Podcast: Let's Argue About Plants

Episode 157: Flowering Trees for Every Season  

Episode 157: Flowering trees for every season
Due to their size and expense, gardeners tend to put a lot more thought into the trees they ultimately buy for their landscape. While a perennial might only live for 6 or 7 years, a tree might grace your garden for 50 years or more—outliving the pers
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      Video by Danielle Sherry and Carol Collins, Edited by Nate Gruca

      Due to the size and expense of trees, gardeners tend to put a lot more thought into the ones they ultimately buy for their landscapes. While a perennial might only live for six or seven years, a tree might grace a garden for 50 years or more—perhaps outliving the person who so carefully selected it. Here at Fine Gardening, we feel strongly that trees should look good in more than one season (for all of the reasons above AND because they take up a lot of real estate). Therefore, on today’s episode, we may be highlighting our favorite flowering trees for every season, but these choices have more going for them than just some fleeting blooms. Listen to learn about which trees we’re willing to sacrifice a chunk of our paycheck on and why.   

      Amanda Bennett is vice president of horticulture and collections at Atlanta Botanical Gardens in Georgia. 

      Danielle’s Plants 

      Spring: ‘Don Egolf’ Chinese redbud (Cercis chinensis ‘Don Egolf’, Zones 5b–9)  

      ‘Don Egolf’ Chinese redbud
      Spring: ‘Don Egolf’ Chinese redbud

      Summer: ‘Milk and Honey’ Japanese stewartia (Stewartia pseudocamellia ‘Milk and Honey’, Zones 5–7) 

       ‘Milk and Honey’ Japanese stewartia
      Summer: ‘Milk and Honey’ Japanese stewartia with pollinators aplenty

      Fall color on stewartia

      Autumn: Red Balloon® viburnum (Viburnum × rhytidophylloides ‘Redell’, Zones 4–8) 

      Red Balloon® viburnum
      Autumn: Red Balloon® viburnum

      Winter: ‘Pink Perfection’ camellia (Camellia japonica ‘Pink Perfection’, Zones 7–10) 

      'Pink Perfection' camellia
      Winter: ‘Pink Perfection’ camellia

      Carol’s Plants  

      Spring: ‘Wada’s Memory’ magnolia (Magnolia × kewensis ‘Wada’s Memory’, Zones 5–8) 

      'Wada's Memory' magnolia
      Spring: ‘Wada’s Memory’ magnolia, recently featured in a Mid-Atlantic regional report

      Summer: sourwood (Oxydendrum arboreum, Zones 5–9) 

      Sourwood
      Summer: Sourwood habit. Photo: courtesy of Famartin via Wikimedia

      Sourwood, flower
      Sourwood, flower. Photo: courtesy of Kwaśnodrzew Amerykańsk via Wikimedia

      Autumn: seven-son flower (Heptacodium miconioides, Zones 5-9) 

      Seven-son flower,
      Autumn: seven-son flower (habit)

      Seven-son flower
      Seven-son flower (flower)

      Winter: ‘Sweet Sunshine’ witch hazel (Hamamelis × intermedia ‘Sweet Sunshine’) 

      ‘Sweet Sunshine’ witch hazel
      Winter: ‘Sweet Sunshine’ witch hazel, with Adam Wheeler for scale

       

      Expert’s Plants  

      Winter:  Yunnan magnolia (Magnolia laevifolia syn. M. yunanensis, Zones 8b–11) 

      Yunnan magnolia
      Winter:  Yunnan magnolia. Photo: courtesy of Ideachick via Wikimedia Commons

      Spring: two-winged silverbell  (Halesia diptera, Zones 6–9)

      Two-winged silverbell
      Two-winged silverbell. Photo: courtesy of Daderot via Wikimedia Commons

      Summer: Japanese stewartia (Stewartia pseudocamellia, Zones 5–8) 

      Japanese stewartia
      Summer: Japanese stewartia

      Fall: common witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana, Zones 3–9) 

      Common witch hazel
      Fall: common witch hazel. Photo: courtesy of Doug McGrady via Wikimedia Commons

       

       

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