There was a time when the halls were decked with boughs of holly! Merry-makers strung their trees with popcorn and cranberries, and yule logs made of real wood warmed the hearth. As we try to reduce our use of plastic in daily life, it can be fun and satisfying to use natural materials in holiday decorations.
And, if you have a yard heavily planted with native plants, you’ll have plenty of ornamental material to choose from! The same plants that provide winter interest in our residential landscapes can add touches of natural beauty to holiday mantles, tables, vases, wreaths, and trees.
Three great native shrubs have been featured here with photos and information about their landscape use: American Holly, Winterberry, and Red Twig Dogwood (also called Red Osier Dogwood). All three also make great, long-lasting holiday decorations, and they don’t mind being pruned a bit for that purpose.
American Holly (Ilex opaca) is a classic!
No need to buy plastic berries if you have a Winterberry (Ilex verticillata) in your yard
Red Osier Dogwood (Cornus sericea) benefits from a little pruning for holiday decorations.
The bright red accents from these shrubs combine beautifully with evergreen foliage for holiday color schemes.
Red Osier Dogwood and Winterberry contrast with Christmas Fern, a native evergreen, at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA
Horticulturists have been developing beautiful cultivars of Red Osier Dogwood that look great both in the landscape and in winter decorations. A cultivar called ‘Arctic Fire’ is a compact version that stays about 3 to 5 feet tall and has brilliant red stems. As strange as it seems, there are even yellow versions of Red Osier Dogwood! Yellow and golden cultivars bring winter interest to the landscape and a surprising burst of color to holiday decorations.
A golden cultivar
Indoor display at Longwood Gardens
Crabapples, Chokeberries, White Pine, and even Southern Magnolia are all American native plants that bring retro style to holiday arrangements. Try combining them with birch branches, dried flower stalks, twigs, pine cones, nuts, and other “found objects” from your yard. The cones of the White Pine don’t even need artificial snow — they come naturally “flocked” in their own pine sap!
Crab apples in December
Natural White Pine cones arranged on a native Alberta Spruce
Fireplace decoration by the Garden Club of Irvington for the Greenburg Nature Center combines native plants, a bird’s nest and wasp nest found on the grounds, and an invasive vine removed years ago from the forest
Charming ornaments for your tree or centerpieces also can be made from natural elements found in the garden.
But don’t scavenge in protected areas for these ornamental plants. Parks and wooded areas need all of these treasures to provide food and habitat for birds, insects, and other animals. It’s much better to plant your own property with native plants to add beauty year-round. And if you leave native perennials standing at the end of the season, the dried flower stalks not only provide food for winter birds but also make great additions to your seasonal decorations!
So, take a pass on the latest plastic holiday décor and, instead, look around your yard! If you have lots of native plants, and leave your flower beds untrimmed, all you need is a little creativity to deck your halls as in days of yore.
One last thing: do leave some of those beautiful berries for the birds. They love the natural decorations on the outside of your house!
Winterberry feast! Photo: Kristina Zagreda
THIS BLOG IS AUTHORED WEEKLY BY CATHY LUDDEN, CONSERVATIONIST AND NATIVE PLANT EDUCATOR; AND BOARD MEMBER, GREENBURGH NATURE CENTER. FOLLOW CATHY ON INSTAGRAM FOR MORE PHOTOS AND GARDENING TIPS@CATHYLUDDEN.
Though Arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis) may be the most-planted tree in suburban America, it has been given a diminished role unworthy of this majestic native tree. Planted by the thousands along property lines by developers, builders, and landscapers, rows of crowded Arborvitae trees, standing shoulder to shoulder, have become the de-facto fences of suburbia.
A typical builder installation of Arborvitae
Arborvitae “fence” on a property line
Without room to spread their branches or reach their natural height, Arborvitae is often topped and heavily pruned to form hedges. They handle this assignment very well, but Arborvitae can do so much more!
If you’ve only seen Arborvitae used as a hedge, it may surprise you to learn that in its natural habitat, it can grow 50 to 60 feet tall and live for hundreds of years! In fact, the largest known specimen is over 100 feet tall and more than 40 feet wide at the crown. The oldest living Arborvitae is thought to have germinated from seed in 952 A.D., and is now 1,071 years old! Based on ring counts on dead trees, there are verified specimens of Arborvitae that lived to be over 1,800 years old.
An ancient stand of Arborvitae on cliffs overlooking Northern Lake Michigan Photo: C.J. Earle
Arborvitae is one of the common names for Thuja occidentalis and means “tree of life” in Latin. It was named by the French sea captain, Jacques Cartier, when he was exploring Canada in 1536. After months at sea, Cartier’s crew, including two young members of the Huron native tribe who had been sailing with them, were all suffering from scurvy. On the way up the St. Lawrence River, Cartier dropped the two young men at their home village. When he later returned, he was astonished to find the two Hurons fully recovered from all symptoms of scurvy while his French sailors were still suffering. He asked the Huron elders to teach him the cure, and they showed him how to make a medicine, a tea rich in Vitamin C, from the foliage of Thuja occidentalis. Cartier brought the life-saving plant back to France, making it the first North American tree introduced to Europe.
The native habitat of Thuja occidentalis is swamps, low woods, and forest edges from northern Canada south to New York and Connecticut and west to Michigan and Northern Indiana. It is an evergreen conifer, extremely cold hardy, and adapted to poor rocky soils all the way to the edge of the Canadian tundra. Sometimes called Northern White Cedar, Eastern White Cedar, or Swamp Cedar, Arborvitae is not a true cedar in the Cedrus family, none of which are native to North America. But the fragrance of its foliage and bark, and the usefulness of its wood, are similar.
Arborvitae often grows in very thin, poor soil in northern North America and is adapted to extreme cold. This forest of Arborvitae is at the brink of the Niagara Escarpment in Northern Wisconsin. Photo: C.J. Earle
The foliage of Arborvitae is flat and scale-like and has a spicy fragrance when crushed. Native peoples used it not only for medicine but also used the fragrant foliage as insect-repellant bedding. They stripped the tree’s shredding bark to make rope and twine, and they found many uses for the rot-resistant wood, including canoe frames and roofing shingles.
Thuja occidentalis has significant value to wildlife. It is a favorite food of white-tailed deer, as suburban homeowners often discover to their dismay. Twigs and foliage of Arborvitae constitute as much as 10 to 25% of the winter diet of deer, who will browse it as high as they can reach. In northern forests, the tree also provides highly nutritious food for snowshoe hares, porcupines, red squirrels, and beavers. Many native birds find nesting sites in Arborvitae and insects to feed their young. The seeds are the preferred source of food for Pine Siskins, birds indigenous to the Northeastern US.
It is sadly ironic that one of the most-planted trees in suburbia is disappearing in the wild. Thuja occidentalis is listed as Threatened in Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky, and Maryland and Endangered in Indiana, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. Development is the primary culprit as forests are cleared to make way for more suburban homes.
It is equally sad that the rows and rows of Arborvitae planted on suburban property lines are not nearly as valuable to wildlife as they should be. The most popular varieties of Arborvitae are cultivars or hybrids that offer little value to wildlife – other than deer. A cultivar called ‘Emerald Green’ Arborvitae was developed in the 1950s in Denmark, just in time for the rapid expansion of the US suburbs after WWII. It quickly became the ubiquitous hedge plant we see all around us. In a tight hedge, and with limited biological diversity due to clonal reproduction by nurseries, its value to insects and birds is limited.
Not Native
Another Arborvitae popular with builders is a hybrid called ‘Green Giant,’ which is a cross between a species indigenous to the Pacific Northwest and a Japanese species. As a hybrid between two non-natives, ‘Green Giant’ has very little value to insects or birds in this part of the country. If you can find the straight species of Thuja occidentalis (without a cultivar name), plant that. If not, ‘Emerald Green’ is a better choice than ‘Green Giant.’
Thuja occidentalis is an amazing tree. It deserves to be more than a fence! Given enough room to take its natural form, Arborvitae merits a starring role in suburban landscapes.
Growing the way nature intended, Arborvitae takes its rightful place with Oaks, White Pines, and Junipers in Northeastern landscapes
In our last blog post [Privacy Without “O-fence“], we urged homeowners to diversify their hedges and privacy screens by planting a mix of native trees and shrubs to increase habitat and biodiversity. Too much of any one plant becomes a mono-culture, limiting resources for wildlife. Unfortunately, that is what has happened to this magnificent native tree.
Don’t limit Arborvitae to this poor fate
Think of Arborvitae as an easy-care, long-lived, medium-sized, native, hardy evergreen that will enhance your landscape as part of a diverse planting of trees, shrubs, and perennials. You won’t be sorry!
Mighty Arborvitae
THIS BLOG IS AUTHORED WEEKLY BY CATHY LUDDEN, CONSERVATIONIST AND NATIVE PLANT EDUCATOR; AND BOARD MEMBER, GREENBURGH NATURE CENTER. FOLLOW CATHY ON INSTAGRAM FOR MORE PHOTOS AND GARDENING TIPS@CATHYLUDDEN.
Suburban yards are places for families and friends to relax, perhaps enjoy a barbecue, and watch children and pets play safely. Privacy is important.
No wonder, then, that suburban homeowners often decide to plant a “privacy screen.” Hedges of trees or shrubs, planted as living “green fences,” are as common in suburbia as the lawns they typically surround.
But too often, these hedges are made with invasive plants that spread themselves into natural areas causing ecological harm. Top offenders include privet, Japanese barberry, forsythia, bamboo, and burning bush. All of these plants are recognized as invasive species and should be avoided.
Forsythia is not a good choice for a privacy screen
It spreads by underground runners into neighboring areas and is very difficult to remove
Bamboo is even worse
It really cannot be controlled!
Burning bush may look good for a minute
But it spreads by seed to wooded areas and replaces native plants
Japanese barberry, now banned in several states, spreads by seed into vacant lots, woods, and roadsides and actually increases the population of ticks carrying Lyme disease!
The good news is that the need for privacy does not require bringing any of these offensive plants onto your property. There are so many better choices!
In the Eastern US, the most popular privacy screen by far is Arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis), also known as Northern White-cedar. Favored by builders and landscape maintenance companies, a row of inexpensive and readily available Arborvitae is often planted along the property line as soon as a new house is built.
Straight rows of Arborvitae are a common sight in suburbia
Though Arborvitae is a much better choice than any of the invasive plants mentioned above, it is not the only — or best — option. In areas populated by deer, Arborvitae is extremely vulnerable.
Deer “prune” Arborvitae into weird shapes
There is no privacy when the deer are done
Here are some alternatives – beautiful evergreen trees and shrubs, native to the Northeast, that make ideal privacy screens. And because they are native, they also offer value to native birds and pollinators!
American Holly (Ilex opaca) makes a dense, evergreen privacy screen and has the bonus of tiny flowers for pollinators in the spring and beautiful berries that add winter interest to the landscape.
American Holly may be pruned into a hedge
Berries on American Holly feed winter birds
Rhododendron is another good choice for privacy. When European settlers first explored the Eastern US, they struggled through massive stands of Rhododendron maximum that formed impenetrable evergreen thickets. Why not use that same feature now as an effective screen? Our native songbirds love to hide in a thicket!
Rhododendron in the wild
Rhododendron screening a fence
Inkberry (Ilex glauca), another native evergreen, grows quickly and has shiny, dark green leaves that form a dense screen. More winter-hardy than boxwood and growing taller, Inkberry is a great hedge plant.
Inkberry in a mixed border with Red Twig Dogwood and Switch Grass
The very best privacy screen, though, is not a row of one species of plant, but a forest! The Northeastern US was once predominantly forest, and many of the plants in those forests are still the best plants to grow here. In suburban yards, we can mimic the beauty, seclusion, and peaceful quiet of a diverse forest simply by planting more stuff! And a bigger variety of that stuff is inspired by our native forests!
Maybe it’s time to reconsider our approach to the “privacy screen.”
Hedges can be great, but they can also be visually boring and ecologically sterile. There is no law requiring homeowners to mark their property boundaries with a row of identical plants. Just because your property line forms a rectangle doesn’t mean your landscape has to be one. A diverse mix of plants – native trees, shrubs, grasses, and perennials – planted in masses makes a landscape interesting, lush, ecologically valuable, and very private.
Contrasting approaches – the mixed border of deciduous and evergreen trees on the right offers more interest, and more privacy, than the hedge on the left
A mix of White Pine, Arborvitae, Spruce, Juniper, and Rhododendron completely screens a house from the road
If you already have a hedge or a fence along the property line, consider planting inside it using a mix of native trees and shrubs that change with the seasons. Start with the corners.
Trained landscape designers tend to avoid square corners and straight lines in their designed plantings. You can do the same thing. Map out curved beds that soften the corners and bring more plants further into your yard. Plant taller shrubs at the back, and choose flowering shrubs and perennials to plant in the foreground where you can enjoy them.
Fences along two neighboring properties meet to form a hard corner that is softened, and completely screened, by a curved planting of mixed trees, shrubs, and perennials
So, consider creating a privacy screen that looks more like a forest than a fence. By planting more plants, and a bigger variety of plants in more of your yard, you will have more privacy, more seasonal interest, less lawn to tend, and more habitat for birds, butterflies, and fireflies.
How’s that for a win-win-win-win?!
THIS BLOG IS AUTHORED WEEKLY BY CATHY LUDDEN, CONSERVATIONIST AND NATIVE PLANT EDUCATOR; AND BOARD MEMBER, GREENBURGH NATURE CENTER. FOLLOW CATHY ON INSTAGRAM FOR MORE PHOTOS AND GARDENING TIPS@CATHYLUDDEN.
The Northeastern United States is famous for fall foliage. “Leaf peepers” come from all over the world to see our native plants in their dramatic fall colors.
Northeastern landscape in autumn
A walk in the woods in fall
Why, then, should a walk around suburban neighborhoods, in the same region during the same season, be so disappointing? Where are the colors?
The plants that thrill “leaf peepers” grew in abundance before the suburbs were developed, and they would still thrive here – if only they were planted! It seems that every suburban yard uses the same non-native “foundation plants” — boxwood, pachysandra, ivy, and hedges of yew or privet or even bamboo! – all completely devoid of our famous fall colors!
C’mon people! We can do so much better than this! Why not plant our yards with the same trees, shrubs, and perennials that make this region a tourist attraction in the fall? Let’s add some color, life, and seasonal interest beyond pumpkins! There are so many great choices with our incredible abundance of Northeastern native plants.
Red maple (Acer rubrum) Photo: Michael Martini
Pin Oak (Quercus palustris)
The undisputed rock-stars of fall color are our native Maples, and Oak trees are a close second. If you have a lawn, you probably have room for a Maple or a native Oak. Oaks have enormous value for wildlife — and for homeowners! [See this blog post] Both Maples and Oaks are beautiful year-round, but autumn is their glory season.
Our native flowering trees are also brilliant in the fall. Nothing beats the American Dogwood (Cornus florida) with its intense maroon foliage and vivid scarlet berries. Crabapples (Malus spp.) also produce colorful fruit, and American Witch Hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) starts blooming in October!
American Dogwood
Crabapple
American Witch Hazel
The Northeast is also blessed with native shrubs that produce kaleidoscopic colors in the fall. While evergreen foundation shrubs are useful, why not add some of the flowering and fruiting native shrubs that bring color and interest in both spring and fall? Here are some easy choices to add to your yard. All of the shrubs pictured below are locally available, easy to grow, valuable to wildlife, have beautiful flowers, and are spectacular in the fall.
Oakleaf Hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia)
Possumhaw Viburum (Viburnum nudum) pictured with American Witch Hazel
Low Bush Blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium)
Red Chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolia)
American Cranberrybush (Viburnum trilobum)
Winterberry (Ilex verticillata)
And don’t forget fall flowers and grasses in gorgeous colors!
Not only are these plants beautiful, they are incredibly valuable to the ecosystem of the Northeastern US. So many suburban landscapes use non-native plants that offer nothing to birds, butterflies, bees and other insects, and many are destructively invasive as well. If your only fall color is coming from burning bush or Japanese maple, you may want to consider native alternatives for those reasons. Privet, bamboo, ivy, vinca, and pachysandra are all known to be invasive plants and can be replaced easily with native plants that are beautiful in the fall, and year-round.
And wouldn’t you enjoy an autumn view like this?
Willow leaf oak (Quercus phellos), American dogwood, and Pin Oaks
And this?
Oaks, Inkberry (Ilex glabra), Blue Star (Amsonia tabernaemontana and A. hubrichtii), High Bush Blueberry(Vaccinium corymbosum), Common juniper, and Possumhaw Viburnum
The fall glory of native plants lies within your reach!
THIS BLOG IS AUTHORED WEEKLY BY CATHY LUDDEN, CONSERVATIONIST AND NATIVE PLANT EDUCATOR; AND BOARD MEMBER, GREENBURGH NATURE CENTER. FOLLOW CATHY ON INSTAGRAM FOR MORE PHOTOS AND GARDENING TIPS@CATHYLUDDEN.
Ghosts, skeletons, and zombies! It’s Halloween, and our neighborhood is overrun by scary creatures playing trick-or-treat.
But look carefully. The most terrifying monsters in our neighborhood are the ones strangling our trees! Invasive vines are real-life ‘serial killers’ — stealing food, water, and light from trees, and leaving ghosts, skeletons, and zombies behind.
Ghosts
Skeletons
Zombies
You’ve seen these vines doing their evil deeds. Our roadsides are infested with them. Our woods are being devoured by them. They cause trees to fall onto roads and buildings, costing taxpayers, utilities, highway departments, parks, and private property owners billions of dollars in property damage, clean-up, and removal. Even worse, in forests, meadows, and wetlands, these vines are replacing the native plants essential to maintaining biodiversity –the insects, birds, and animals in our ecosystem.
Three of the most destructive vines in our region are Oriental Bittersweet, Porcelain Berry, and the ever-popular English Ivy.
Oriental Bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus)
Porcelain Berry (Ampelopsis glanduosa)
English, Irish, or Persian Ivy (Hedera spp.)
All of these vines belong on other continents. They are invasive here because they have no natural controls in North America and, therefore, are able to aggressively out-compete our native plants.
So, how did they get here?
Gardeners! All of these killer vines were imported and planted here intentionally because gardeners found them attractive. European colonists introduced English Ivy as early as 1727. Oriental Bittersweet was introduced as a garden plant in the 1860’s, and Porcelain Berry was brought to the US from East Asia as an ornamental ground cover in the 1870’s. These plants had no commercial use or food value for humans or animals — they were planted solely for decoration. To be fair, gardeners back then had no idea what horror they were unleashing on the Eastern US. But we can learn from their mistakes.
Oriental Bittersweet is invasive from Maine to North Carolina and west to Wisconsin and Missouri. It is fast-growing and easily overwhelms native vegetation, both on the ground and in the tree canopy. Its enormous vines, up to 4 inches in diameter, can strangle, and even uproot, mature trees and shrubs.
Oriental Bittersweet vine choking a tree
Porcelain Berry is invasive from New England to Virginia and west to Wisconsin and Iowa. It is extremely aggressive on roadsides and other disturbed areas, as well as along forest edges. It runs along power lines, and often brings them down in storms. Porcelain Berry kills by completely enclosing shrubs and trees, stealing all available light, until the smothered plant dies.
A young spruce tree struggles under a mound of Porcelain Berry
It’s too late to save these trees and shrubs from Porcelain Berry
Ivy is a serious problem for us at the Nature Center, and we have warned about its dangers in earlier posts. See Evil Ivy Over Everything here. Where Ivy has escaped gardens in the US, it has destroyed vast areas of woodlands, reducing vibrant and diverse local ecologies to monocultures with no value at all for birds, insects, or forest animals. In suburban landscapes, Ivy causes enormous damage to trees, fences, and wood siding.
Ivy, the Boston Strangler
So, what have we learned from these gardening mistakes? According to the National Park Service, of the 1200 invasive plant species currently documented in natural areas, almost two-thirds were intentionally imported and planted as ornamental plants. Until recently, all three of these killer vines were still being sold and planted in gardens. In 2015, Oriental Bittersweet and Porcelain Berry finally were recognized as threats to the environment, and legally prohibited for sale and distribution in New York and a number of other states. English Ivy, however, has somehow been given a pass, and is still legally sold in every state except Oregon. Unfortunately, hundreds of other ornamental plant species, already known to be invasive, are still being sold and planted by gardeners all over the US. Legal regulation of invasive plants lags way behind the science.
So, what can we do to help? First, remove and destroy these three killer vines wherever you can, and be sure that the vines and berries go into the trash – not into brush piles or compost where they can easily spread further.
Next, before buying or planting any ornamental plant, do a quick investigation. It’s easy! Enter the name of the plant you’re considering into Google, or another search engine, along with the word “native” to quickly find out where the species originated. Plants native to your region are safe and beneficial to the ecology.
If the plant you are considering is not native to your region, do the search again, adding the word “invasive” along with the plant name. Websites devoted to preventing the spread of invasive plants will come up in your search and warn you if a plant is a known threat to our environment. Here is a sample search for the common landscape plant, Burning Bush.
Collectively, home gardeners have a huge impact on the environment. The most obvious example of their power – for good and for ill – is the horror of almost 1000 invasive ornamental species damaging our ecosystem. Our gardening forebearers made some terrible mistakes and unleashed these scary monsters on us. We can do better.
THIS BLOG IS AUTHORED WEEKLY BY CATHY LUDDEN, CONSERVATIONIST AND NATIVE PLANT EDUCATOR; AND BOARD MEMBER, GREENBURGH NATURE CENTER. FOLLOW CATHY ON INSTAGRAM FOR MORE PHOTOS AND GARDENING TIPS@CATHYLUDDEN.
