April Showers Bring
MAY FLOWERS
HAPPY
It rained a lot in April
is correct, May shou
lots of beautiful
Y MAY!
l, so if that old saying
uld bring us lots and
l spring flowers!
Flowers, trees, and even grass are not only just pretty, sometimes they serve bigger purposes. Landscape Architects like Stephanie White, RLA, CNU-A, LEED AP and Jon Allard, PLA select plants, flowers, trees, and grass for reasons including drainage, soil stability, shade, erosion control, or insulation. Here, Stephanie and Jon tell us a little about their favorite native plants, shrubs, and trees.
Topping both their lists is Summersweet (Clethra alnifolia). This flowering plant is native to the East Coast (from Florida all the way up to Nova Scotia). They are a great option to plant alongside streams or ponds because they help delay erosion. While their leaves are green most of the year, they turn golden in the fall. Their flowers are white or pale pink and give off a very sweet fragrance – which bumble bees love! Bumble bees are pollinators, which make them especially important to the growth of all plants, including crops. So this plant helps keeps water resources safe, encourages bees to pollinate, and looks pretty! No wonder why both Stephanie and Jon love this plant!
Stephanie loves the Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum) tree, and not just because it is the tree that gives us maple syrup! The Sugar Maple averages about 70 feet tall, but can grow up to 120 feet! In the United States, the Sugar Maple is found from Minnesota to Massachusetts because it prefers cold winters. One thing that is especially unique about this tree is that it is extremely shade tolerant – which means that it doesn’t need a lot of sunlight to prosper. The Sugar Maple is known for its leaves turning shades of beautiful reds and oranges, but this tree also helps its fellow trees. They have very deep roots and they perform what is called “hydraulic lift”, which means that they bring water up from deep in the Earth to the dryer layers higher up. This helps them survive, but also helps trees planted around them.
Jon is a big fan of the Highbush Blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum), which is a deciduous (which means it sheds its leaves every year) shrub that produces - you guessed it – blueberries! It is the source of the most commonly eaten blueberry in North America by us humans, but birds, bears, deer, and rabbits also love this plant. The Highbush Blueberry plant prefers acidic soil in marshy/swampy areas. This plant is great for the environment because after a few years, they require very little maintenance and then can live for 50 years or more!
Stephanie and Jon also both love Red Twig Dogwood (Cornus red osier), which is a very pretty shrub that is known for the deep red of its twigs (especially in the fall). They can grow up to 10 feet tall and also produce white blossoms. Butterflies and birds love the Red Twig Dogwood, and deer graze on them year round. What is unique about the Red Twig Dogwood is that the red twigs are very effective in the wintertime against snow. They are very hardy and are generally drought resistant. Their red color makes them ideal for an easy-to-see, natural border.
We hope you enjoyed learing about interesting native shrubs and trees with Stephanie and Jon.