Re: [SG] Understory trees/w/flowers first

Here's a winner!   About five years ago I was given a seedling of the
silverbell  tree.  I duly planted it and it grew for a couple of years  -
skinny trunk, a few branches, nothing special.  About two years ago it
blossomed, just a few little clusters.   I guess it was trying me out to see
what I thought.  Last year- at about eight feet, it was laden with luminous
white bells, maybe an inch and a half long, flared at the tips, pendulous
clusters of three to five.  The show lasted for a week to ten days in May and
it was the prettiest flowering tree  - I've been promised more seedlings.  I
can hardly wait.  Dirr says zone 4 - 8. will take some shade, could grow to
30 to 40' aand he mentions that it flowers "with or just before the leaves
appear, a subtle beauty not appreciated by most people".

A chubby little magnolia stellata is blooming now  -  it is a towsled mass of
pure white ragmop blossoms and not a leaf in sight - probably ten years old,
it's about seven feet tall and at least as spreading - before the flowers
swell and burst open, the buds are very attractive furry balls and the
children of the neightborhood call it a pussy willow tree. We have many
different magnolias around here, some very old, so my guess is that they are
very hardy -

And then there is the dogwood  (Cornus Florida)  hanging back and waiting for
the hosta  - the "new" one is about ten years old, 18' tall, and silhouetted
against a very large white pine.  It will bloom later and longer (the better
part of a month)  but part of it's subtle beauty is the crisp white bracts
surrounding  the small yellow flowers before there is ever a leaf unfurled.
This tree has problems, but it is too beautiful to pass up  - you also have
to watch where they come from,  and stick with local stock, for hardiness.

Rainy day, but yesterday was perfect, and it feels good to set a spell !

Betty Barrows
Kinderhook NY Zone 5
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