Landscape Photos - April & May

I carefully choose the photos that accompany my Blog and articles. They illustrate what I want my writing to say...

• May 17th - Every year I do several elaborate container plantings for the entry way of a friend's house. This arrangement is from 2005.

• May 12th - Owners of this home in Charlottesville, VA were gracious enough to allow use of pictures and examples of landscape advice for articles here at Suite101. This is the entry way and the first of many pictures which will illustrate the series: "A Homeowner's First Landscape."

• May 3rd - Magnolia X soulangiana, the "saucer magnolia", is one of four magnolias which grace our front yard and entryway. This magnolia is interesting because it continues to flower sporadically through the summer, but nowhere near as magnificent as its late April / early May production.

• April 28th - This is the Seven-son Flower tree, Heptacodium miconioides, originally introduced from China, Zhejiang Province by Ernest "Chinese" Wilson in 1907, and reintroduced in 1980. Both times through the Arnold Arboretum, Boston, MA. Named because small flowers appear in September, in a whorl of six and with the whorl topped by another, the seventh, flower.

• April 20th - Acer buergerianum, the "Trident maple," unfortunately struggles in my landscape because we are right at the tip of its northern hardiness zone. It is classified as a small maple - perhaps under the most perfect conditions growing as high as 30-feet. Up close and personal, it is a beautiful tree when well-grown.

• April 12th - This Acer palmatum is a perfect example of a well-grown and cared for "red-leafed Japanese maple." I found it on a walk through a south-Roanoke, VA neighborhood (hardiness zone 7).