Category: Bummers
‘Ugly mix’ prevents Xmas tree theft
I have a vague recollection from grad school days about a frat getting busted with a 25-foot evergreen in their foyer that they sent the pledges out to harvest from the local arboretum about this time of the year.
Almost happened again. Only no one was busted and the $3,800 tree is dead now.
Long story short, some Christmas-tree seeker took a hatchet and cut down a nearly 40-year-old Bosnian pine (Pinus heldreichii) on Cornell Plantations grounds, hauled it to the roadside, and abandoned it there.
To prevent such thefts and vandalism, Cornell Plantations staff mix up a concoction of lime, Wilt-pruf and food coloring to spray on tempting trees that turns them pink for a few weeks during prime tree-rustling season. (Picture above. Find the recipe in this ’97 Cornell Chronicle article.) Unfortunately, they hadn’t yet treated this tree.
Here’s the news release about this year’s tragedy:
Cornell Plantations Reports Tree Theft
ITHACA, N.Y. —Cornell Plantations staff reported that a tree was destroyed in the Watkins Pinetum area of the F.R. Newman Arboretum sometime between Thursday evening, November 20^th and Friday morning, November 21^st . The tree, a Bosnian pine valued at $3,800, appeared to have been cut down with a hatchet or an axe. After cutting down the tree and dragging it to the edge of the road, the perpetrators abandoned it there.
“This tree was nearly four decades old, had been started from seed, and was essentially irreplaceable,†said Plantations director Don Rakow. “Each tree is an integral part of Plantations’ educational collections, and a beautiful addition to the Cornell and Ithaca communities. Their destruction is deeply disturbing.†“Our living specimens are analogous to an art museum’s works of art; this crime is similar to vandalizing or destroying an irreplaceable painting,†agreed Plantations horticultural supervisor Jim Mack.
“Every year we are faced with the potential of having conifers cut and removed for Christmas trees,†noted Plantations plant health care coordinator Donna Levy. “To counteract would-be tree thieves, Plantations sprays many conifers with a harmless concoction we call “ugly mix,†which makes the trees appear unhealthy.†This spray material eventually washes off with the rain, returning the specimen to its natural state. Unfortunately, the Bosnian pine was destroyed shortly before Plantations’ plant health care crew began applying the mixture to trees within the botanical garden and arboretum.
Plantations is offering a $250 reward for information leading to a conviction; they request that citizens with information relating to this incident contact Cornell Police at 607-255-1111.
Palin As President game
If you were a fan of Myst or other graphic adventure video games, check this out. I don’t have the patience for them. But it’s still fun to click on stuff, especially the red phone.
Garden bloggers design workshop: Screening out the road
This is my post for the August edition of the Garden Bloggers’ Design Workshop – Trellises and Screens.
We seldom use our front door. But it — and our living room — sit about 35 feet from a busy rural ‘connector’ road. It’s the shortcut for commuters traveling from the east to Cornell University, which employs about 10,000 people, not counting the construction workers.
When we moved in here in 1999, there were three spruces (none taller than I am) between us and the traffic. We lost one in the midnight bowling ball accident of 2003. At that post, you can see the bare ‘before’ pictures from the year we moved in.
Since then, I’ve tried to put up a buffer of mixed shrubs and perennials in a bed along the road and next to the house to separate us visually from the road. Here’s what it looks like now:
Click on images for larger view.
Here’s what makes up the barrier (see numbered image below):
- Clematis growing on doorstep pole.
- Plume poppy growing in front of living room window.
- Bittersweet vine growing on pergola.
- Filipendula and burning bushes in front of pergola.
- Hybrid willows along road to the west.
- 8-foot tall Inula with 6-foot tall polygonum behind it.
- Shrubby willows.
- Monarda and Cornus alba transplanted from the woods.
- Tall willows.
- The little spruce, all growed up.
Here’s the view from the front door looking slightly left …
… and slightly right:
How does it work? Could be better. The deer have kept the Cornus alba (above) too short to fully block the road and the driveway beyond. Everything in these images is at full height and in full leaf now. But that’s not the case early in the season.
I don’t notice the traffic as much during winter when the house is shut up tight. But that’s probably a rationalization. I was afraid to plant evergreens due to the wet soil out front and the salt spray from the road during winter. But the remaining spruce have done fine. If I’d planted two or three more in ’99, we’d probably have a solid wall of evergreens out front. Oh well.
Along the stretch of the road to the east of our driveway, I planted a screen of Miscanthus floridulus, or at least that’s what I think it is. It does a nice job blocking the view of the road from our patio behind the house. The bamboo-like stems also make good pea brush and wattle-building material.
Garden Bloggers’ Design Workshop – Garden Whimsy
Blue bottle ‘flower’ (with boat augers and lamp fixture). Blue bottle tree in background.
A couple weeks after Nan announced this round of the Garden Bloggers’ Design Workshop, Steve Orr’s New York Times Q&A column in The New York Times (Picking Accessories for the Plants) offered good advice on garden ornamentation that applies equally to whimsy. His advice:
- Don’t go overboard.
- Use found objects.
- Use surprise.
- Make ornaments focal points, but don’t distract too much from the plants.
Even in a very lushly planted yard, a visitor’s eye usually will go straight to any nonplant feature. It’s best not to have several ornaments visible at a glance, competing with each other, since the most interesting landscapes have a little mystery. Place one object half-hidden in a leafy shrub and position another around a corner, so that its discovery is a surprise.
Did I mention don’t go overboard? If I have a problem with whimsy in the garden, it’s probably that my eye gets too accustomed to whimsical elements. Before you know it, my yard will be filled with crap. Hopefully I’ll notice before the neighbors.
For those of you who aren’t in the neigborhood, here’s what I’ve got scattered around. (The camera exercise once again reveals to me I’ve got way more than I thought.) I’ll also include some shots from other gardens at the end.
Floating bowling ball on bent rebar. Long story of the midnight bowling ball accident of 2003 from a previous design workshop post.
Sugar and flower canisters make great pots. So do olive oil cans.
How could I not buy a bottle of Chilean brandy when the bottle looks like an Easter Island statue? It was all I could do to drink the brandy. But I earned a container ornament for my efforts.
Jade checks out the happy turtle. Not so visible in the pot is an ancient hand-made Chia head that I remember from childhood. It split a few years ago so now I have two profiles looking up at me from the pot.
Someday I’ll make a pilgrimage to the local pink flamingo factory and get a real one. But for now I like the one I have with its spinning wings.
Sloggers still work as hanging container for succulents. Back story and my infamous garden footwear review.
Spilled trough with hypertufa balls.
Glow-in-the-dark tree guy.
My mini-water-garden probably counts more as ornamentation than it does as whimsy.
I float blossoms in this old cattle waterer.
My friend Marcia has a pretty whimsical garden. She does it with a lot more class than I do. More pictures of her garden here.
Shirley G. has the best whimsical garden in these parts. Shirley is a member of our local Adirondack Chapter of the North American Rock Garden Society. The group toured her garden back in 2005, when I took these pictures.
A salvaged canopy bed that I picture now covered with vines.
The family.
Best shoe garden I’ve seen.
Shirley also had a cool heart-shaped water garden tub, a Wizard of Oz garden and lots of other cools stuff punctuated by some great plants.
Have at it. Just don’t overdo it.