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.
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.
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.
Smoke bushes, Cotinus, have superlative color, appealing form, and look excellent in the gardens.
The plume-like seed clusters, which appear after the flowers, give a long-lasting, smoky haze to the branch tips.
This one is a royal purple smoke bush with its stunning dark red-purple foliage that turns scarlet in autumn.
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.”
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.
One of the most appealing features is the Stewartia’s bark. It is multi-colored and peels away in strips.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Eastern redbud leaves are alternate, simple, broadly heart-shaped and three to five inches high and wide.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It's that time of year again, when the hornbeam hedges around my farm need to be pruned and groomed.
This week my outdoor grounds crew trimmed the tall hornbeam hedges in front of my main greenhouse. The English hornbeam, Carpinus betulus, is a fast-growing deciduous tree. It can grow about four to five feet per year. From a distance, it appears solid, but light streams in through the leaves providing a pleasing and dappled space. I keep a close eye on all the hornbeams - it’s crucial to prune them regularly, so they never look too overgrown and unruly.
Enjoy these photos.
This tall hornbeam hedge grows along one side of the parking lot directly in front of my main greenhouse. It is quite pretty here but serves primarily as a privacy hedge and noise barrier from the road. Carpinus betulus is a hornbeam native to Western Asia and central, eastern and southern Europe, including southern England.
The English hornbeam is related to the beech tree, with a similar leaf shape. On the hornbeam, the leaves are actually smaller and more deeply furrowed than beech tree leaves. They become golden yellow to orange before falling in autumn.
Looking inside the hedge, the hornbeam has pale grey bark with vertical markings. The sturdy branches grow outward and slightly upward.
I always instruct my gardeners and outdoor ground crew to bring all the necessary tools to the work site. Among the tools needed for hedge pruning they need landscape twine, long handled shears, gloves, and a STIHL HLA 85 Lithium-Ion Powered Adjustable Telescopic Hedge Trimmer, which has a durable 20 inch blade that cuts easily and precisely.
The crew does a lot of the hornbeam pruning by hand. These Japanese Okatsune shears are specially made for trimming hedges. These shears are user friendly, and come in a range of sizes.
My resident tree expert, Pasang Sherpa, prunes the front of the hedges first. The shears allow the crew to sculpt and groom as well as prune the foliage. I like to use a traditional English style of pruning, which includes a lot of straight, clean edges. A well-manicured hedge can be stunning in any garden but left unchecked, it could look unruly.
Although slower, this method of trimming by hand ensures careful precise, clean cuts.
Looking at the front, one can see what has been pruned and what Pasang still has to do.
Looking closely from the top, It’s a big difference and shows the growth from the past year. These hornbeams are so healthy and lush.
Pasang uses the long handled shears to cut the edges. When pruning, Pasang keeps the shears close to shoulder level. This allows the best control. He also holds the shears closer to the base of the blades. Here he is working by hand on the upper sections from our trusted Hi-Lo.
Then he uses his STIHL HLA 86 commercial grade extended reach, telescopic hedge trimmer, which is very lightweight and easy to control.
Down below – all the cut leaves. These are raked up as they work, so cleanup is easier at the very end.
My outdoor grounds crew foreman, Chhiring Sherpa, sits in the Hi-Lo ready to move teammates safely from place to place. From ground level, he can also check the work done from a different vantage point.
The next day, a younger hedge is also groomed in the parking lot right in front of my glass greenhouse. We planted this hedge in the spring of 2019 – it has grown quite a bit. An identical one is on the other side of the greenhouse entrance. To keep the hedges straight on top, I instruct everyone to use landscaper’s twine to create a guide. It’s an easy way to make sure everything is cut properly.
Chhiring looks carefully to make sure the twine is straight and in line with all his other markers.
Then he uses the STIHL trimmer to cut the top. These STIHL tools are great for so many jobs around the farm.
Meanwhile, Pasang works from the back of the hedge. This area is also cut with the STIHL trimmer – quickly and efficiently.
Pasang uses his Okatsune bypass pruners to trim small branches. Everyone on my crew has his own pruners.
Here’s is a view looking down the top of this hedge.
And here is another section of the hedge. It looks great.
Here is a side view of the big hedge showing how the front is sculpted with the taller sections protruding just a bit.
Pruning and grooming the hornbeams is a big task – it takes about two weeks to get all of them done around the farm, but once they’re finished they look so terrific – thanks to my hardworking crew!
Clematis are among the most decorative and spectacular of all the flowering vines and they're just beginning to bloom beautifully at my farm.
Over the years I have grown many varieties of this wonderful plant. When I purchased my Bedford, New York farm, I knew I wanted to build a long, winding pergola where I could grow lots of clematis. After the pergola was constructed, I concentrated on creating a palette of blue-flowering cultivars and each year I always enjoy the vivid floral display.
Enjoy these photos.
Depending on the species, clematis can start blooming anywhere from late winter to early spring and then continue flowering through the summer and into early fall. This time every year, there are lots of gorgeous blossoms under my long pergola. Clematis is a genus of about 300-species within the buttercup family Ranunculaceae. The name Clematis comes from the Greek word “klematis,” meaning vine.
Each pair of posts under the pergola supports the same variety. Known as the “Queen of the Climbers,” Clematis plants will train onto posts, trellises, and fences, or arch gracefully over doorways. Right now, the pergola is also showing off tall alliums.
Copper wire is wrapped around each post, so the climbing tendrils of the clematis vines could attach easily. The uprights for this pergola are antique granite posts from China originally used as grape supports. They’re perfect as posts because they don’t rot over time like wood does. A friend of mine acquired a lot of stone from this valley and I purchased a couple hundred of these posts. I only wish I had bought more of them.
Most species are called clematis, but it has also been called traveller’s joy, virgin’s bower, leather flower, or vase vine. It’s also been called “Old Man’s Beard,” because of the long fluffy seed heads that look similar to an old man’s beard.
Clematis are native to China and Japan and are known to be vigorous, woody climbers.
The standard clematis flower has six or seven petals, measuring five to six inches across. Colors range from lavender to deep purple, white to wine red, and even a few in yellow.
Clematis leaves grow in pairs along the stems. The clematis leaf shapes vary with different varieties, but knowing how they grow can help differentiate them from other vines.
For this area, I chose various shades of lavender, purple, and blue.
Many clematis are lightly scented. Flowers vary in shape and sizes. They can be flat, tubular or bell-shaped and can be as small as one-inch wide.
Some of the flowers are very light colored with interesting centers.
Once established, clematis should be watered about an inch or so weekly, and more deeply during dry spells.
Some clematis cultivars will bloom in partial shade, but to really thrive, they need at least six-hours of sun each day. Just think, “head in the sun, feet in the shade.” The vines like sun, but cool, moist soil.
Some of the clematis varieties grown here include ‘Parisienne,’ ‘Blue Angel,’ ‘Jackmanii,’ ‘Sapphire Indigo,’ ‘Arabella,’ ‘Contessa de Bouchard,’ and ‘Eyers Gift.’
It can take several years for a clematis vine to mature and begin flowering prolifically. To shorten the wait, purchase a plant that’s at least two-years old. Clematis also prefer soil that’s neutral to slightly alkaline in pH.
This is Clematis viticella ‘Betty Corning’, which has slightly fragrant, bell-shaped flowers that bloom from summer to fall.
Here is a similar variety in pinkish purple.
And in the center of the pergola, I have Veilchenblau roses. This is a vigorous, almost thornless, spring blooming rambler. The blooms start out reddish purple, then turn a dark violet and fade to lilac and blue.
Anyone who passes just takes in the sweet and strong fragrance of these roses – a mix of citrus and apple.
Across the carriage road from my pergola, I also have some clematis vines planted at the base of several bald cypress trees. On these trees, we used twine to secure the climbing vines.
This long pergola takes on several transformations during the year. Soon this area will be filled with bright orange lilies. Just wait and see…
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