I have thousands and thousands of trees at my farm. Many were already well-established when I purchased the property, but the rest I've planted - in allées, in groves, as privacy hedges, around my pool, and in rows of my living maze. One type of tree, however, stands out this time every year - the ginkgo.
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. Native to China, the ginkgo tree is widely cultivated, and was cultivated early in human history. Ginkgo trees have beautiful green leaves that turn a luminous golden-yellow in autumn. This time of year, the female trees also start dropping their fruits. Ginkgo nuts are a delicacy in China, Japan, and Korea, and are prized for their flavor, nutritional value, and medicinal properties.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
These six Ginkgo biloba Goldspire™ Obelisk trees surround my pool. I planted the narrow upright tower trees in the spring of last year and I am so pleased with how they are doing.
In early October, one could see the slight change to the color of the leaves – here they’re just beginning to turn.
Now in November, these trees are golden yellow and their leaves are falling. Ginkgo Goldspire™ is a highly ornamental, non-fruiting male tree originating in Italy. It has a very upright, tight fastigiate habit.
The foliage of these trees also tends to be smaller than other species.
These ginkgo trees are in my sunken Summer House garden. The giant tree in the back is a female and the main focal point of this formal space. Here they have also changed colors – there is only a little tinge of green on the trees.
The change of color happens after the breakdown of chlorophyll, the pigment responsible for the green. As the days get shorter and temperatures drop, plants prepare for winter by shutting off chlorophyll production.
Within weeks, all the ginkgo trees have changed. The Ginkgo biloba is one of the most distinct and beautiful of all deciduous trees. It prefers a minimum of four hours of direct, unfiltered sunlight each day. The ginkgo has a cone-like shape when young, and becomes irregularly rounded as it ages.
The leaves are 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.
The trunk of the ginkgo tree is a light brown to brownish-gray bark that is deeply furrowed and highly ridged. The ridges become more pronounced as the tree ages. The trunk circumference of the giant female tree measures more than 14-feet.
Mixed with the fallen leaves below the female tree are newly fallen ginkgo tree fruits. The most noticeable thing about these is the smell – it is hard to miss, and the stench is quite disagreeable. The outer, nasty smelling pulp is known botanically as sarcotesta.
The ginkgo seeds contain urushiol, which is the same chemical that causes poison oak, ivy, and sumac, so always wear gloves and protect your skin whenever handling the fruit.
Inside is a single hard-shelled seed enclosing an edible kernel. The kernels are often roasted and used in Asian cuisines.
I often collect the fruits and give them to chef friends for use in their Asian dishes – they are always excited to receive them.
And I have so many this year! What a bounty.
Ginkgo trees are dioecious, meaning that male and female reproductive parts develop on separate plants. Ginkgo trees typically reach sexual maturity around 20 to 30 years old. Male trees do not drop fruit. This ginkgo tree is in one corner of my herbaceous peony bed.
And this ginkgo is outside my Winter House across the carriage road from the peony garden.
These ginkgo trees are in a grove not far from my chicken coops outside my fenced pastures. The leaves are still holding on.
This ginkgo is outside my raised bed vegetable garden. It is the first to lose its leaves here at the farm. Typically, on one day after a hard frost sweeps down the east coast, most of the ginkgos at my farm and countless more in the area, drop all their leaves, but with such mild temperatures this autumn, the “great fall” seems less dramatic.
After they fall, all the leaves carpet the area below with gold.
A week after the first photo was taken, the Ginkgo biloba Goldspire™ Obelisk trees around my pool are also mostly bare.
Have the ginkgo trees dropped their leaves where you live? If not, maybe it will happen very soon.
Whenever friends, family, and colleagues travel, I always encourage them to take lots of photos - it's fun to see images from others taken during their vacations.
Recently, our own Marquee Brands VP of Creative Services, Ryan Mesina, shared pictures from his trip to Japan in November 2024. Ryan, along with his partner, his mother, and his sister, traveled there to visit Ryan's niece who was studying in Tokyo. Among their stops was the historic Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. Once the residence of the Naitō family in the Edo period, it is now a public space filled with more than 20 thousand different trees and at least 1700 tropical and subtropical plant species. At the time, the family went specifically to see the chrysanthemums - beautiful in color, artistic design, Japanese history, and cultural significance.
Here are some of Ryan's photos, enjoy.
Both my mother and I are avid gardeners, and while Japan is filled with countless culinary, cultural, and horticultural wonders, visiting the chrysanthemums at Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden was at the top of our lists. Here we are on the morning of our first day in Tokyo, excited to start exploring.
Located in the heart of Tokyo, the garden provided some much welcome respite from the hustle and bustle of the city. The exhibition featured seven huts,
called Uwaya, that are specifically used to display these meticulously grown chysanthemums. They are similar to the “theaters” popular in 19th century England used to display auricula primroses. Each of these seven Uwaya showcased specific varieties and methods of training chrysanthemums.
The first one we encountered was dedicated to the
Kengai style, also known as the cascade style, first
created in 1915.
Chrysanthmums grown in the Kengai style are elevated on wooden pedestals and are meant to evoke the look of wild chysanthemums on a cliffside.
The exhibition was spread across the Japanese Garden, with the Uwaya arranged around a large central pond. Shown here are the impressive Ozikuri, or thousand bloom chrysanthemums, which make an impression even from across the water.
Each massive pot holds a single plant, meticulously trained over the course of a year to produce hundreds of blooms, with each perfectly positioned so the whole resembles an even dome.
If you look closely, you can see the single stem that produced this entire Ozukuri. Also visible is the intricate frame used to train and support the plant.
Here I am with the Ogiku or large-flowered chrysanthemums. Each plant was trained to support just one single jumbo flower. So you have some sense of scale, I am nearly 6’3″ – these blooms were massive!
Ogiku are characterized by incurved petals that form a puffy flower and are traditionally arranged in diagonal stripes referred to as Tazuna-ue, or horse bridle style, because they resemble the pattern on horse bridles used in Shinto ceremony.
They typically come in pink, yellow, white, red, purple, orange, and variegated.
Similar to the Ogiku are two large-flowered styles called Ichimonji and Kudamono. Ichimonji chrysanthemums are characterized by single-blooming flowers with large petals, while Kudamono resemble spiders with their long, thin, straight tubular petals. Notice how the flowers are so broad they each need a round support under the flower heads to keep them from flopping.
The blooms can be more than six-inches in diameter and are often flat in appearance.
Here is a large, delicate Kudamono-giku. They’re called spider chrysanthemums, but look to me like they’d be right at home next to a sea anemone at the bottom of the ocean.
Ichimonji resemble the crest of the Japanese Imperial family.
As you can imagine, the exhibition was a big draw for garden and photo enthusiasts alike. Here are shutterbugs admiring the Edo varieties.
Characterized by medium-sized blooms with classical form that change in appearance as they open, each plant is trained to produce exactly 27 blooms.
This traditional display practice has been passed down through generations from the 18th and 19th centuries to showcase the beauty of the flowers.
In japan, the chrysanthemum is deeply rooted in culture and history. The flower symbolizes longevity, rejuvenation, and nobility.
Here in this tent – Ise, Saga, and Choji varieties are displayed. Choji are trained to display one central bloom that is encircled by six others.
Choji chrysanthemum, Chrysanthemum moriforium cv. Choujigiku, is a medium-sized chrysanthemum with a raised flower center – very anemone-like blooms.
Higo varieties are characterized by medium-flowered, single blooms and were grown by samurai as a way of practicing discipline.
After our relaxing day in the garden, we were ready to dive into the madness of Tokyo’s Shibuya neighborhood! If you’re lucky enough to be in Japan right now, the show is currently up until November 15th at Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. If you’re stateside, check out “Kiku: Spotlight on Tradition” currently at the New York Botanical Garden until November 16th, or head to Pennsylvania’s Longwood Gardens for the Chrysanthemum Festival, also on display until November 16th.
If you're in or near Kennett Square, Pennsylvania now through November 16th, stop by and visit the Chrysanthemum Festival at Longwood Gardens.
While I was at QVC earlier this week, I had the opportunity to see the colorful mum display. Longwood has a rich and varied history. For thousands of years, the native Lenni Lenape tribe fished its streams, hunted its forests, and planted its fields. In 1700, Quaker farmer, George Peirce, purchased 400-acres of the English-claimed land and began developing the property. His decedents eventually created an arboretum of some of the finest trees in the nation. Unfortunately, as years passed, heirs lost interest and the land suffered decades of neglect until 1906, when it was obtained by Pierre du Pont - entrepreneur, businessman, philanthropist and member of the prominent du Pont family. Pierre's passion and vision created the groundwork for what is now Longwood Gardens - home to many spectacular botanical collections spread across 1,100-acres - all wonderfully maintained by a staff of more than 400 employees, students and volunteers.
Longwood showcases one of North America’s largest and oldest collections of chrysanthemums in this festival every year.
The event displays more than 200 chrysanthemum cultivars from big football-sized mums to incurves, and spiders planted in spheres, pagodas, towers, and more.
In this area, Longwood presents samples of each of the 13 classes of chrysanthemums defined by bloom shape and bred for color, size and unique form.
This is a Class 1 Irregular Incurve Chrysanthemum ‘Crimson Tide’ with its unique ruby tones and incurved petals. It features deep burgundy color with silvery copper accents.
Single and Semi Double Mums are members of Class 7. This mum is called ‘Two-Tone Pink.’
In contrast is the Class 10 Quill ‘King’s Delight.’ The quill mums have needle-like petals that resemble quills. These flowers grow upright on strong stems reaching about 12 to 18 inches tall.
This Spoon Class chrysanthemum has petals that are spoon-shaped with cupped edges. They typically come in pink, red, white, and yellow. This variety is called ‘Mary1.’
The Reflex Class chrysanthemum ;Garnet King’ is one of the deepest red produced mums. It was originally introduced in 1928.
Exotic or unclassified mums are characterized by their unique shapes and colors, often with twisted or bi-shaded florets that change as they open. This variety is ‘Edo 21.’
And look at this gorgeous Quill chrysanthemum – ‘Seaton’s Ashleigh,’ a quilled purple-pink flower known to be long-lasting and weather tolerant.
‘Satomi Orange’ is a Semi-Double chrysanthemum with erect woody-based stems and aromatic flowers in a rusty orange yellow.
This Anemone class mum is called ‘Purple Light.’ It is loved for its vigorous growth and rich purple-pink blooms. Its flowers are about two and a half inches in diameter and changes color through the season, becoming paler mauve as flowers mature.
Pompom is another class, number 6. This is ‘Kermit.’ The Pompom class, or spray chrysanthemums, come in a variety of colors and are well-known for their long vase life, lasting 14 to 20 days. The flowers are incurve or reflex and show a button-like appearance.
Spider chrysanthemums look just as its class name implies. These mums have tubular ray florets that sometimes coil or hook at the ends. This cultivar is ‘Kishi-no-Nishi.’
Decorative mums are known for their unique and elaborate forms. ‘Indian Summer’ is a large mum with warm orange blooms.
But this year’s highlight is this one plant, an Intermediate Incurve called ‘Susono-no-Hikari.’ This has more than a thousand blooms planted using a centuries-old technique in which a single-stem is trained to produce as many perfectly placed blooms as possible. It took the growing team more than 18-months to train and nurture this plant. It is the biggest of its kind outside Asia.
The plant was guided through a labor-intensive multi-step process of pinching, tying, disbudding, and shaping to grow it into its dome form.
One perfect bloom grows on each branch.
Another artistically trained chrysanthemum is this pagoda form. This is grown with cascade chrysanthemums, ‘Early Seiko.’
And this one is ‘Firechief’ – an artistically trained standard form with cascade chrysanthemums.
This Intermediate Incurve chrysanthemum is called ‘Gertrude.’ It stands on sturdy stems topped with palm-sized lavender flowers and coated in fuzz – look closely.
‘Icicles’ is another unique variety known for its dark green foliage and waxy, mop-head white flowers.
Try to visit if you can. The Longwood Gardens Chrysanthemum Festival is unlike anything one can imagine. See all 66 specialty forms and learn about all the classes. These heirloom and exhibition Chrysanthemums are incredible.
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