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Thursday, February 28, 2013

Surprise in the Garden: Parrotia persica

 This week one of the many tasks I had was to prune a few trees in my garden. Without a little help, sometimes poor growth, crossing limbs or just congested growth takes place. While this may not be major, pruning it and working to make the tree the best it possibly can be is a good thing.

I was dumbfounded when I came to my Parrotia persica, or Persian Ironwood.  I've written about it before, especially since it has pretty fantastic fall foliage.  In my tree's case, it is brilliant yellow with streaks of intense red.  You can see it here on my older blog post.
I knew it was related to the witch hazels (hamamelis species) but other than the leaf shape, and the growth pattern (prone to congestion...sometimes people describe it as the "green wall") I didn't really clue in.  This week changed all that. I didn't even remember it had blooms! But like witch hazel, it is blooming now with the spectacular deep red blooms.  I will have to watch to see if they open any wider, but they are about 1/2" in diameter.

If this isn't good enough to sell you on the tree....take a look at this photograph by Vibernum Valley....Mine is only now beginning to show this patterning. I planted it about 6 years ago, and it is now about 4" in diameter.

Way cool.  I'm glad I planted it.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hello - where did you get your Parrotia?

Unknown said...

Believe it or not, my local nursery, Andy's on Re. 55 in Troy has carried them, and I think I have seen them other local, but private and more specialized nurseries. I think I have also seen them at Earthscapes in Loveland, OH.