Amur Cherry, Tough & Beautiful Hardy Decorative Tree

autumnal amur bing, originally uploaded by D'Arcy Norman.

The Amur Cherry, Prunus maackii, is an excellent tree for Calgary, and is deservedly popular.

Its cinnamon-coloured bark is attractive in winter. The flowers are white, in drooping racemes (similar to Mayday and chokecherries), showing up against the green leaves in spring.

I like the Amur Cherry as a shade tree. We have two in our backyard. Birds love this tree. The robins seem to like the berries and, earlier in the season, roost in the tree, perhaps finding insects to eat. Chickadees and nuthatches visit and stash birdseed. The peeling bark gives a lot of nooks and crannies for this.

This tree has lots of seasonal variation - never a dull moment. Reasonably fast-growing.

Some of the drawbacks:

• tall enough to get caught in wires leading to the house (15 to 20 feet)
• cherries are not edible but their dark black juice can be brought into the house on shoes during the week or two when the ripe berries are falling
• young tree may need staking (especially in the prairies with the prevailing west wind)
• branches are prone to crossing each other - careful pruning and shaping the tree can handle this

More information on the Amur Cherry can be found in the article, "Amur Cherry" by Susan Mahr, on the University of Wisconsin's Master Gardener webpages. I dont' disagree with Ms. Mahr's comment that the fruit can be used for jellies, but personally I wouldn't bother making pure cherry jelly from these. The flavour might be an interesting note to a jelly made from larger, sweeter fruits, but it's a matter of taste. I don't care for jellies that take as much sugar as a pure Amur Cherry jelly would.

Photo by D'Arcy Norman, shared under CC Attribution 2.0 License on Flickr.com. Thanks, D'Arcy!

The Fall Colour in Calgary is Yellow

autumn yellow, originally uploaded by D'Arcy Norman. Creative Commons Share Alike Attribution License v.2.0 - Thanks, D'Arcy, for sharing.

D'Arcy Norman's picture of fall 2007 is a great reminder that our autumn colour is a short but spectacular season.

The big deciduous trees around Calgary are mainly poplars - Balsam Poplar (Populus balsamifera), Trembling Aspen (P. tremuloides) and some poplar hybrids.

The trees glow like candles against a cloudy sky, as on today. The fallen leaves below are very much like golden ponds.

I'm not being poetic, that's literally how they look.

This is the time of year when our lowly poplars really do shine.

A 2008 Winning Small Garden - Cliff Bungalow, Calgary ( IMG_8331)

A 2008 Winning Small Garden - Cliff Bungalow, Calgary ( IMG_8331), originally uploaded by jill browne.

I have to find my program to tell you where this one placed, but it's been a winner in the small garden category for at least 2007 & 2008.

It's a narrow lot (25 feet or so), with a 2-story house in Cliff Bungalow- older homes with a good deal of character, no space between the houses to speak of.

The garden faces south, is fenced on both sides and delineated by the back of the house at the north and the carport at the south.

The winding wooden path slows the pace considerably, making a small space into a longer journey for both feet and eyes. Multiple levels (deck, steps, layers of planting), the right amount of well-placed, appropriately scaled statuary, and an obvious attention to making the garden livable as well as functional, all work together to turn a tiny rectangular space into a soft, green, living place.