off topic: Franklinia, was message mess-up

Shirley Meneice samclan@redshift.com
Sun, 22 May 2005 20:23:53 PDT
Thank you, Jim.  You make me feel better.  I can't make 30 more years 
(112 seems a bit far out), but I can hope for it's future.  And I can 
also add a note that I grow Zigadenus in the part of my garden that is 
totally natural and available for deer and other predators.  No damage 
to the Zigadenus in 20 years!. 

Do you know where I could get a copy of Miss Martin's painting?    
Shirley                                                                  
          McKenney wrote:

>Shirley, the damage to your Franklinia may be a blessing in disguise.
>
>About thirty years ago or so I planted a then small Franklinia here in the
>garden. It was about the height of the one you have, with three short
>branches. Shortly after I planted it, something gnawed the trunk about six
>or eight inched above ground so much that the top of the plant fell over. It
>was however still attached by a band of bark. Determined to save the plant
>and not knowing what else to do, I put soil over the upper part of the plant
>(which was then just about flat on the ground) leaving the tips of each of
>the three branches exposed. 
>
>Now fast forward about thirty years. The Franklinia is a multi-trunked
>giant. Even experienced gardeners who know this plant often ask me what it
>is. Or they ask what kind of magnolia it is. It's probably about thirty feet
>high and across its widest dimension, maybe forty or fifty wide. 
>
>It's a glorious sight from the time it begins to bloom in late June or early
>July right through the fall of the last waxy scarlet leaves in November. 
>
>Jim McKenney
>jimmckenney@starpower.net
>Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where a copy of Miss Martin's
>painting of the Franklinia from the volume of Audubon's original water
>colors published by American Heritage years ago hangs in the kitchen in
>plain view of the tree itself. The Franklinia was not painted by Audubon
>himself, but rather by a Miss Martin, a sister of the Bachman for whom the
>warbler illustrated with the Franklinia is named. The likelihood of getting
>a Bachman's warbler here is about zero, so we pretend the birds are
>goldfinches, which we have in seasonal abundance. 
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>
>  
>



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