Suwannee River For Ligustrum Trees

By Kent Higgins

Local laws affecting planting of trees around the home - Before planting trees in a new development, one should become familiar with municipal restrictions on the types of trees that may be used and where they may be planted. Some recent regulations stipulate that trees of certain species must not be planted within a specified distance of the property line. Also, in planting street trees choose slow-growing species if interference with overhead wires is likely. If your community is served by a forester, he should be consulted.

Some good flowering shrubs - During the hot dry days of late July, August and September I was impressed with the beauty and dependability of several shrubs that were in flower. In addition to our indispensable crape: myrtle, 1 especially liked flowering senna and Daubentonia Tripeti.

Flowering senna - This shrub is treelike with a single stem or trunk, has a well-shaped crown and grows only about 8 feet high. It is evergreen and lovely the year through. Its greatest virtue, however, is the great profusion of small yellow flowers which appears in late summer and covers the plants until late fall. Flowering senna can be propagated from seed.

Daubentonia - Another shrub that can also be grown from seed is Daubentonia Tripeti (I wish there were a simpler name for this shrub, but I know of none). The first year it will send up 5- to 6-foot branchless stems. Last year we cut back our young plant to about 2 feet, forcing the growth of several branches. In May, when the new growth was 3 or 4 feet high, there were 'many showy, orange, pea-shaped blooms; in early August, after another spurt of new growth, the plant was again covered with flowers. This is an interesting shrub that you'll be happy to have in your garden.

Rose of Sharon Effie Reigel - Another good summer- and fall-flowering shrub is the double white althea, Effie Reigel, which I think is the best of all white altheas. The flowers, which are produced for weeks and weeks, very closely resemble huge white carnations.

Bottle-brush - I am always intrigued by a huge bottle-brush (callistemon) in full bloom. In Florida and along the Gulf Coast they grow into small trees but in the Mid-South they are frequently killed back by freezes and thus kept down to shrub size. The leaves are small and leathery, and the yellow or red flowers appear in dense spikes resembling a bottle-brush.

This shrub is difficult to transplant just like the corn plant flower, so container-grown specimens should be obtained, if possible. In the Mid-South very small plants should be protected for the first winter or two. Bottle-brush may be propagated by either seeds or cuttings.

Ligustrum Suwannee River - I have been pleased with the new dwarf ligustrum Suwannee River. My plant, good landscape size when planted, has not grown more than 3 or 4 inches in two years. So far it seems to be free of white flies, which so frequently attack this genus. - 29956

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