No Title 2547

Supplement to “Top 10 Trees”

Bernheim Forest’s Web site identifies a list of Bernheim Select Urban Trees (www.bernheim.org/bernheim_select.html), with comprehensive descriptions of nearly 50 trees (including four of the ones we highlighted: hornbeam, Japanese tree lilac, sweetbay magnolia, and yellowwood). “We wanted to make available to the general public a list of trees that could supply a full suite of ornamental values. We wanted those trees to be pest-free, we wanted them to be well-adapted to this area,” and not invasive, says Bernheim’s Dena Rae Garvue. “We wanted to add a diversity to the palette.” Best of all, you can see all 50 of these trees growing in Bernheim (a map is available at the Visitor Center).

While “plant awards” sounds like the premise for a comedy sketch (“Whose mulch are you wearing?”), for the last 13 years a panel of Kentucky horticultural luminaries (including founding member Tony Nold of The Plant Kingdom, Louisville) has selected the Theodore Klein Plant Awards (www.ca.uky.edu/HLA/Dunwell/TkleinPA.html). Each January, they announce four to six outstanding ornamental woody and perennial plants for Kentucky landscapes. Each plant name links to a page with a description and appreciation of the plant.

The agriculture departments of the country’s universities have put up amazing amounts of tree information on the Web. Among the ones I found most useful were the Southern Trees Fact Sheets from the University of Florida IFAS Extension (http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/department_envhort-trees)—it has a just-the-facts-ma’am style (no photos, although it does have simple botanical drawings), but offers more comprehensive information than others; and the University of Connecticut Plant Database (www.hort.uconn.edu)—it has great clickable photos of each facet of a tree, from overall form to close-ups of the bark.

But a unique one from the University of Illinois Extension called Selecting Trees for Your Home (http://urbanext.illinois.edu/treeselector/search.cfm) allows you to find which trees are best suited for your site. You enter various factors—hardiness zone, size, soil and sun conditions, what color foliage you desire, how you want to use the tree—and it recommends species that meet those criteria.

To read the Kentucky Living March 2011 feature that goes along with this supplement, go to Top 10 Trees.