Thursday, October 18, 2007

Chinese Elm 'Central Park Splendor'


Chinese Elm
Ulmus parvifolia 'Central Park Splendor'
(ULM-us) (par-vee-FOH-lee-uh)
Ulmaceae (ulm-AY-see-ay)
Synonyms: Lacebark Elm, ‘A. Ross Central Park’, ‘Across Central Park’

I saw this tree at the NYBG and it was quite beautiful. It has an interesting history, which you can read a bit on
here (Wikipedia)

and here:
Michigan Tech.edu

One thing about this Chinese Elm is the fact gardeners in Zone 5 can grow it; that is much hardier than species.


This next picture I took at work yesterday. It is the foliage of one of my favorite trees, Stewartia pseudocamellia or Japanese Stewartia. I like the form, bark, flowers, foliage and the fall color of this tree, pretty much everything. I am surprised more people don’t use it.



In the department of having your camera when you need it, I saw this picture when I was dropping my dogs off at day camp on Tuesday morning. It didn’t come out as well as I wanted it to but at least I had my camera to try it. I will probably reshoot it next week when the foliage gets some more color and try a couple of different exposures. Now yesterday I went to check on a garden at a house that no lives in. Well the people do use it a couple of weekends a year. In the morning I saw my camera in the kitchen and said to myself I probably won’t have enough time to get any pictures today. So I left it home. When I got to the house I pulled in the driveway and saw what I thought was a stray dog. Turns out it was a Coyote. We looked at each other for minute and he ran through the neighbor’s yard. I backed out quickly and knew since the road took a turn that I could cut him off and sure enough he out of the woods to cross the road not too far from me. Boy do I wish I had my camera.

Busy day today, that’s all for now.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love the light coming through the elm. And the railroad photo is gorgeous as well! I've only seen a coyote once, it was crossing the interstate in Texas. I barely missed it on my side of the road and it met its fate on the other side with a truck. :(

Juhi said...

Look ta those colors. Abslutely wonderful shots!

Phillip Oliver said...

Michael Dirr raves about the Japanese Stewartia and I've always wanted one. However, they are very hard to find. I've resisted the temptation knowing that I would have to mail order it and probably get a twig. As always, great photos.

Ki said...

The backlighting really makes the Chinese elm leaves look great! I just bought three different types of Stewartia last year and two of them are doing well but one seems to have lost it's leaves prematurely and I'm fretting. Hope I don't lose it. I don't know how you can improve on the railroad track photo except perhaps if the sun were lower and the light were a bit warmer but you could lose the illumination of the near tracks so that may not be a good suggestion. I guess you could camp there while the sun set and shoot a frame every minute or so and pick out the best one. A bit like cheating but...

Anonymous said...

Love the stewartia! I will have to put a Chinese elm on 'the list'! The railroad tracks picture is a beautiful shot!

mitzh said...

I love the railroad track shot, it's so gorgeous!

Digital Flower Pictures said...

misti, That Coyote was very cool looking. If he keeps playing in the road he might meet the same fate. :(

phillip, Maybe they are hard to propagate as you don't see them too often. I have have bought a lot of tress from mail order and so of them are huge now. Try Greer Gardens.

Ki, thanks, Hope your tree pulls through. I am lucky that I am 100% on the dozen or so Stewartias I have planted. :lol: On the minute by minute time lapse, that would take too much patience. The sun being lower is what I think it needs.

Layanee It is a beautiful tree that is mid sized. I think you would like it.

mitzh, hey there. Thanks for the comment.