Projo Garden Blog

There is something similar between the gardener and the psychiatrist in me.

I have a desire and a natural curiosity to learn about particular plants or trees the same way I have strong interests to know and understand the patients or clients. As time goes by, I get to know the likes and dislikes of many flowering plants and know how to take better care of them. I am always amazed at how much more there is to learn the more I know - be it plants, trees or people.

This autumn, in the autumn of my years as well as my career, I notice and appreciate beauty around me more than ever before.

The flowering season for perennial and annual plants is practically gone, I now have time to pay attention to trees and learn their names. The Swan Point Cemetery has quite a collection of trees with labels of names identifying them. I truly enjoy walking around the grounds and learning the names of those that I did not know before including the sour wood tree with "red autumn foliage and tiny, woody fruit that persists into fall."

I remember when I first saw and was so impressed with the purple flowering trees in California in spring time and was told that they were Jacarandas. I could not find anyone who could give me the correct spelling of the tree then.

11.8.08

A few weeks ago I was in Los Angeles and saw everywhere I went trees with what look like pink or reddish flowers. I spotted a very big one covered with what I thought to be flowers near the pumpkin patch we visited. I was determined to find out its name and went around asking everyone from the customers to the owner of the lot right next to this huge tree. I must have asked at least 25 people and not a single person knew the name or even showed a curiosity to find out.

One of my daughter's colleagues at the TV station suggested that I Google it to try to identify the name from the characteristics of the leaf I picked from the tree. That did not work!

Eventually, my daughter's neighbor who has two of them on her property gave me the name. It was The Golden Rain tree (Koelreuteria paniculata) . I have seen the yellow flowers on these trees before, but could not remember seeing the reddish seedpods.

Well - you live and learn.

After returning to Providence, I learned from Liz Downing who had helped me with various projects that she, as part of the Trees 2020 project, had planted some Golden Rain trees right here on the East Side. I know that these trees grow rather fast; so we should soon be able to appreciate the beautiful yellow flowers and colorful seedpods for years to come.

 Tags  Golden Rain tree jacaranda names sour wood trees

Comments

Liz Downing said:

Hi Pat- It's so great to have a plant lover like you in my life, especially one who is so fun and easy to work with.
The golden rain trees I helped to plant were actually a part of the Providence Neighborhood Planting Program (PNPP), a partnership between the Mary Elizabeth Sharpe Street Tree Endowment, the city of Providence and the residents of Providence that provides street trees, sidewalk preparation and tree delivery to Providence neighborhoods at no cost.
Golden rain trees are just one of the many trees PNPP plants with neighborhoods across the city. (On average 200 to 250 street trees are planted each spring and fall through PNPP.)
Our City Forester, Doug Still and City Tree Resource Manager, Tom Morra select a wide variety of trees species each planting season that are all tolerant of sidewalk conditions.
A recent editorial http://www.projo.com/opinion/contributors/content/CT_sharpe22_10-22-08_95BVH92_v9.3e28f2b.html gives a bit of background on PNPP and the new Trees 2020 program, run by Groundwork Providence and the City of Providence and funded by the Helen Walker Raleigh Tree Care Trust. Trees 2020 also has a wide variety of trees, but this program operates differently, selling trees at low cost to Providence residents who wish to plant trees on their private property.
PNPP's website is www.pnpp.org. Trees 2020 is www.trees2020.org.

Link | November 9, 2008 4:24 PM
Report Abuse

---

pat said:

Thank you very much for the information on the tree planting and opportunity for everyone to obtain the trees at a low cost.

I hope to see Jacarandas in Providence some day .

Link | November 10, 2008 9:33 AM
Report Abuse

---

Leave a comment

Name:

Email:

URL:  

Remember personal info?

Captcha:

Type the characters you see in the picture above.