The trees a garden writer would put on his ‘Fantasy Flora’ team

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/home/the-trees-a-garden-writer-would-put-on-his-fantasy-flora-team/2016/02/16/571b55fc-d1a5-11e5-88cd-753e80cd29ad_story.html

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Because a fine arboretum is full of imposing specimens of trees, it’s easy to think of such a place as primarily one of aesthetic virtue. But institutions such as the Morris Arboretum in Philadelphia and the National Arboretum in Northeast Washington are also scientific repositories of plant material collected from around the temperate world, from foreign collections or from the wild. These species and natural variants contain genes that may be valuable in producing new plant varieties that may fix, say, powdery mildew in lilacs, or the onslaught of the blight in chestnut trees, or a pest as yet unknown to horticulture.

So the trees you admire at an arboretum may be unsuitable for small home gardens or, more likely, simply unavailable. Many are in the nursery trade, and, whether accessible or not, they all tend to instill in the visitor a hankering to plant a tree. In picking a tree, resolve to be patient. If a tree grows like a weed, it’s because it probably is a weed. Even if it doesn’t fall apart, it will steal space and sunlight. Even a slow-growing tree can have real presence in as little as 10 or 15 years.

“People have to learn that a 5-foot-tall white oak is worth a lot more than a 5-foot-tall callery [Bradford] pear,” said Paul Meyer, director of the Morris Aboretum. “It’s also going to become an asset of increasing value rather than a liability of increasing cost.”

On a snowy winter day, I left the Morris Aboretum with a desire for five beauties that I’d have on my Fantasy Flora team.

This is a big tree for large properties, upright when young but spreading as it matures. Cedrus atlantica var. glauca is not novel; it has been lovingly planted on these shores since the mid-19th century. But as a majestic specimen in its own space it’s superb. It takes decades for it to produce its characteristic flat-topped and horizontal form. What a gift to future generations.

The European horse chestnut is the iconic buckeye of England, but in these parts it suffers from mildew and a disfiguring leaf blotch, and the fall color is blah. Instead, I’d plant the yellow buckeye, Aesculus flava, which is a large shade tree (7o feet by 30 feet) with a pleasingly coarse branch tracery and hulking terminal buds — it reads really well in winter. Among the native buckeye species, it’s the least troubled by pests and disease and has strong fall color. The drawback is that it’s too big for a small residential landscape.

Both this dogwood, Cornus officinalis, and the more common cornelian-cherry dogwood, Cornus mas, grow as either big, twiggy multi-stemmed shrubs or as small trees, depending on the individual plant and the formative pruning preferences of its keeper. The cornel dogwood is a week or two earlier into bloom in late winter than the other dogwood. It’s smothered in yellow flowers and has lovely bark patterns with age. The drawback is that it’s hard to find.

The home gardener may find the Farges hazelnut in the nursery trade, but not easily. It deserves to be more available. This Chinese species, Corylus fargesii, not to be confused with the Chinese hazelnut, makes for a beautiful small tree, almost birchlike bark with its pale tan, flaking trunk and branches. It’s resistant to a blight that affects other hazelnut species. It would make a lovely specimen by an entrance, especially with the pollen-bearing catkins on bare stems, showy for weeks in late winter.

The vase-shaped zelkova became popular street trees after Dutch elm disease starting killing off its relative, the American elm. The most common form was the Japanese species, Zelkova serrata, of which there are some handsome varieties, including the very upright Green Vase. I like Village Green.

The Schneider zelkova has smoother, gray bark. Meyer said when the Morris specimen was young — it’s now about 20 years old — he took a deep breath and removed the central leader to encourage a branching habit. “The beauty of these trees is that the branches are low to the ground,” he said. This zelkova has unusually strong fall leaf color, a red. Alas, this tree remains hard if not impossible for consumers to find.