Trees at My Farm
Summer officially starts today and here at my farm, it's expected to be sunny with temperatures in the 80s.
It amazes me how quickly everything grows from day to day. All the trees are so lush with foliage, some showing off pretty blooms. I've planted thousands of trees over the years - displayed in allées, in groves, planted closely together in my living maze, or in rows several feet apart in my orchard. Some of the trees are large and majestic, some feature beautifully shaped leaves, and some have pendulous branches cascading to the ground. It makes me so happy to see them thrive through the seasons.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
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- Here on my 153-acre farm, I love how all the trees look in the landscape and how they change through the seasons. Most importantly, we need trees for the environment – they help combat climate change, provide habitat and food for birds and other animals, and release oxygen for us to live.
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- Every chance I get, I tour the property to see how things are growing. It always delights me to see how these trees look from a distance in all the different layers.
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- Smoke bushes, Cotinus, have superlative color, appealing form, and look excellent in the gardens.
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- The plume-like seed clusters, which appear after the flowers, give a long-lasting, smoky haze to the branch tips.
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- This one is a royal purple smoke bush with its stunning dark red-purple foliage that turns scarlet in autumn.
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- The Japanese Stewartia is native to Japan, Korea, and the southeastern United States. It is a slow-growing, all-season performer that shows off green leaves in spring, white flowers in summer, and colorful foliage in autumn. I love stewartias – after all, my name is “Stewart.”
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- The flowers of a Stewartia are cup-shaped, camellia-like white blossoms that grow up to two-and-a-half inches in diameter with showy orange-yellow anthers.
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- One of the most appealing features is the Stewartia’s bark. It is multi-colored and peels away in strips.
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- Along the carriage road near my back hayfield, I have several Cornus kousa trees – small deciduous trees in the flowering plant family Cornaceae. Common names include kousa, kousa dogwood, Chinese dogwood, Korean dogwood, and Japanese dogwood. It bears these white flowers in spring and summer and edible berries with soft pulp that is sweet with a similar flavor to a ripe persimmon in the fall.
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- Just outside my kitchen on the terrace parterre is a tall weeping katsura. Cercidiphyllum japonicum f. pendulum has pendulous branches that fan out from the crown and sweep the ground. Tiny red flowers emerge in late March or early April before the leaves.
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- Nearby is this beautiful weeping copper beech, Fagus sylvatica ‘Purpurea Pendular’, an irregular spreading tree with long, weeping branches that reach the ground. I have several of these trees on the property.
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- Outside my main greenhouse, I have Camperdown Elms, which slowly develop broad, flat heads and wide crowns with weeping branch habits. I also have beautiful Camperdown Elm specimens outside my Winter House.
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- From a distance, everyone notices the stunning weeping willows. Here is one grove of weeping willows at the edge of my pinetum. The golden hue looks so pretty against the landscape.
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- Some trees feature interesting leaf shapes. This is the leaf of a ginkgo tree. The leaves 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. 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.
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- This is the leaf of the tulip tree. Our tulip trees are the tallest at the farm – these trees can grow more than 120-feet. In the late spring bright yellowish-green and orange flowers bloom. They resemble tulips in shape. The silhouette of the tree’s leaves is also tulip-shaped. Together, these features give the tulip tree its name. The tulip tree is also known as tulip poplar, yellow poplar, whitewood, and tulip magnolia. Some of these names can be deceiving, as the tree is not a true poplar. Instead, it belongs to the magnolia family.
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- Eastern redbud leaves are alternate, simple, broadly heart-shaped and three to five inches high and wide.
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- The Pin Oak Allée is the first allée guests see when entering my farm. These trees are tall and impressive. Pin oaks, Quercus palustris, are popular landscape trees because they are fast-growing and easy to maintain.
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- From this side of my long and winding pergola, one can see the towering bald cypress, Taxodium distichum – a deciduous conifer. Though it’s native to swampy areas, the bald cypress is also able to withstand dry, sunny weather and is hardy in USDA climate zones 5 through 10. I also planted these when I took over my farm.
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- This is the newer of two linden allées here at Cantitoe. This one is planted between the paddocks and runs from the pergola to the Boxwood Allée and then all the way down to the chicken coops. It, too, has grown so beautifully over the years, in part because I pay so much attention to the soil and keep it rich and filled with nutrients for all the plantings.
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- And it won’t be long before we’re enjoying the fruits from my orchard. My orchard surrounds three sides of my pool. I planted more than 200-fruit trees here, many of which started as bare-root cuttings. And now they are growing beautifully. I hope you can enjoy the trees where you live.
Martha Pins
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