Tuesday, April 14, 2009

April At The NC Arboretun

In order to keep a license in the state of North Carolina to kill bugs for a profit there is a requirement for ten continuing education credits over the five year period the license is issued for. This year I paid the annual $50 fee for my license to kill bugs and started my continuing education with a class on urban tree health that was held at the NC Arboretum.



Continuing education is a fine thing and a wonderful excuse to go visit the arboretum again as spring unfolds in the mountains of WNC. The early blooming Viburnum were on show. If I was a good garden blogger I would have noted the full name.



Look at the size of those white tulips.



Dang, what happened to the deep rosy pink tulips? It looks like botanical gardens can even have tulip troubles.



White spirea with a red leaved, red flowered, I did not look close enough to know what kind of tree.



The Bonsai





I really do have a preference for the miniature landscape bonsai.



Daffodils and phlox with an espaliered magnolia backdrop.



Bulbarella recognized this particular late blooming daffodil and decided she must dig up all her clumps of them to spread them around. Now if I could just encourage her to spread them all around in one general spot.



The redbuds and whitebuds were blooming. This very deep pink one's cultivar name was 'Oklahoma'. It was not C. canadensis though. It was Cercis somebody else.



Mertensia virginica, I think we need some of these native plants for this mountain. Some other plant here is called a Bluebell by the resident gardeners. It could be another Mertensia, but I can not find it on the web. ( A little searching in the Borage family makes me think their Bluebell is a Comfrey, Symphytum asperum.) The flowers are similar. I will need to take a closer look this year.



Viburnum frames a view out into the mountains and the wild forest garden that cradle and surround the arboretum.



Virginia Bluebells and Primrose carpet the ground in a formal garden setting.



They would be very much at home in a rambling cultivated garden high in the mountains that holds on strongly to its wildness.

And after that rambling, inconclusive plant ID post aren't you glad the state of NC makes me take a test and keep going to school to get a license to kill bugs that I will never be likely to use.

5 comments:

Les said...

I wish that when I have to get re-certified it could be at some place as nice. I usually have to go to the regional ag. station or to the volunteer fire dept. There I get to sit with cotton and soybean farmers and watch such riveting films as "Sprayer Nozzle Maintenance", "Blow Flies and Manure Storage", and this past January we got to see a very dramatic and bi-lingual version of "Pestacide Safety" - it was like a telenovello.

Christopher C. NC said...

Les, this class was in a nice place and filled with foresters, but I have no doubt there is some dusty NCDA classroom in my future. I'm looking at IPM for Landscapes and Nurseries as a next class choice to be held out by the airport in some crop research areas.

Frances said...

Hi Christopher, HA to trying to get Bulbarella to spread the daffs all in one spot. The primula is P. veris, a native endangered English wildflower. I have some that were grown from seed years ago, and also started some from saved seed this year, in the greenhouse in November, no heat mat needed. Just to let you know to look for seed. :-)
Frances

Lisa at Greenbow said...

Oh be still my heart. Those bonsais are to die for. Sigh~~

Phillip Oliver said...

Great post. That tree looks like a Kwansan cherry but I'm not sure.