Thursday, January 01, 2009

Teresa's Trees

For some time now I have wanted to inventory the trees in our yard. So here goes! Those with an asterisk were here since we moved in which was 1989.

FRONT YARD:

2 Pacific Fire (Acer Circinatum)
1 Cornus Venus (Kousa x Nuttalli x Kousa)
1 Vine Maple (Acer circinatum)
1 Cedrus deodara*
1 Japanese Maple*

More shrub-like:
1 Pheasant Berry Himalayan Honeysuckle
(Leycesteria formosa)'Golden Lanterns'
1 American Cranberry (Viburnum Trilobum)
1 Black Elderberry (Sambucus Nigra)

BACK YARD

1 Blue Sequoia (Sequoia sempervirens 'Aptos Blue')
1 Golden Cedar (Thuja occidentalis “Fastigiata”) I have this as a container tree.
1 Stellar Pink Dogwood (Cornus 'Rutgan' STELLAR PINK)
1 Pacific Madrone (Arbutus menziesii)
1 Eucalyptus: Unknown variety, published at a farmers' market on Vashon Island in about 2002.
1 Sweet Gum (Liquidambar styraciflua)
1 Asian Pear with grafts of 3 types of pears
1 Japanese White Pine (Pinus parviflora 'Tempelhof')
1 Apple tree * (This is most likely the oldest tree in the yard as the area was many small orchards before the suburbs began in the 1950s.)
1 Coral Bark Maple (Acer palmatum’Sango Kaku’)
1 Autumn Moon Maple (Acer Shirasawnum) bought in 2003 from Heronswood Nursery
1 Japanese Cherry (Prunus Serrulata Shogetsu) bought in 2004 from Swanson's Nursery
1 Pin Oak (Quercus palustris)
7 Native Cherry Trees*, each with multiple trunks on our west fence line
Hazel Nut* intertwines in one Cherry tree, has multiple trunks and is quite shrubby but tall and makes a great middle canopy for my shade garden.
2 Variegated dogwoods, also shrubby but tall (12-15 ft.) and fast growing.
1 Cornus Satomi, a short beauty with pink blooms in late spring in the understory of my woodland garden.
1 Midwinter Fire Dogwood (Cornus sanguinea) This one wants to be a shrub but I am doing my darnedest to make it behave like a tree; it is about 8 feet tall. I bought it from a Northwest Perennial Association sale in about 1998.
1 California Palm* this is a 'sucker' off the original one which we cut down YEARS ago. I know this is not the right name of this tree. It has a thorny trunk and soft wood. It looks nothing like a palm to me but an elderly neighbor who has since deceased told me that is what the original house owners called this tree.
2 Sumac* Just about every other yard has sumac in our neighborhood. Ours are about 18 feet tall and they are 'suckers' from the original trees. In fact this is a sumac which we moved from the southeast corner of our fence to the berm in the middle of the back yard.
2 Draecena arborea ; Those 12 foot, palm like trees in the pots flanking our stairs to the backyard started out as little accents in pots along with geraniums and lobelia. What a surprise! Everyone refers to them as 'palms' but they aren't.

O.K. This is a start to the inventory. All the trees are listed. Next I would like to put approximate years I purchased them and in summer I would like to photograph each of them and put it into an album or slide show. I don't think I need to buy any more trees.

Lastly I want to say a big YAHOO to blue skies and sunshine. I have been feeling very vitamin D deprived! It was cold out, but at least for today the gray skies were gone.

3 comments:

Rosemary said...

What a big collection ! Great idea to list what you have, where it came from and when.
I too am glad to see a bit of sun and blue sky , so many grey days.

Barbara said...

Ok ...I live in the desert and the trees in my yard are orange trees.. and cactus.
You are certainly blessed to have so many wonderful trees.
Not fair, I think that is why my son wants to live in Seattle (all the wonderful vegetation reminds him of our home growing up in the east…Maryland) and not Phoenix.
He is talking about it a lot lately. (They are the ones in Utah now)
Hey how is the new job working out?
Well in the morning, it will be Monday…back to the kiddos:)
Have a fun week getting back and hearing all the stories about Santa:)
Fondly, B.

Teresa said...

Big collection and plenty of work; but I do love it! Barbara, thanks for asking about the new job. It really deserves a post all it's own but suffice to say it is going quite well. He has had two days behind the wheel and sounds like he is gaining confidence. Right turns are challenging, I'm told, and today he was pleased to report that he did not go over any curbs!