Tree Planting At Joe Kaluza's Home - Saturday, November 21

[Mary_Krupa]

Also, Jack Slanina was a volunteer, too!  Thanks, Jack!

[jay]

Let me start by saying thanks to all the wonderful people and companies who are helping to construct this new home for Joe Kaluza.  Signs from many of the contributing companies line the front sidewalk.

After the hole was dug in the front yard, the crew of volunteers were ready to place the Fringetree.

The volunteers gathered around the tree for a group photo.  A light lunch was provided by another volunteer.

[Mary_Krupa]

Treez Please planted a fringetree at Joe's house. The following people helped with the plantings today:  Jean Engle, Terry Esarco, Elida Schiavone, 7th Ward Councilman John R. Swierz, John Rovnak, Robert Rovnak and me.

Plant of the Week Fringetree
Latin: Chionanthus virginicus

Fringetree is one of our most beautiful spring flowering trees, but because it is hard to propagate, it is seldom seen in Arkansas gardens.

It's easy to be a gardener in the spring because a never ending parade of plants awaken from their slumber and do their thing.

One of the finest of these spring bloomers is the fringetree (Chionanthus virginicus), a small tree considered by many to be one of our most beautiful native plants. But, beautiful as it is, it remains uncommon in gardens.

Fringetree, also called Grancy Gray-beard and Old-man's beard, is native throughout the southeastern states but is nowhere abundant. In Arkansas, it occurs in all but the Delta region but is most commonly met in the Ouachitas and southern counties. It blooms as the dogwoods finish and after the trees have leafed out, so it's easy to miss in its wild habitat.

It grows as a multi-stemmed tree or large shrub, usually reaching 15 to 20 feet in height and spread in cultivation. It can reach 30 feet in the wild with a main trunk sometimes 10 inches through, though such specimens are rare.

The snow-white fringetree flowers are produced in loose, terminal 6-inch long panicles that have the ethereal look of puffy white clouds. Each flower on the panicle is four-petaled, strap shaped blooms. Individual plants are dioecious (either male or female), with male plants being more showy because of their longer petals. Like forsythia, the fringetree belongs to the olive family.

Fringetrees are deciduous with the opposite, 6-inch long, toothless, glossy green leaves appearing as plants bloom. Fringetrees are notoriously slow growing, seldom making more than 6 inches of growth a year.

The absence of this native beauty from our gardens is not for want of trying. It has so far eluded all attempts at commercial scale propagation by cutting and grafting has been problematic because of the need for a good rootstock. Most plants seen in gardens are raised from seed, which require two years to germinate. But, because they' re so slow growing, only native plant specialist nurseries are willing to devote the time needed to produce them.

Fringetree is considered one our finest native trees in England. It was first sent there by John Bartram (1699 - 1777), the intrepid naturalist from Philadelphia responsible for introducing so many New World plants to England. Bartram farmed on the banks of the Schuylkill River and was a close friend of Benjamin Franklin. The home he built is now a city park and many of his plants still grow in the garden.

Bartram traveled from Canada to Florida in pre-Revolutionary days, collecting plants and seeds as he went. These he sent to a long list of correspondents in Europe, the most important being the woolen draper merchant Peter Collinson (1694 - 1768) who was an avid gardener.

Plant collecting was such a rage amongst the social elite of England that thieves began targeting the better collections. To remedy the problem, Parliament passed legislation making plant thievery a "transportable offense." Ship the hooligans off to Australia - that will teach them.

Though they never met, Bartram and Collinson corresponded for over 30 years and developed a deep friendship. Their letters, resplendent with "thees" and "thous" - for both were Quakers, survive and have been reprinted most recently in the Berleley's book, The Correspondence of John Bartram (University Press of Florida, 1992).

Fringetree is best in fertile, well-drained soil that does not get too dry during the summer. It will grow in light shade, but blooms best in full sun. Because it's slow growing, situate it where it will not be overpowered by nearby shrubbery.

By: Gerald Klingaman, retired
Extension Horticulturist - Ornamentals
Extension News - May 26, 2006

[Mary_Krupa]

Also planted today on Neilson Avenue by Treez Please:

Hackberry

By Sharon Brown (Sharran)
March 24, 2009

The hackberry tree does not stand a chance with a name like this. In fact its wood is not worth much, it makes an annoying mess if it stands over a vehicle or on a pathway. But it does have incredible value in the great scheme of things.

I have a friend whom I have known for many years. That's the thing about friends, when they hang around for "many" years, you know they can certainly be considered good friends. My friend is a generation older than I am, as a matter of fact he has been a retired physician for very nearly 20 years, and yet he still teaches an occasional class at the medical school in the city where he lives. And though he is well into his eighties, he also still rides his bike to work occasionally. He knows of my passion for plants, particularly their medicinal role in history. I don't see him often, but we talk on the phone quite frequently. This morning, I answered the phone, and he said: "Hey, whattya know about hackberry?"

"Not a lot," I said, "it produces a sweet fruit, and that's about all I know."

"Aha!" he said, "A valuable plant that you don't recognize!"

That was my challenge, he was one up on me, and he was keeping score.  He likes to talk about the value in plants, and how they might have benefitted cultures that came before ours, just as I do. I have to stay on my toes around him because, don't you know, the next time we talk, his first words will be: "What did you find out about hackberry?" He never forgets a thing.

Celtis occidentalis, the common Hackberry is a large tree native to North America. It has a slender trunk that grows to a height of sixty feet in the middle states, but can be much taller the further south it grows. It is not particular where it grows, it prefers moist soil, but will grow on gravelly or rocky hillsides. But it is very particular about sunlight, and must live in full sun in order to survive. The beauty of the tree is truly in its bark. It is a cork-like bark, light brown or silvery gray, smooth for the most part, but often with rough, wart-like protuberances. The wood is light yellow, heavy, soft, coarse-grained and not strong. The leaves are about 2 to 4 inches long, and at full growth are bright green, rough above, and paler green beneath. In autumn the leaves turn a bright yellow. It flowers in May, then produces small berries that turn orangey red to a really dark purple. They are ripe in September and October and remain on the branches during winter. I was wondering by then, if this tree had any value at all.

I can't regale you with stories about my experiences with hackberrys in the mountains of southeast Kentucky where I grew up. I remember the tree, and knew it as one that I didn't dare sit under in the fall. Its berries could fall to the ground, and my mother warned me about getting hackberry stains on my backside. It seems the stain was reluctant to come out of clothing. It was fun, though, to sit near the tree and to watch the birds and butterflies flit about its branches. I should have recognized its value from that alone.

Historically, early Americans made cakes by pulverizing the entire fruit, including the seeds. They made a sweet bread from it, one which could be stored and used indefinitely. The cakes often provided sustenance to weary explorers on their westward treks.  The Dakotas used the dried fruit as a spice, and other Native Americans used extracts of the tree to treat sore throats, coughs and colds. Even that alone did not make the tree valuable, because it is no longer extolled for its curative powers. And I have never seen it listed as a food item on any menu I have read.

That value was certainly not in the wood, because it is soft and rots easily, which makes it undesirable commercially. It is however used for some furniture, boxes, crates, and plywood. So here I was, trying desperately to find some value in this tree, otherwise my friend would never have questioned me about it.

I was beginning to doubt it had any purpose at all, and thought he must surely be joking me, when I suddenly realized it is one of the best food and shelter plants for wildlife. I had not really noticed that its berries remain on its branches throughout the winter months. Quail, pheasants, woodpeckers and cedar waxwings feed on its fruit. Also, it is pollinated by bees, and in turn the bees produce honey for those of us who love it. Honey is now being used medicinally in New Zealand, and many of us are concerned about the decreasing numbers of honeybees. Yet another of its valuable qualities is that it is larval and nectar source for so many butterflies, the tawny emperor and the mourning cloak, among many others.

I hope I am up to the challenge when I next hear from my friend. He will undoubtedly ask me first, "Whattya know about the hackberry?"

And like a true student of nature, I will enlighten him with all I have told you.

It's nice to have friends like that. He keeps me on my toes.

[jay]

Members of the SNOOPS Block Watch and Treez Please will plant at tree at the new home for Joe Kaluza on Saturday, November 21, at 1:00 p.m.  The home construction site is located on Ivanhoe Avenue on the south side of Youngstown.

Following the tree planting at Joe's home, the group will travel to Neilson Avenue to plant another tree in the SNOOPS neighborhood.