Vanessa's Trees and Shrubs Blog

Welcome to Mystery Monday. Last week's lovely was Japanese Maple. Simply gorgeous.

We have another tree up for guessing this week. Here are your hints:

• This lovely tree, native to China, is part of the Rose family
• The fruits are indeed edible.
• This tree, unlike most fruit trees, blooms in fall or early winter. The fruits are ripe in late winter or early spring.
• May reach 20-30 feet tall.
• This grows in a subtropical or tropical climate.
• Parts may be at least slightly poisonous
• Can be used for a sedative, and other medicinal uses such as anti-vomiting, stopping thirst, expectoration, depression and swellings.
• In Japan, monorail systems are used to transport the fruit, which is grown on the hills for good air flow.

Make a guess today in the forums!

Note: Shrub of the Week will be posted tomorrow. Today it's a carnival!

Today we're going to take a jaunt around the garden sites here at About.com and see what some of my favorite articles are. What fun!

• Over at Container Gardening, Kerry Michaels demonstrates how to make a foolproof flowering container garden. The Clementine box garden is such a cute idea! It's also great because you can likely get the Clementine box free from your market.


• Marie Iannotti from Gardening shows ways to get your kids to enjoy vegetable gardening. This image gallery is full of brightly colored vegetables that are sure to intrigue children!


• I am a HUGE fan of starting your own business. That's why I like Amy Jeanroy's article about planning your herb business over at Herb Gardens. I think I will seriously consider doing this next year at our local farmer's market!


• This summer I have been decorating and organizing my bedroom. I also just acquired many new houseplants last weekend. I can use Jon VanZile's tips about Feng Shui with houseplants.


• Water features in the garden are so beautiful. Why not check out these instructions on creating waterfalls from Landscaping's David Beaulieu?


• When I was growing up, I planted strawberry patches whenever I could. Learn how to grow organic strawberries from Colleen Vanderlinden of Organic Gardening.


• When I was growing up, I would have so much fun visiting my great-grandparents' farm. I remember visiting the chicken coop and finding the hidden eggs. Tamara Lujan from Small Farms explains how easy it is to start raising your own chickens.

I hope you enjoy these links as much as I do!

Some plants are alleopathic - they produce substances that are harmful to some other plants. Black walnut falls into this catergory - it produces a chemical called juglone. As long as you remember this and choose your surrounding plants carefully, black walnut trees make good shade trees and provide nuts and lumber.

The black walnut tree is mainly found in the Eastern United States. The dual use for nuts and lumber is the reason I chose black walnut as the Tree of the Week.Yum!

Welcome to Mystery Monday! Last week was the Elderberry, Sambucus nigra. The first to guess it was my brother Joel (without any help from me, of course). He remembered the Monty Python quote: "Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries." Sharing the title of "Winner of the Week" is Pat, who guessed Sambucus nigra in the forums.

I'm not sure this week's Mystery Tree (suggested by my friend Andy) even needs any hints, though the picture is small. So answers MUST have the botanical name too.

• There are over 1000 cultivars of this tree.
• This tree in the picture is located in the Portland Japanese Garden (been there - gorgeous!)
• The leaves can come in many shapes and colors

There....have some fun and make a guess in the forums. Good luck!

Ah, memories. There's not much better in life than lilacs in spring. The gorgeous purple blooms....the heady delicious fragrance. As David Beaulieu, our Landscaping Guide advises, "The leaves are dark green, but this shrub is grown first and foremost for the fragrance of its flowers and their beauty, not its foliage. One of the most unforgettable aromas of the plant world! " I would heartily agree.

Lilacs grow best in the cooler regions - Zones 3-7. (I never saw lilacs growing until I moved to Zone 5 Utah - I certainly was missing out!). Add some color and sweet smells to your garden with the shrub of the week - lilacs.

Tree removal isn't finished once you've cut it down. There's the matter of the stump to deal with.

There are several methods to be considered. David Beaulieu, our Landscaping Guide, explains : "Stump grinders can be rented but are expensive. Manual tree stump removal is cheap but has the drawback of being labor-intensive." In this article, he focus on a cheap, easy way to remove tree stumps. With a little work and patience, you will soon have one more place free to plant in your garden.

Sometimes things aren't what they seem. Bananas grow on trees...right?

Actually, meet the world's largest herb - the banana "tree". Trees are tall plants with woody parts. Banana trees can be tall...but there is no wood. However, due to the height, it is commonly referred to as a tree, so I include it here for your reading pleasure.

Many species and varieties grow in Zones 9-10. There are some that will grow in cooler places - all the way down to Zone 5, even. Otherwise, grab a pot and bring it inside! Enjoy the yummy tree of the week - the banana tree.

Where do the days go? It's Mystery Monday already! Last week's tree was Chorisia speciosa, the Silk Floss Tree. It was guessed by Rufus5 - congrats! Here are your clues for the mystery shrub this week:

• This shrub is a member of the honeysuckle family.
• The fruits are edible. Make sure they are ripe, black, and you may want to always cook them - some people can get a bit sick from the raw fruits.
• This shrub was mentioned (by name) in a Monty Python movie. (I enjoy this hint best. :)
• According to European folklore, if you sat under this shrub on midsummer night, fairies and elves would come. Perhaps it was due to the fact that the fragrance is a mild sedative, making people dream of such things.
• It also has a lot of medicinal properties.

Figured it out? Post your guess in the forum!

_{Photo © Flickr user ute.mueller}

In my opinion, angel's trumpet is one of the most gorgeous flowers ever. It is often grown as a shrub - outdoors in Zones 9-11, and in containers elsewhere. However, at my community college back home in Southern California, there was an angel's trumpet tree that was my favorite plant to visit. The stunning peach trumpet-shaped blooms were amazingly beautiful.

Another common name for Angel's trumpet is Brugmansia, its Latin name. It is a relative of tomatoes, potatoes, peppers and eggplants. Do be aware that all parts of this plant are poisonous and narcotic. Still, if at all possible, I would highly suggest the shrub of the week - angel's trumpet. It is sure to be a highlight of your garden.

Ginkgo biloba is quite the unique tree....literally. It is the last species remaining and has no close relatives. It is also dioecious - the male and female parts are in separate flowers on separate trees. The fruits are very bad smelling and messy, so male trees should be planted. Ginkgo biloba also has many medicinal uses, such as preventing memory loss.

If you have the room for this tree, it is an excellent choice for urban landscapes as it is very tolerant of many soils and conditions. The leaves turn bright yellow in the fall, adding interest. The leaves also flutter in the breeze easily. One of my favorite trees is ginkgo biloba, the Tree of the Week.