RED OSIER DOGWOOD AND AMERICAN LINDEN

RED OSIER DOGWOOD SHRUBS HAVE GREAT FALL COLOR 

AMERICAN LINDEN CAN  MAKE A FINE STREET TREE

Saturday,  9:00 AM.  56 degrees F, wind WSW a steady blow with very strong gusts.  The sky is clear, the humidity low, at 58%.  The barometer is rising, now at 29.84".  It is a beautiful fall day, but not one to be on the lake or in the woods.
   Red osier dogwood, AKA red-twigged dogwood, Cornus stolonifera, in the dogwood family, is a common and familiar shrub of roadside ditches, wet areas and woods edges, native to much of North America.  It is a plant that has visual interest in every season, with clusters of white flowers followed by white to lead-colored berries. The deep red color of its young twigs provides great contrast with winter snow, and its fall leaf color is beautiful,  and particularly so this year.  It is a fine plant for naturalizing but spreads by root suckers, so it can be quite aggressive and must be used carefully in the smaller landscape.  The young twig growth is the most colorful, so it should be pruned back every year to enhance that esthetic characteristic.
   Many native trees are often overlooked as street trees and should be used more.  American linden, also known as basswood, Tilia americana, in the linden family, makes a good street tree if planted in the right location and kept properly pruned.  Native to the mixed deciduous forests of much of eastern North America, it has a fine fall color that is a bit later to develop than maples.  It has a very regular, pyramidal shape when young but becomes a tall, wide-spreading tree in maturity.  It has some minor drawbacks; its very fragrant flowers develop hard little winged nutlets, which can be annoying, and the lower branches have a tendency to droop, requiring pruning for street and sidewalk clearance when the tree is young.  But overall it is a fine shade tree that has relatively few insect and disease problems.

AUTUMN
Julie L. O'Connor,Published: Mar 2013

Autumn

There's a crispness in the air that greets the morning sun, a feeling of anticipation, a new day has begun.
Harvest days are ending, winter is drawing near, yet in between is surely the most special time of year.
They call it Indian Summer, and it seems to fit the bill, for it's as if the Lord took a feathered brush and painted all the hills.

Now as I sit contented, atop of one of these, a book in hand to pass the time, the sound of a gentle breeze,
I can almost imagine an Indian child upon this mountaintop, looking down at the land of her forefathers, lost within her thoughts
For in every persons lifetime some heartache may occur, but on these hills in quiet solitude, God helps us to endure.

So I say that the eyes are a window, beauty is found within the soul, and upon the hills of Autumn, that are strewn with red and gold

Source: http://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/autumn-indian-summer#ixzz3HG5EkuCi
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