Trees, Shrubs and Conifers: Got a viburnum orientale from Raulston Arboretum, 1 by DonnaMack

DonnaMack wrote:
Just took some time to follow your link about Seneca Gardens. Quite cool. Here, we lost TONS of ash trees. If it is on a parkway, the community will actually pay for the entire cost of replacement if you choose a tree from the approved list. This can have some downsides. They must have planted 200 japanese tree lilacs. When I go running I can count 50 within a few blocks. Nice tree - until the flowers turn brown, and then it\'s hideous.

I lost the tree in front of my house many years ago, but I noticed that visitors to the neighborhood tended to go out of their way to park under your shade tree, even if it is half a block away from their destination. Frankly, unless it is a vintage jaguar (the car I fell in love with as a teenager) I really don\'t want to look at your car. And mine is the only house on my side of the street to face forward - the other two are on the corners. So instead I planted REALLY big stuff and two thorny roses - Madame Hardy, a lovely white non-recurrent rose from 1832, and Constance Spry, David Austin\'s first rose, in the first picture.

Of course, I also plant thornless roses (Kathleen Harrop, in the second picture, a sport of the famous Zephirine Droughin, which I also have), but people don\'t know it\'s thornless. Would you put your car next to this and climb out? I don\'t think so. Provides great protection for plants like my peonies, and insures that your beater won\'t mar my view for hours.

On the other hand, it attracts really lovely walkers and some entire families, who pay me the incredible compliment of saying that my house is a destination because of the plantings. For the particularly delightful, I will cut a rose or a peony and give it them.

Gardening can really bring people together.