A few weeks ago, at a really good restaurant, I splurged on a dessert of buttermilk panna cotta with raspberries.\u00a0 That ethereal creation came garnished with preserved linden leaves and fruits.\u00a0 I had never eaten anything from a linden tree\u2014Tilia–before, and was intrigued.\u00a0 The leaves and tiny, nut-like fruits were sweet from the preserving liquid and just a little tangy.\u00a0 Our outdoor table was shaded by a large linden tree, which was undoubtedly the source of the garnish.\u00a0 With a single dessert, the linden tree appeared on my horticultural radar.<\/p>\n
I think many cities and towns in the eastern half of America boast a \u201cLinden Street\u201d or a \u201cLinden Avenue\u201d.\u00a0 Most of those roadways were probably originally planted with American linden trees or Tilia americana.\u00a0 Those earlier lindens were deciduous beauties that made perfect street specimens back in the day when the strip between street and sidewalk was big enough to accommodate the roots of a tree that can grow sixty to eighty feet tall, with a spread equal to at least half the height.\u00a0 The slightly toothed, heart-shaped green leaves provided ample shade and the pendulous clusters of pale yellow or cream flowers perfumed neighborhoods in late June or early July.\u00a0 Bees and other pollinators were drawn to the trees and beekeepers loved them, as linden honey is highly prized\u2014then and now.<\/p>\n
Some of those mature linden trees, planted one hundred or more years ago still survive, though their roots have been sorely tried by street widening and sidewalk repairs.\u00a0 More fortunate specimens grow in public parks or adjacent to golf courses, where they can spread to their heart\u2019s content.<\/p>\n
Like many well-loved trees, lindens have a host of nicknames. Americans sometimes refer to the trees as \u201cbasswood\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 In Europe, linden species, including littleleaf linden\u2014Tilia cordata\u2014and European linden\u2014Tilia x euopaea, are known as lime trees.\u00a0 This is not because they are related to the citrus fruits of the same name.\u00a0 \u201cLime\u201d is probably a corruption of the word \u201clind\u201d, which shares roots with other words that mean \u201cflexible\u201d.\u00a0 That flexibility has factored in the traditional uses of lime trees for hedging, as well as the creation of living tunnels by careful training of the branches of parallel rows of trees.\u00a0 The technique of interweaving young branches to create these green structures is called \u201cpleaching\u201d and involves training the fast-growing shoots, supervising their growth and trimming off stragglers. \u00a0A very famous pleached lime walk, created by Vita Sackville-West, still enchants visitors at Sissinghurst in Kent, England.<\/p>\n
Linden also figures in art history, as it is well suited to carving and turning.\u00a0 The great seventeenth century English artisan, Grinling Gibbons, created intricately carved screens, mantles and other wooden structures bedecked with garlands of exquisitely rendered flowers, branches, fruit, foliage and wildlife.\u00a0 Linden was his wood of choice, as it is for American contemporary carver and Gibbons expert, David Esterly.\u00a0 Esterly’s book, Grinling Gibbons and the Art of Carving, <\/em>is a thorough discussion of this fabulous art–perhaps the ultimate expression of the innate beauty of linden wood–by a fellow artisan who has restored some of Gibbons’ work.<\/p>\n The glory of the linden tree is its great size, but for modern gardeners, that is also its great liability.\u00a0 If you want to grow a linden tree in your back or front yard, but don’t have the requisite acreage for a full-size specimen, try the little-known, but lovely Japanese linden or Tilia kiusiana.\u00a0 It maxes out at only thirty-two feet tall and wide and can be grown as a large shrub or small tree.\u00a0 The Japanese species features the same fragrant flowers as other lindens and similar heart-shaped leaves that turn an attractive yellow in the fall.\u00a0 With intelligent pruning, it might even be kept smaller than its maximum height and spread.<\/p>\n Whether you pick the native American linden, or one of its European or Asian relatives, make sure to provide the tree with sunshine, plus rich, loamy soil and uniform moisture levels.\u00a0 The American species is used to flood plains, the sides of streams and other places that retain moisture.\u00a0 Mulch young trees well and water even mature specimens during dry spells.<\/p>\n Good nurseries and garden centers sometimes carry one or two Tilia species or varieties.\u00a0 For a good selection, try ForestFarm, PO Box 1, 14643 Watergap Road, Williams, OR 97544, (541) 846-6963; www.forestfarm.com.\u00a0 Free catalog in the U.S.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A few weeks ago, at a really good restaurant, I splurged on a dessert of buttermilk panna cotta with raspberries.\u00a0 That ethereal creation came garnished with preserved linden leaves and fruits.\u00a0 I had never eaten anything from a linden tree\u2014Tilia–before, and was intrigued.\u00a0 The leaves and tiny, nut-like fruits were sweet from the preserving liquid … 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":[4,6,2,3,5],"tags":[1481,1480,1057,1479,1477,1475,988,1478,1025,1476],"class_list":["post-1943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","category-winter","tag-david-esterly","tag-grinling-gibbons","tag-historic-trees","tag-honey-sources","tag-lime-trees","tag-linden","tag-native-trees","tag-shade-trees","tag-street-trees","tag-tilia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1943","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=1943"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1943\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1944,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1943\/revisions\/1944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"