{"id":160,"date":"2009-07-27T04:48:36","date_gmt":"2009-07-27T12:48:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/garden\/?p=160"},"modified":"2015-11-24T07:32:59","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T15:32:59","slug":"carolina-silverbell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/carolina-silverbell\/","title":{"rendered":"Carolina Silverbell"},"content":{"rendered":"

CAROLINA<\/strong> SILVERBELL
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\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 An old Greek proverb says, “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.”\u009d \u00a0<\/strong>With the heavy, rocky soil the way it is around here, many old men would be hard pressed to dig a hole big enough to plant a tree.\u00a0 However, despite the fact that I am not one of those old men, I have planted a Carolina silverbell tree.\u00a0 It will reside in front of my house, on the strip between the sidewalk and the street.\u00a0 Right now, the silverbell looks a little like Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree–small and frail, short on leaves and branches and giving every appearance of readiness to blow over in a strong breeze.\u00a0 I don’t know if I will eventually sit in its shade, but next spring I hope that it will be big enough to produce at least one silvery, bell-shaped flower.\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A friend saved the silverbell, a plant sale remainder, from an appointment with the composter at a local botanical institution.\u00a0 It is yet another of those plants that I have always wanted, but never seem to have bought.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 The reasons are legion.\u00a0 There always seems to be a perennial that is a little flashier, or a nagging concern that our property isn’t really big enough to accommodate another tree or worries that the tree might not survive a New Jersey winter.\u00a0 This time all those reservations were trumped by the fact that if I did nothing, the plant was doomed.\u00a0 As a good gardener, it offends me to think of a perfectly healthy specimen put to death.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 More people should know about and grow the Carolina silverbell, an American original that goes by the Latin name, Halesia carolina.\u00a0 Plant taxonomists, nurserymen and horticulturists have also been known to refer to the tree as Halesia caroliniana and Halesia tetraptera.\u00a0 “Tetraptera”\u009d, which means four-sided, refers to the tree’s single drupes or fruits, which are enclosed by a tough, four-sided covering.\u00a0 I like the common names, including snowdrop tree, mountain silverbell and, especially, opossum-wood.\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The silverbell is native to the Piedmont area of the Carolinas, but has been cultivated much farther north and west.\u00a0 It is what arborists call an “understory”\u009d tree, which means that it grows on the edges of wooded areas dominated by taller species.\u00a0 Depending on growing conditions, it can reach thirty to forty feet tall, though some cultivated varieties are shorter.\u00a0 The medium green leaves are roughly oval-shaped.\u00a0 Dr. Michael A. Dirr, in his authoritative Manual of Woody Landscape Plants<\/em>, states that under normal conditions, a young tree will reach six to twelve feet tall in the course of six or eight years. \u00a0It is not a fast grower, but at least if you plant one now, you will see some real progress in a relatively short span of years.\u00a0 You may not be able to sit under its shade for awhile, but you will be able to appreciate the steadily increasing number of flowers each spring.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And those flowers, which range from on half to one inch long, are the real attraction of the Carolina silverbell.\u00a0 Generally the petals are white, but there are also silverbell varieties with pink flowers. \u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If you are trying to draw pollinating insects, the silverbell is your ticket.\u00a0 Bees are happy to use the trees as a nectar source.\u00a0 If you want to draw appreciative humans, silver bell is also perfect, as those flowers are fragrant.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Halesia takes its name from Stephen Hales, an eighteenth century clergyman, scientist and inventor who made extensive studies of plant and animal physiology. The great taxonomist Linnaeus was prone to naming new species after respected scientists and public figures and he did so with the silverbell.\u00a0 Hales, like many scientific men of his day, maintained a brisk correspondence on a number of subjects, including plants.\u00a0 That correspondence extended to like-minded individuals in the American colonies, giving him a tie to the country that gave rise to his namesake plant.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As I look at my frail little tree and think of its common name–opossum wood–I worry that the opossums in the neighborhood will try to climb it before it is big enough to support even the smallest ones.\u00a0 I am not sure how you “opossum-proof “a tree anyway.\u00a0 I will just have to be vigilant and hope for the best.\u00a0 I am too busy worrying about the raccoons and groundhogs to spare much thought for the opossums.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Silverbells are not always easy to find in local nurseries, but you can browse the selection of species and cultivars at ForestFarm, 990 Tetherow Road, Williams, OR 97544; (541) 846-7269; <\/font><\/font>www.forestfarm.com<\/font><\/a>.\u00a0 Catalog $5.00<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CAROLINA SILVERBELL \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 An old Greek proverb says, “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.”\u009d \u00a0With the heavy, rocky soil the way it is around here, many old men would be hard pressed to dig a hole big enough to plant a tree.\u00a0 However, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest","category-summer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1625,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160\/revisions\/1625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}