FringeTrees

Rusty, if you are able to find a copy (library or friend or?) of Michael
Dirr's  Manual of Woody Landscape Plants  your mouth will just water over all
the possibilities.  It is a book about 2" thick and weighs a ton (!) but it
is the bible for everything for the garden that isn't   IRIS - of course that
is an exaggeration, but it is really treasured by gardeners.  As to the
Fringe Tree, you have been given the name of  the virginicus (also called
Grancy Gray -beard or Old-man's beard - it is hardiness zone 3 to 9, slow
growing, spreads almost as wide as high.  It  is native from southern New
Jersey to Florida and Texas, the British consider it one of our finest plants
that they have introduced to their gardens.  Now there is another Fringe tree
(and I have both of them,) altho there are those who  feel that virginicus is
the most fragrant - and it is wonderful ---- the other is Chionanthus
retusus, the Chinese Fringetree.  this is smaller, zones 5 to 8, and the
flowers are at the  ends of the new shoots and may, therefore, be more
visible. According to Dirr,  it has passed growth and heat tolerance tests in
Wichita, KS.  Now you know more than you wanted to know about Fringe Trees -
but I love trees and have many specimens around the perimeter of my garden,
carefully planted so they don't interfere with the iris, but to add something
else to bloom thru the seasons.
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