The Middlebury Landscape

There are two issues when writing about Ginkgoes. One is giving an accurate sense of smell, the other of time.

The easiest one is smell. And the culprit would be the seeds.

Ginkgo Fruit

The tree is dioecious, meaning they have separate sexes, male and female trees. All horticultural literature describing Gingkoes state to plant only male, or fruitless trees. Why? The females bear the fruit, and, only clocking in at about 1 to 1 ½” long, the size belies the potency.  The fruit are covered by a fleshy apricot colored outer layer, called a sarcotesta. While it may look edible, the nose will give it away. The flesh contains butyric acid, which some describe nicely as “rancid butter”, but could more properly be defined as, well, people walking nearby a female tree with ripe fruit dropping to the ground tend to check their shoes to see what they had just stepped in, like some recalcitrant dog had just been on the same sidewalk. (more…)

It’s raining tonight, and the wind is going to howl tomorrow. By all means, if you live out of state, come up tomorrow and see the last bit of foliage around as it goes flying past your window at 40 MPH. If you can’t make it, here’s some final fall color pictures from around campus, the last gasp before stick season.

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Landscaping is pretty non-controversial, for the most part. After all, we’re out there, in all weather, making things better. Healthier trees, mown grass, clean and safe walkways, to name just a couple of things we do. In fact, I dare say, we’re only unpopular one time of the year, and we’re right in the middle of it now. Leaf Blower season. (more…)

We’re on the downhill side of fall foliage at Middlebury now, but here’s some pictures while it lasts.

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I fear this may be the last post this year about things in bloom. I was trekking across a tiny dusting of snow on top of Mt. Abe on Monday after all. There are plenty of things in bloom: asters, Japanese Anemone, still some Black Eyed Susan. But I’m writing about a tree, of sorts, Witch Hazel, Hamamelis virginiana.

Witch Hazel in Bloom

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The foliage is peaking now in Middlebury, and it’s pretty spectacular. My prediction was part true-the color is great this year, but the timing seems pretty normal to me. Anyway, I was gone for all of last week (in the Ozarks and Nebraska, where there are spectacular oaks, but, like oaks are wont to do, no pretty fall color, just washed out yellows and muddy browns), so here’s some pictures of plants at my house that are also in nice color on campus.

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The college weather station was down yesterday, related to the couple of power failures over the weekend. (One power failure at 3 in the morning, then 2 hours Sunday afternoon for an insulator repair) So, for those of you keeping track, my house in Weybridge (7 miles away, close enough) got 1 3/4″ of wonderful rain. Sorry it came on a weekend, but did we ever need it.

The leaves are starting to turn on campus, and one of the first species is also one of my favorites. Black Maple, Acer nigrum, is a tree I didn’t even know about before I began working here.

Black Maple Fall Foliage Color

It’s hard to beat the bright gold color of this tree-in my mind brighter than any self respecting Sugar or Red Maple. It also turns a little sooner than the other trees around it, like it needs to jump ahead of the pack and show off. Fine by me. (more…)

Here’s some early fall color seen around campus. The smaller trees were all planted last year, and the Katsura is showing some early fall color due to recent excavation nearby. More pictures as things turn.

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My prediction? Well, I’m thinking the leaves are going to be turning early this fall, and I think the colors will be brighter and more spectacular than usual. Here’s why… (more…)