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Rare Flowering Trees That Light Up Your Garden Landscape
By | August 12, 2008
Flowering apricot trees offer spectacular flowering blooms earlier than any other flowering tree, sometimes blooming as early as January. This early flowering can result in cold weather damage in some areas of the United States. New outstanding cultivars of flowering apricot trees can be purchased from mail order nursery retailers. Prunus mume flowers, in early spring with flower colors of red, pink, and white, all blooming on the same twigs of the tree. Double flowers of apricot, dark-red cover the limbs of the flowering apricot, Matsubara Red. Pure white flowers appear in early spring on the flowering apricot, Rosemary Clarke, and the pink flowering, weeping apricot, W.B. Clarke, blooms in January. Rose-red flowers appear on the flowering apricot tree, Peggy Clarke, in early spring.
Mimosa flowering trees, Albizia julibrissin ‘Rosea’, was introduced into the United States from the Orient, and was commonly known as the ‘Silk Tree’. The feather red or pink blooms cover the mimosa branches in summer, and the fragile graceful leaves are fern-like, and they flutter in air when wafted by the slightest breeze. The Mimosa tree can be grown in almost any type of soil and is cold hardy from zones 6 ? 10.
Flowering Peach trees, Prunus persica, were very commonly seen and grown in the early United States, but a gardener faces a difficult task to find a large flowering peach tree to buy at a nursery. Pink flowering peach trees, Prunus persica ‘Pink’, cultivars can be purchased to bloom either early or late; White flowering peach, Prunus persica ‘White’, can also be purchased in an early or late blooming cultivar; Prunus persica ‘White Icicle’, Peppermint flowering peach trees produce variegated flowers randomly colored petals of red, pink, and white. The Helen Borchers flowering cherry, Prunus persica ‘Helen Borchers’ is a recent outstanding blooming.
Redbud flowering trees, Cercis canadensis, are also known as the Eastern Redbud tree and were first collected to plant at the home of John Bartram, the famous early American botanist of the 1700’s. In early spring the leafless twigs are completely covered with red-pink flowers, qualifying this redbud tree as a favorite, native American flowering tree to plant and grow in the garden landscape.
The flowering honeylocust tree, Gledisia triacanthus inermis, is one of the most beautiful of all early spring blooming trees. Gardeners find it difficult to locate and buy honeylocust trees from a nursery. The fragrant white flowers appear along with the airy fern-like leaves that flutter as a bright green backdrop to the glowing, pure-white flowers that attract a host of bird species to nest in the dense honeylocust branches.
The Wisteria, Wisteria sinensis, is usually thought of as being a vine, but the vine habit can be overcome, if it is staked after grafting and trained to grow as a wisteria tree. Wisteria sinensis ‘Cooke’s Purple’, grows into a fragrant, purple stream of pea-like flowers, trailing long and followed by green, glistening leaves that are cold hardy from zone 5 ? 9. A grape-like cluster of purple flowers emit a fragrance of grapes with pure white blooms in the cultivar; Wisteria tree, Wisteria sinensis ‘Texas White’, is an excellent white-flowering Wisteria tree.
A number of less pursued flowering trees are: Japanese Snowball Tree, Viburnum plicatum, that flowers in summer and again in the fall if abundant water is applied. The grapefruit size, greenish-white flower clusters are stunning and dramatic, as they bloom before the leaves appear. The Jerusalem tree, Parkinsomia aculeata, is also called the ‘Jew Tree’; by tradition was rumored to be the tree that was used to prepare the ‘crown of thorns’ that was placed on the head of the crucified, Jesus Christ in Jerusalem. The fern-like leaves provide a background of green to view the golden yellow flowers that begin blooming in summer and then reappear several times until frost. Paulownia, Blue Princess or Empress Tree, produces spectacular clusters of purple-blue flowers, sometimes growing three feet in length. This fast growing tree is best known for being planted as a commercial timber tree investment by former President, Jimmy Carter. Red Tips, Photinia fraseri, is best known in the spring growing bright red tips and waxy leaves, however, red tip is very fast growing, and in late spring, following the tips of leaves reddening, giant clusters of fragrant white flowers cover the tree. Scarlet locust trees, Sesbania grandifloria, is a native tree to the United States, growing vigorously in wetlands and producing brilliant scarlet blooms in the spring. The flowers completely cover the twigs of the tree with a backdrop of bright-green, fern-like leaves, delicately fluttering in the slightest breeze. Very few trees offer recurring flowers of such brilliant colors like Scarlet locust trees, Sesbania grandiflora.
Sweetbay Magnolia, Magnolia virginiana, produces bold-white, lemon scented blooms, appearing much like a miniature Southern Magnolia flower, Magnolia grandiflora. The waxy, Sweetbay magnolia blooms appear, beginning in the fall. This evergreen magnolia tree has fragrant bark and leaves that can be substituted for the herb, bay leaves. Sweetbay magnolia trees turn dramatic colors of red, yellow, and orange during the fall, but fall intermittently followed by waxy-green new leaves. Even though the Southern Magnolia, Magnolia grandiflora, is classified as an evergreen shade tree, it is famous for the gorgeous fragrant flowers of huge proportions, one foot wide, that bloom in early summer. Renowned Artists of paints and cameras have admired the glorious Magnolia blossom and chose to pose them to compose masterpiece works that would be celebrated in Museums of the World. Many hybridizers have chosen to genetically create Japanese Magnolias of many sizes and colors; white, red, pink, purple and red. Some mail order nurseries offer sites to buy outstanding hybrids like: Alexander Magnolia, Brooklyn Girls magnolia trees, Butterfly magnolia, Little Gem magnolia tree, Leonard Messel magnolia shrub, Randy Magnolia Bush, Southern Select magnolia tree, Star White magnolia, Sunsation magnolia, Wada’s Memory magnolia tree, and Yellow Lantern Magnolia trees.
Gordonia flowering tree, Gordonia lasianthus, is also known as the loblolly bay tree, that is closely related to and similar to the ?Lost Gordonia?, that had almost become extinct, except for the fortunate rescue by famous botanist and explorer, William Bartram, who in 1773 wrote in his book, Travels, page 465, a memorable description. The flowering tree was named by him after his good friend, Benjamin Franklin, Franklinia altamaha, ?I had the opportunity of observing the new flowering shrub, resembling the Gordonia, in perfect bloom, as well as bearing ripe fruit. It is a flowering tree of the first order, for beauty and fragrance of blossoms…the flowers are very large, expand themselves perfectly, and are of snow white colour, and ornamental with a crown of tassel of gold coloured refulgent staminae…? We never saw it grow in any other place, nor have I ever seen it growing wild, in all my travels from Pennsylvania…to the Mississippi.? Cassia trees, are covered completely in in the fall with golden yellow flowers in late fall growing to 12 feet tall. Cassia trees are cold hardy in zones 8 ? 10, and the beautiful fern-like leaves almost escape notice when the Cassia tree is in full bloom. The Chaste Tree, Vitex agnus-castus, is covered with flowers in summer and fall with fragrant flowers in colors of blue or white being available to buy. The gray-green leaves of the Chaste trees are very fragrant, and the trees are cold hardy in Zones 6 - 10.
About the Author:
Patrick A. Malcolm, owner of TyTy Nursery, has an M.S. degree in Biochemistry and has cultivated flowering trees for over three decades.
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Kiefer was born in 1945, the year referred to as “zero hour,”or the beginning of the post-Nazi era and rebirth of independent German culture. His first recognized paintings symbolized the massive upheaval of the country?s citizens following WWII. He addresses the loss of cultural identity, socio-economic instability and guilt-stigma following the delusional enforcement of the Fascist campaign, and the Cold War to follow.
Kiefer was influenced by the abstract intellectual art of the 1970s. Although not easily classified, his genre is agreed upon as New Symbolism- an offshoot of Symbolism, first expressed in poetry, but later extended to other art forms. The movement stresses impressions by suggestion rather than by direct statement, such as seen in the painting?s of Edvard Munch, Odilon Redon, and Gustave Moreau. Although he is Symbolist in message and subject matter, his articulation is clearly Neo-expressionist- a movement of painters made popular in Europe and America in the 1980s, characterized by the artist?s intense emotional subjectivity and the aggressive handling of materials. Neo-Expressionist paintings are typically created rapidly, sometimes with found objects in their surfaces.
In his early years, he began creating typically massive, gestural paintings that contained figurative elements, but also layers of recognizable symbols. He explored his peoples? uncertain cultural identity through the blatant use of Nazi images, German mythological figures and characters from Wagner?s epic operas.
He used new combinations of mixed media- underlying photographs, photo emulsion, lead, pottery shards, glass, sand, ash and plant materials that he knowingly chose to add a delicate and temporary aspect. This is evident in “Your Golden Hair, Margarete”(oil and straw) where he references “Death Fugue” a poem by Paul Celan about the experience of a German death camp. Here, strata of drab hues provide a backdrop for an abstract figure with straw representing the golden hair of the Nazi?s Aryan ideal.
In Resurrexit (oil on canvas, burlap), he depicts a path leading through dark woods leading to distant building. The serpent represents Satan occupying humanity?s travel. Above, there is a creaky staircase with a shut door which represents Heaven, and our lack of accessability to it.
Kiefer?s style evolved noticeably as he countered Germany?s cultural isolation with extensive traveling. He no longer focused solely on Germany’s role in civilization, but the trauma experienced by entire societies throughout time. Through Nordic, Egyptian, Greek, early Christian, middle-eastern, as well as Jewish mystic imagery he explores more deeply human philosophical dilemmas- heaven and hell, thrise and fall of empires, death and rebirth.
An example is “Nero Paints”(oil on canvas), an almost violent landscape with a dark impressionistic quality from a distance, but up close buildings are burning in the upper right corner. Much of the image is obscured by a red, crudely drawn artists? pallette. The title and imagery convey a leaders self-interest and indifference to his empire?s destruction, the case for Caesar Nero.
Kiefer later moves toward more general messages, and further refines his technique. As he becomes more elaborate and sculptural, his messages become more universal, less literal. In ” The Milky Way,”(emulsion, oil, acrylic, shellac with wires and lead) there are no stars present. We see a landscape that appears to be torched, giving an impression of devastation. In the foreground, a funnel hopes to capture the illuminating golden light of the scene and rejuvenate the land.
In “The Book”(oil, lead, photographic paper, straw, fabric on canvas) a large, lead tome floating over a dark, barren landscape. The book is open to, potentially, a bible passage marking disaster, but it could also symbolize the wisdom of humanity, our redemption.
“The Order of Angels”(oil on canvas, plane propellor, rocks) shows a plane propellor and rocks representing meteorites that have fallen to shore. The painting suggests the horrors of war, and Heaven itself falling from the sky.
Toward the end of the century, Kiefer seems to become more optimistic. Much of his symbolic imagery moves toward star charts, books, and ladders. This depicts his hope for humanity bettering itself. In “Falling Stars” (oil on canvas) a half-bare figure, similar to Kiefer himself, lies across his own signature barren landscape gazing at constellations.
In time, uncertainty eventually yields stability- for the artist, Germany and all people. Kiefer shows us the universal thread stitched through all cultures, and the beauty that can be seen in the ugliest parts of humanity. Through his work we develop a sense of possibility, while being made more aware of the debris none of us can shake loose.
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Jesse Wanamaker is a freelance writer for http://www.nonstarvingartists.com. You can find more art commentary at http://www.nonstarvingartists.com/Members |
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