AS MANY TIMES AS I HAVE SEEN THEM, I’m always startled when the Korean fir, Abies koreana, puts out a fresh crop of purple “pine” cones each year at this time. They’re a favorite of wildlife (and the gardener) here; read the full profile of this great conifer, or browse through all my conifer stories anytime.
‘NATURE’S BEST HOPE’ is the title of University of Delaware professor Doug Tallamy’s new book, and the subtitle reads like this: “A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard.” In other words, you and I are nature’s best hope. Our actions count, and they add up to counteract a fragmented landscape and other challenges to the survival of so many critically important native creatures and the greater environment we all share.
Doug Tallamy’s 2007 book, “Bringing Nature Home,” has been for many of us a wake-up call into the entire subject of the unbreakable link between native plant species and native wildlife, and now with more than a decade of additional research insights, he goes further.
(Stream it below, read the illustrated transcript or subscribe free.)
Those are really pretty. I don’t think I’ve seen them before.
Margaret I posted a question in the q&a forum on Cryptomeria japonica ‘Sekkan Sugi’ but have had no feedback. I hope you don’t mind me asking here if you or anyone has any info on this one, I saw one in a nursery and it screamed gold, take me home. But before I do I was trying to get clarification on the mature size. The tag said 10′ x 5-6′ but online it says it is much taller. Also right now it looks somewhat open branched and weeping in form. Pictures on line show it as more solid.
I don’t know, Terry, as I believe they are a bit tender for me. But…I often put my trust in the info from Great Plant Picks out in Seattle (allowing for the difference of climate, of course). They say it gets to that size in the first 10 years, twice that high and wide or more in its lifetime. Often the tags put the 10-year results which I think it stupid, of course (which is why my paths are overrun by one shrub or tree here and there and everywhere).
Thanks for answering Margaret. I have to give this a bit more thought before buying it. By the way I was at Claire’s nursery in Patterson/Pawling this afternoon and I hear you have been there too. It was my first visit, what a nice nursery. Lots of interesting things.
My friend has one pruned to an interesting shape. I love it and have always wanted one.