As we think about the gardening season ahead, we frequently make New Year's resolutions to make major design changes in our landscape. Many of our resolutions are destined to remain as dreams, but hopefully some ideas will actually be translated into reality.
I am dreaming this winter of tall, thin trees.
I have a wet boggy space where I am hoping to plant ‘Lindsey's Skyward' bald cypress (hardy in zones 5 to 9) that will grow in moist to wet acidic soil in full sun to part shade. Its botanical name is Taxodium distichum. It is a native bred by Mike Lindsey in Oklahoma and forms a dense narrow spire growing ten feet tall and three feet wide in ten years. It tolerates heat and humidity, and in autumn it has coppery-gold foliage.
For well-drained soil and partial shade, I love the vertical boxwood ‘Graham Blandy'. The botanical name is Buxus sempervirens, and it is hardy zones 6 to 8. I have two in my zone 5 garden, and they have done well, so now of course, I want more of these slender beauties that the deer leave alone.
Vertical accents are so much fun to place in a garden, and these need no trimming at all.