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Kousa Dogwoods


Cornus kousa, or kousa dogwood, has an impressive list of outstanding characteristics.  Since few properties are large enough for an arboretum, choices have to be made. Trees with year round interest draw my attention.  The kousa dogwood has outstanding exfoliating bark when it is of sufficient age.  Like the sycamore or London plane, a old kousa dogwood will randomly shed bark, revealing new bark of a paler color, from underneath.  As a result, an old trunk is multi-colored, and highly textural.  As much as I like bark, I like the kousa dogwood.  This tree furthermore sets brilliant red fruit in September.  That shiny fire engine red is my idea of fall fireworks.  


Notice I have made no mention of the beautiful white flowers that mature in my yard in June.  In a good year, those flowers may last 3 weeks; my gardening season lasts 7-8 months. I need more interest than what great flowers provide before I am moved to dig the the hole required to plant a tree.  Even my beloved magnolias whose bloom is so fleeting have great bark and branching, and large luscious leaves all season.  A long season of interest-I look for this. My Kousa dogwoods are next to invisible after they bloom.  You can only spot it in this picture, as the leaves are beginning to turn. 

Their green leaves fire up slowly, come the beginning of fall.  The contrast of that red, and that green is riveting.  The shape of the leaves and the pattern of the veins are never more showy than they are in September.  The changing of the guard from the summer foliage to the fall display is an event I follow closely.   

The late September Kousa color is peach; that peach will deepen and mature.  I do not know the science well enough to state the evolution of the color depends on night temperatures that are steadily dropping.  So many times I research my instincts about nature to find out my notions have no basis in fact.  Suffice it to say, the fall color on the kousa changes dramatically over the course of the fall.

I have four kousa dogwoods on the north side of my house.  All four have grown steadily over the past 15 years.  This kousa planted at the front corner of my Romeo and Juliet balcony has grown such that the branches have come up and over the deck; they are at my eye level now.  One branch of that dogwood grows over the driveway far below.  I never notice that branch until the fall colors up the leaves. The garage lights make those leaves glow an orangy red. 

The vibrant red kousa leaves, underpainted and glowing from inside with that early orangy peach color, are the star of my north side garden show for weeks. The fall is all about the evolution of the leaves.  How they grow and photosynthesize over the summer, then turn, how they fade-how they drop-a gorgeous visual lesson in the process that is nature.  The process I am writing about takes the better part of 3 months.  That three month spectacular leaf turn and drop makes a kousa dogwood a tree I would not do without.
There comes that brief time when the red leaves of my dogwoods are just about as intense as the red fruit. That spectacular fall color is one of many reasons why a Kousa dogwood is worth any gardener’s consideration.  I have considered no end of plants for my own garden, and for the gardens of clients.  Decisions get made; trees get planted and take hold.  A good choice matters much. 

A tree is one of nature’s biggest plants.  I think about every tree I plant, and its location, long and hard-given the space it will occupy, and what conditions on the ground it will influence.  I additionally hope any tree I plant will outlive me. That given, I choose which tree for where with great care.  Today I am delighted to have a foursome of Kousa dogwoods thriving in my garden.  Their fall leaves in color delights me.  The summer season has no end of visual delight.  I have three other seasons besides the summer; I have interest in some off-season delight. 


That congested thicket of red-orange kousa leaves peak, thin, and fall.  Those last few dogwood leaves holding on today speak eloquently to the end of the season.  Consider cornus kousa for your garden.  Should you already have one, consider more.  The fall color-enjoy every bit of it.

Posted on: October 18, 2010 2 Comments
Filed Under: Woody Plants, Good Design, Garden Design, The Natural World Tagged With: ,

Sky Blue

I may have been playing hookey from my writing the past few days, but I have been slammed with work.  I have been out shopping for a variety of projects the past few days-but what is really capturing my attention is the show going on overhead.  October skies in Michigan can be so vibrantly blue, and the clouds are always such fabulous shapes.  I am treasuring these moments, as Michigan winters mean an unvarying shade of lead grey overhead-most every day.

Blue skies in the fall are that fresh blue that reminds me of lobelia in the spring, cornflowers and belladonna or bellamosum delphinium.  So striking and so lively. The clouds overhead yesterday against the blue skies were dramatically directional and three dimensional.   

 The atmosphere refers to that mass of air surrounding the earth.  Clouds like this describe that air in a visually spectacular fashion. I have been seeing the stars the past few mornings-this tells me the blue of the daytime sky will be clear sky blue.     


No matter what I might design, engineer, organize or dream up, what nature effortlessly puts on display every day is remarkably beautiful.  My efforts to make something beautiful take lots of behind the scenes work.  The beauty of nature-out there every day,  for everyone to enjoy. We are having a spell of unusually beautiful weather right now. On the ground, 72 degrees.        

Beautiful weather is enabling us to express a sky blue and white idea of our own. Some 15 years ago I stained a concrete pool deck for a client with a checkerboard of blue and cream squares.  My client called a month ago-that pool deck, and the landscape, needed an update.    

Concrete stain can do an old piece of concrete a world of good.  A vintage concrete sidewalk or terrace still in great shape is a great look with a vintage home.  Concrete is a common material for pool decking.  It can be poured in any shape, it has a slip-resistant texture, and the light color keeps the surface temperature reasonable on a hot summer day. This pool deck was in fine condition, but the old stain looked tired and faded.  My client was interested in a fresh look.

Steve snapped the 3′ by 3′ checkerboard pattern onto the surface with a chalk line.  He painted the blue squares first; the blue chalk became part of the edge of those blue squares. Should you want to stain concrete in a pattern, choose a chalk color that won’t adversely affect the color you intend.   

We carefully edged each square by hand; Trevor rolled on the body of the stain from there. The water based stain soaked into the old concrete; years of rain and wear had made the surface open and porous.  The rough texture of the concrete has not changed at all-just the color. There is no mistaking the concrete for some other material; this ordinary concrete has a new look that is anything but humdrum.

Cloud white would have been too glaringly white for the alternate squares.  A soft yellow-cream would contrast with the blue, but not blindingly so. 

 Even at this stage, I could tell the staining of the concrete would make a big visual statement from a utilitarian surface.  The comment from my client’s pre-teenage grandson?  This makes it look like young people live here. I rather like this description.

Posted on: October 8, 2010 Leave a Comment
Filed Under: The Natural World, Good Design, Landscape Design Tagged With: , ,

At A Glance: Early October

Posted on: October 3, 2010 Leave a Comment
Filed Under: Picture This, Good Design, Garden Design Tagged With: , , ,

Unfinished Sculptures

My last Sunday opinion post I entirely owe to Nanne-she made me think long and hard about the relationship of imagination to precision.  Unbeknownst to her, she waded headlong into one of my stuck spots.  I had this idea to make models of gardens I doubted anyone would ask me to build.  Who knows where that idea came from, but when I have an idea, I try to play along. Fine so far.  After clumsily trying to build them out of foam core, Buck waved my story off, and  asked for drawings.  Pretty soon, basswood in thicknesses between 1/16th and 1/32nd of an inch and in varying widths, began arriving via UPS. 

He wanted to build the models on a birch plywood base, finished on its four edges with molding.  They could be set flat on a table, or floor-or hung on a wall.  This construction reminded him of the slide wire potentiometers he collects.  As you are probably a gardener, and not a collector of old scientific instruments, I will elaborate.  Buck collects vintage instruments which were used to measure voltage; he thinks they are beautiful objects.  Many of them were finely finished and presented in mohogany cabinets or cases; his office wall is covered with them. Some instruments were part of university laboratories.  Some were commissioned for industry.  To the last, they are very finely calibrated scientific instruments which were extremely expensive to purchase in their day.  He buys those the looks of which interest him, takes them apart, cleans and restores them.    

These instruments interested me when I saw them, but they did not enchant.  Years later, I understand and appreciate his enchantment.  There was some astonishingly imaginative person who designed and made a beautiful object which would in addition precisely measure volts.  Very precisely.  My garden models, and his love for old scientific instruments-an interesting mix.  My drawings were about to be transformed from lines into shapes.   Each model he painstakingly reproduced in basswood, from my drawings. His bench-littered with pieces of wood light enough and thin enough to float.  They are clearly not landscapes-they are sculptures.   There are four unfinished sculptures to date, each 24″ by 36″. 

He fussed and fretted about the construction-much like I do, when I have a landscape project underway.  When I am at home gardening, and have a problem or a full blown impasse, I back up, and fix myself a lemonade.  When I am working, I fuss and fret, and fret a little more.  It does not help to fix a lemonade, or go home. I have to stick with it. It could be a video about how Buck constructed these models is of vastly more interest than the sculptures themselves.  Why? I am having trouble trying to figure out where to take his work next.  

I imagine a landscape as a three dimensional sculpture.  Everything about that sculpture occupies me like an army.  Buck’s questions about the models-the eventual heights, distances and spaces-much like what I think about every day. But his precise questions regarding the length, width, depth, and height of elements in these sculptures forced me to think less about landscape and more about my intentions.      

A property needing landscape can be forgiving of what you have not accounted for in a drawing. A big idea may leave out that space or this corner.  This might make a landscape renovation more difficult than a landscape starting from scratch.  Buck’s wood sculptures I would not need to keep alive. They need to be brought to a visual life.  

While Buck is absorbed constructing these sculptures, I have time to panic.  What will I do to finish them, once he is done? What will go in all those spaces?   

Two of the four sculptures have been done for 5 months.  I have been scheming to provide an imaginative  finish worthy of his precise effort.  As much as I would like to have an answer, nothing is coming-yet. I had originally planned to fill my hedges with reindeer moss in different colors.  Now I am not so sure.  I could fill them with various sized wood spheres, stained the same mahogany color as the geometric shapes.  I could stain the interiors of the spaces, and do nothing more.  I could fill the shapes with seeds or dyed wool roving .     


 If you have ever made a change in a garden only to see that choice go on to change how you see everything around it, you will see my dilemma.  Gardeners have to go on, and live with their choices. This tree over that tree.  This perennial over a world of other perennials.  This groundcover instead of that. There are so many plants from which to choose-all of them different, many with merit.  All of this leads me to think about those treasured moments in my own garden which were much more about accident than by design.  That chance nicotiana seeding and growing up in the gravel walk.   

I got involved with these models by design. It is looking like I may finish them by accident.

Posted on: October 2, 2010 5 Comments
Filed Under: Landscape Design, Good Design