But soon, my focus in the landscape will be shifting elsewhere, as other plants will come into bloom and greedily steal my attention. That’s the wonderful thing about the rhythms of the seasons as played out in the garden: there’s no time to become bored with any one group of flowers, because our floral ensembles are subject to an inexorable Heraclitean flux. Saturday’s hero yields to a new star, who will, in turn, know the same fate. Not that we gardeners are fickle, mind you. We simply realize that admiring a landscape is more akin to watching a movie than to ogling a piece of sculpture: we find what we like in each frame but are always ready to move on to the next, so as to keep up. In the North, we have all winter to look back and critique the horticultural “film” that we have been watching unfold.

A perhaps unfortunate by-product of having Blue Chiffon in my yard is that, each time I think of the plant’s name, what floods my mind is the jingle for the old Chiffon Margarine commercials on TV. For those too young to remember, an actress playing Mother Nature was shown tasting (unbeknownst to her) some Chiffon and proclaiming it to be some of her “delicious butter.” When the narrator informs her that, no, it’s Chiffon, her response is, “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.”

But in the case of my yard’s next floral standout (I’m expecting it to bloom later this month), I did very much have to fool Mother Nature to make my enjoyment of it possible. I’m talking about crepe myrtle tree, one of the floral superstars of the landscape of the Southeast. There’s only one problem: I live in the zone-5 New England, not the Southeast.

So how did I pull the proverbial wool over Mother Nature’s eyes? By building a small protective plywood structure around my crepe myrtle (which I treat as a shrub rather than as a tree) and stuffing it to the gills with mulch, I created a microclimate to get it through the winter. Mother Nature fell for it hook, line and sinker.

I engaged in similar trickery with winter jasmine, which is not supposed to be hardy north of zone 6. My winter jasmine is planted up against the south wall of my house, which gives it a bit of an edge. Instead of wrapping it in a plywood structure, I built a mini-greenhouse out of plastic for it, with a removable top. The top could be lifted on warmish days in late winter to release excess trapped heat. The plant bloomed for me in early March, helping relieve the winter doldrums.

There are hardy types of palm trees that some people might be able to get away with growing; I haven’t dared try here in New England. Nor is there much hope for one of my Mediterranean-style favorites, the bougainvillea. I don’t think Mother Nature is quite that gullible.

That’s OK. I’m content with my success in the two cases of shysterism cited above. Every day now I gaze with appreciation at the foliage of my crepe myrtle (old leaves dark green, new ones red), brimming with anticipation for its blossoming. Never mind what the old commercial said. I say it’s so nice to fool Mother Nature!

J. Sterling Morton Award Dr. Anne Hallum

Anne Hallum of the Alliance for International Reforestation (A.I.R) in DeLand, Fla., was presented with the J. Sterling Morton Award, the highest honor given by the Arbor Day Foundation. Hallum founded her nonprofit organization to help people in Guatemala by establishing a better, more sustainable quality of life through tree-planting. The Morton Award is named after J. Sterling Morton, who founded Arbor Day in 1872. Under Hallum’s direction and guidance, the Alliance for International Reforestation has been educating residents in Guatemala and Nicaragua since 1993, working with 25 to 30 villages at a time, each for a period of five years. The staff (all native residents) educates indigenous volunteers about proper tree-planting and agroforestry that will provide sustainable farming as well as protection from frequent and dangerous mudslides. Through proper tree-planting, mountainside erosion is controlled and mudslides are avoided during the harshest of storms. The native trees planted by local volunteers and farmers help preserve important forests, which have a tremendous impact on the villages. These trees improve nutrition for people and livestock, provide animal habitat, clean the air, protect local water, supply firewood, shade homes and fertilize crops. A.I.R. has worked with more than 110 villages in rural Guatemala and Nicaragua, adding more than 3.7 million trees to the region’s rain forest.

View Award Video for Dr. Anne Hallum 

But first I wanted to share with all of you the opening remarks from the founder and CEO of the Arbor Day Foundation, John Rosenow.   

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.”

I think Emerson was speaking of the power of intention.  The good people we honor tonight, these Arbor Day Award winners, clearly made their decisions, and sent their intentions out to the universe — backed up with large doses of hard work and collaboration and love.

The results have included the planting of thousands and thousands and thousands of trees—and the triumph of the human spirit.

As we watch the descriptions of the wonderful work of these winners this evening, we will hear from an enthusiastic resident from one of the toughest streets in America, who saw an absolute transformation of her neighborhood.  She said, “It all started with the trees.”

Actually, I would say that’s not quite the case.  As these Arbor Day Award winners teach us, this work begins with the people—people who make the decision to make our world a better place, and embrace their intentions. People who have a vision of building a better future — of a grim urban area coming to life with a neighborly spirit, and with trees…of children whose daily lives are enriched by nature’s wonder, growing up to become champions of the environment… of a cattle ranch becoming a source of nature inspiration for artists… of mud-slide-prone hillsides restored to abundant rain forests… of urban forests rejuvenated following the devastation of Dutch elm disease or Emerald ash borer or hurricanes… of abandoned mined lands again made beautiful and bountiful with trees … of endangered species brought back from the brink …of small towns made vibrant … of broken lives made whole. 

Tonight we are meeting leaders who bring people together and create new connections — parolees and the physically impaired and students and artists and volunteers and professionals and elected officials… small nonprofits and government agencies and large corporations… villagers in remote mountain hillsides and neighbors in small towns and tough inner cities.

Ralph Waldo Emerson also said, “The purpose of life is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”  Our thanks to each of these Arbor Day Award winners that you have lived and lived well.  Our world is better because of you.

Starting next week we will begin a weekly series that looks at the 2011 National Arbor Day Award Winners.

Fragrant  Lilac

The fragrant Lilac tree will provide your garden with color and fragrance in the form of  long-lasting light purple or lavender flowers that bloom in April or May. It is a great choice for a hedge, screen or on its own as a landscape feature. Besides its pretty fragrant flowers, the Fragrant Lilac tree is known for its hardiness and ease of growing. It also requires very little pruning or aftercare and will thrive in most soil types though it prefers rich well-drained soil with a neutral PH.

Sargent Cherry

The Sargent Cherry is a fast-growing tree that can reach heights of 50 feet and makes a good garden or street tree. You can expect single pink flowers in spring, with a yellow and orange-red color in the fall.

Its life span is around 20 years and it is resistant to cold, wind and pests or diseases, while its small prized fruit is less messy than other varieties and therefore requires less cleaning up. This cherry tree needs some careful pruning to improve its strength but can be used along entry roads or on lawns as long as you allow enough space for its large canopy.

Northern Catalpa

This tree will grace your garden with white trumpet-shaped flowers that are 3-6cm across in late spring, and feature yellow stripes and purple spots.  The Northern Catalpa can grow almost anywhere in N. America but prefers full sun and moist soil with a high PH.

When choosing a Northern Catalpa for your garden, you should be aware that its branches may be prone to wind and ice damage and you also need to make sure that it does not have a negative effect on your other shrubs with the large amount of shade it casts. It will need plenty of space to avoid crowding out your other plants and it also requires some cleaning up of the fruit and seeds it drops.

View more flowering trees

But now that I’ve established my credentials as a lover of trees, let me state what I really set out to say when I sat down to write this blog post today. Large trees, as indispensable as they are, pose an awfully difficult challenge in landscaping — unless that’s all you wish to grow in your yard.

Planting under evergreen trees is notoriously tough. Many homeowners struggle with bare spots under eastern white pines, since the trees have shallow roots that suck up all the available moisture. Because of these scorched-earth tactics, folks have a hell of time growing grass there. Only the most virulent of ground cover plants, such as sweet woodruff, are up to the challenge.

If it were just a question of what can be planted directly under a tree’s canopy, that would be one thing. But it doesn’t end there. You also have to worry about the amount of space consumed by the shadows cast by trees. If you have large trees along the perimeters of a small property and you’re trying to garden with full-sun plants somewhere in the middle, you may have to acknowledge the negative impact that morning shading (from the east) and late-afternoon shading (from the west) is having on your flower bed.

Then there are little things that are so easy to overlook. For example, I have some perennial flowers growing under a Kwanzan cherry tree (which isn’t even very large, as trees go). In the case of my candytuft, at least, I now realize that this was a landscaping mistake on my part.

Candytuft boasts brilliant white flowers, which constitutes the main reason for growing this perennial. The flowers don’t last long, so you really need to enjoy candytuft’s floral display while you have the chance. And what kind of background do white flowers look best against? Why, a dark one, of course. Well, as luck would have it, guess what time the Kwanzan sheds its light-pink flowers? At the very time when candytuft is coming into bloom, that’s when. So the ground in this area, which otherwise would be a dark color — the perfect contrast for the brilliance of candytuft’s flowers — is instead littered with bright cherry blossoms.

It just doesn’t seem fair. But then again, that’s what happens when you ignore the 800-lb. gorilla in the yard — or, as in the case of a relatively small tree such as my Kwanzan — even the 200-lb. gorilla!

I learned this lesson the hard way last summer.  I planted a Japanese Red Maple Tree in my wild flower garden. 

 At the beginning of the season, the tree was doing great and the wildflower garden was thriving as well.  I thought to myself, I am starting to get a green thumb.  But then the wildflower garden really took over. The number of sun flowers were just overwhelming and made the whole garden look more like a neglected area of the yard verses a plan. 

Ultimately my wife and I decided that we were going to put our house up for sale.  This lead me to the decission of “we better get rid of that out of control corner garden”.  An evening with the tree loppers took care of the “garden”.  What I forgot to consider was the impact of my thriving Japanese Red Maple. 

Throughout the process of the wild flower garden I keep a keen eye on my little friend.  The one foot potted tree that once was tallest item in the garden was now dwarfed by the other plants.  But to me it was still the champion of the garden.  My weekly check-in showed that it was doing well among the shade of the other plants.  But with the removal of the wild flowers, I lost the shade needed for my little red champion.  

After the removal of the flowers and a few days of sun full and cooking in the August heat the leafs started to weep.  I attempted to add a tree tube to add shade, but it was too late.  I lost the tree. 

What I wish I would have known at the beginning of my planting was the rules of Full Sun, Partial Sun, and Full Shade plants.  If I would have been more aware of this my decission would have never been to plant the Japanese Maple in the corner in full sun.  The fact of the matter was I was lucky that the wild flower garden erupted and shaded the tree.  But now at my expense you will have some handy rules of the “green” thumb.

Full Shade = Only Two Hours or Less of Sun

Partial Sun/Partial Shade = Four to Six Hours of Sun

Full Sun = Six plus hours of Sun.

I am curious what are you doing this Arbor Day to continue this 140 year old tradition? 

We recently sold our house and purchased a new house, allowing her to fully commit to creating the garden.  She recently order vegetable seeds and is starting to make plans on the location of the raised planter bed in the new backyard.  I reminded her that in addition to the traditional vegetable garden crops that we could add some edible trees and shrubs.  The strong benefit of trees and shrubs besides providing a new source of “groceries” is that we only need to plant them once compared to some vegetables. 

There are many choices that we can make but was reminded by one of her magazines to plant what you will eat.  That narrows down our choices since we are both picky eaters. 

In the end we agreed that we are going to explore finding a space an apple tree. 

Any suggestions on other fruit trees or nut trees we should add?  We have limited space in our new backyard.

  The Bradford Pear is Not For You If…

• You mind the somewhat rank odor of the flowers and the mess the fruit makes
• You are looking for a strong tree that lasts years and years. The Bradford Pear suffers from a weak structure that causes the tree to split if laden with snow or beaten by the wind.
• You are looking for a tree with a deep root system. The Bradford Pear has very shallow roots and grows suckers that need taming regularly.

The Bradford Pear is For You if….

• You want a fast growing tree that flowers early in spring
• You are looking for rich autumn color (reds) and white spring blossoms
• You want to attract birds to nest in the tree and eat the fruit
• You are prepared to prune carefully to make up for the weak structure

Popular Alternatives to the Bradford Pear

The Japanese Zelkova is another colorful tree that will complement your property. It is very tolerant to wind, drought and air pollution and provides a good amount of shade. It is great as a yard or street tree due to its attractive vase-like profile and can double its height in 4-6 years.

The Red Maple will bring year-round red color to your yard and display deep scarlet leaves in the fall. Also a fast-growing tree, it can grow anywhere and provides a good amount of shade. The Red Maple is a popular landscape tree which produces flower and fruit in the spring before most other species.

The Chinese Pistache is a popular ornamental tree that is very long-lasting and has a very hard wood. It is deep rooted, drought-resistant and, very importantly, disease and insect-free. It grows 2-3 feet a year into a medium-sized shady tree with spectacular fall colors.

Further clouding the issue is the age-old debate of whether we should classify something according to its intrinsic qualities or how it is used by humans. The uses for a landscape plant such as rose of sharon include mass usage in a hedge to form a privacy screen and individual usage as a specimen plant.

In the latter case, homeowners will probably want to prune the lower branches off of their rose of sharon so as to encourage the development of one main stem (i.e., a “trunk,” such as trees have). By contrast, in the former case, it makes sense to let rose of sharon grow as a multi-stemmed shrub, because the lower branches will help screen out prying eyes.

Another shrub that has achieved tree status in the minds of some is PeeGee hydrangea. Trained so as to develop a single stem, mature specimens strike an impressive pose in the yard. And because they’re tough customers once established, they became fixtures, in my area (New England, U.S.), in many a graveyard, where they continue to thrive will little TLC from humans.

PeeGee hydrangea does have one PR problem working against it, however, when it comes to winning honorary tree status: The genus of hydrangeas is inextricably associated with plants that are clearly shrubs, ranging from the widely-known ‘Nikko’ blue hydrangeas to the new Incrediball hydrangea plants. Even oakleaf hydrangeas conform to the shrub world’s modus operandi, with the exception of the shape of their leaves (they really do look like oak leaves!).

The opposite is true for the contorted hazelnut or “corkscrew filbert.” Bearing such a “nutty” name, our thoughts naturally lead to nut trees. But this twisted cultivar, created by grafting, is considered a shrub. Planting a contorted hazelnut is a good idea for the winter landscape if you live in a cold region, because this little giant really comes into its own after it loses its leaves: It’s only during the winter and early spring, when it’s leafless, that you can fully appreciate the labyrinthine structure of its branches.