arlington, OH 43221
Phone: 614-583-5340