Foliage Friday - Pawpaw Tree

Happy Foliage Friday! Let's get to it.  (I'm ignoring your disapproving glances when you realized I forgot to post last week....)

Ready for a Foliage Friday update? I hope so! Here is your friendly plant post, where I talk about a plant I love and hopefully convince you to either plant it or just be more knowledgeable about it.

Plant: Common Pawpaw, Asimina triloba

Why: I work with prairie plants all day long in the nursery at the Forest Preserve, and I love it! But in college, my absolute favorite classes were about woody landscape plants and woody perennials. Once I shared this with my coworkers, they all start asking me questions about trees and I realized I am getting a little rusty! Uh oh! It's time to get unrusty and revisit some of my favorite trees. I picked the pawpaw for a few reasons. First of all, there are a few pawpaws in the preserves of our district, and everyone gets excited about them, as they are a little hard to establish. Second, the name is fun. Say it. Pawpaw. Say it faster. Pawpaw. Hehe. Third, I love trees with unique features, and this one has a few!

Pawpaw in landscape environment

Landscape uses: Well, I will start off by saying that the pawpaw is not a very common landscape tree, and this tends to be because it can be hard to establish. It prefers deep, moist, sandy soil and have delicate roots that require this soil. Never fear, it's possible! Stick to pawpaws that are in containers, not bare rooted.  But, as I mentioned above, it can be found in shady, moist wooded areas... which is exactly where a few of my coworkers found them! They have a relatively loose, horizontal branching pattern, and supply a nice amount of shade. They can get to be 30-40 feet tall and are easy to maintain when established. There hardly needs to be use for herbicides or pesticides for this tree.

Pawpaw in a woody environment

Other uses: The fruits of the pawpaw tree are believed to be consumed by Native Americans for years, and is safe for human consumption. Some believe in the fruit's medicinal uses!

Pawpaw fruit

Fun facts: I think this is where I will put the fun attributes of the pawpaw tree. We'll start with the leaves. They are a bit larger than the average tree's leaf, and have a droopy quality.  In the summer the pawpaw has a distinct, rich green color, while in fall, it has a rich, full yellow color. It's one of those trees that will pop out from the rest!

Droopy leaves

Another interesting feature of the pawpaw tree are its flowers. Do you ever stop and see a tree's flowers? Probably not! Unless you're passing a magnolia tree, it's hard to even imagine that trees have flowers because they are so small! Luckily, the pawpaw has a unique flower that is easier to notice. It is purple/maroon in color and droops downward. I am a big fan of how unique it is for a tree.

Flower

Finally, their fruits are also produced widely and are excellent for jams and jellies! Their picture is above, under "Other uses." What a large fruit for a tree! I find it really interesting that pawpaw trees are actually produced specifically for their fruits. Do be aware... once the fruit is picked from the tree, it ferments quickly. It's best eaten or used straight off the tree if possible. If not, freezing is a good option.

I could also get into how interesting the buds are, the color of the pith, and the pinnate venation.... but this is an intro class, and we'll stay simple. ;-)

Thank you for tuning in again for today's installment of Foliage Friday. See you next Friday! :)


Information and pictures from: http://plants.usda.gov, Yahoo Images

Foliage Friday - Black Gum

I hope you don't notice that it's actually Saturday.... I'm SORRY! I have no idea how I let it slip my mind this week, it felt really busy!

Ready for a foliage Friday update? I hope so! Here is your friendly plant post, where I talk about a plant I love and hopefully convince you to either plant it or just be more knowledgeable about it.

Plant: Black gum or Tupelo, Nyssa sylvatica

Why: This is one of the prettiest trees in the fall, in my opinion. It is a BRIGHT red color and I think it is just wonderful! My parents have a tree in their yard that (in my opinion) needs to be removed and I would love to replace it with this tree. It can be a little hard to grow from a large transplant, but I think it is totally worth it in the end. There are a lot of yellows in our neighborhood, and we need some more reds!

Landscape uses: The black gum is more common in southern United States, but is hardy to zone 4. (North of my area.) They can be a little difficult to grow from transplant, but I think that may be more of a reputation that the actual truth. If you stick to a smaller transplant in balled and burlapped form, it does better. It has a pyramid shape, which is nice for a tree lawn or street tree. In the summer it has a nice, dark green foliage color. It gets to be 30-50 feet tall in its maturity and offers excellent shade for summer. :) It's a little on the slow growing side, so patience is a must! It can have some rust or leaf spot problems, but both are pretty easy to control.

Other uses: From what I have learned about this tree and researched about it, I have not been able to find any other uses besides a landscape tree for shape and excellent fall color.

Fun facts: Fall foliage can range from yellow to orange to red to almost purple. Talk about a party in your front yard during fall! Sorry that the fun facts are also lacking a little bit!

Information and pictures from: http://www.hort.net, http://www.hort.uconn.edu

VBS

One of my favorite weeks of the year is volunteering at our church for its Vacation Bible School (VBS) camp.  Stephanie is the director and since I was 11 years old, I have volunteered to help, as a crew leader and eventually a station leader. Unfortunately last year I was unable to help out because I had to be at ISU for training. Because of that, I wasn't able to be at my station and it was given to different volunteers. So this year, I took over Doug's station which involved me taking pictures for a slideshow each day.

 

This year theme was Pandamania. We spent the week in the bamboo forests hanging out with pandas while learning about God and his great power.

 

 

We had some pretty cool decorations created by my parents all over the church, including a big happy panda hiding in the leaves, and a bridge over a pond in the bamboo forest. 

 

We had a very cute visitor, Panda Patty, visit us each morning. She also learned along with us as learned about Bible stories!

 

Every morning, we also were introduced to the Bible buddy for the day. Each buddy helped us remember the Bible point and the Bible story. They are usually a really big hit during the week of VBS! You should see how many kids want their picture taken with the buddies at the end of the week. :)

 

 

 

 

Each day we learned the Bible point. Whenever the Bible point was said by anyone, the kids were to respond with "Thank you, God!" and fist pump. Some times we would be really obvious about saying, and other times we'd sneak it in. It was fun to see their reaction throughout the week!

 

We displayed all of the Bible points above our panda throughout the week to remind the kids what we've learned.

 

Imagine the church jammed with 82 kids just like this one... with big smile and excitement on their faces!

 

Me and Stephanie, the director, together after Day 4 - sports day.

It was a wonderful week with Stephanie, the kids, and the volunteers. I'm already excited for next year!

Places I want to visit....

I have no clue where this post is coming from... but I was surfing the "travel" category on pinterest and I got to thinking about all of the places I want to visit in my life time. I overcame my fear of traveling alone and visited Erin this spring in New York City! That was pretty much an AMAZING trip, and I want more of those!

1. Italy - Let's act surprised that this is on my list, let alone listed first. I cannot even DESCRIBE my desire to travel to Italy, see the major tourist sites and see where my family came from. Now, more than ever, I wish I was able to do this with my grandparents and cousins. Not to mention that I would love to take a staged picture with the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Haha.

2. Egypt - Good thing is.... this will probably happen in my lifetime as Erin is ENGAGED to her wonderful boyfriend. I believe she will be having a wedding here in the US and in Egypt... and I WILL be going to both! Hopefully while I'm there, I'll be able to visit the pyramids. In school, I was in love with the Ancient Egyptian units, and putting the REAL thing in front of me would be so surreal.

3. Grand Canyon - I got majorly jealous of Stephanie when she went to the Grand Canyon for her 1st Anniversary. Her pictures were breathtaking! I think I would appreciate the landscape and natural wonder so much more given my current job, passion, and degree.

4. California - Doug has spent a summer semester out in LA for an internship, Erin and Stephanie visit frequently to see their grandparents... I feel like I'm really missing something! I'd love to see the Hollywood sign myself and dip my toes into the ocean and see the Golden Gate Bridge!

5. Hawaii - When I was in 5th grade, we were assigned a state to research and do a report on. Well, we weren't assigned a state, we were able to pick the state. And what state did I pick? Hawaii. Why? No clue. But I learned a lot about its culture and even today I still remember that project and the AMAZING diorama that my mom helped me make. What a beautiful island to see in person! My aunt and uncle have gone several times, and the pictures they come home with are just breathtaking.

6. Crooked Forest - In Poland, there is a forest of all crooked trees... I remember hearing about it in one of my college classes, but I saw it again on pinterest, and now I basically need to see it myself. What an intriguing forest to see!

7. Mount Rushmore - I'm sure it's one of those things you look at, take some pictures, and wonder why you made the trip, but I'm pretty sure it would be fascinating to see in person! Big piece of history. I think that would make my dad proud. :)

8. Eiffel Tower - I studied French for 6 years (don't ask me to say anything to you - it was not a gift of mine) and France in general fascinated me. But I think it would be amazing to see the Eiffel Tower at night, let alone eat breakfast at an outdoor cafe before going to an art museum.

I had a few other "natural" wonders written down somewhere and now I can't find it. My woody plants professor in college talked about quite a few amazing sounding places to see nature wonders, and I can't find the list I made! Hopefully I'll come across it... where do you want to visit? Do you want to join me on any of these trips? And/or help fund them? :) Hehe....

Foliage Friday - Lucky Bamboo

Happy Friday!

Ok, I'm sure someone noticed... but there was definitely not a post last week for Foliage Friday. My bad. :( I've been a little absent from bloggy world! Last week I helped with our church's annual Vacation Bible School and this week I have been suffering greatly from allergies. But, enough of my excuses! Let's get back into it. :)

Here is your friendly plant post, where I talk about a plant I love and hopefully convince you to either plant it or just be more knowledgeable about it.

Plant: Dracaena sanderiana, Lucky bamboo

Why: As I mentioned above, last week I helped out with VBS last week. The theme was Pandamania, where we spent the week in the bamboo forests with the kids. I have had bamboo plants in my residence hall room in college, and then Stephanie gave all of the station leaders a bamboo stalk as a thank you. I thought it would be fun to do some actual reading and learn about bamboo outside of the tag that comes with it! I actually learned that the bamboo that we call "lucky bamboo" (the plant that Stephanie gave us) is actually very different than the plants that those cute pandas eat in the bamboo forests. Those bamboo stalks are actually a part of the grass family. Animals do not eat the lucky bamboo plants we keep in our houses.

Landscape: Draceena is considered a house plant, so it is not used in outside landscaping in our USDA zone.

Care: Because there are no landscape uses, I researched care for this plant. It does best with indirect light, as direct sunlight can burn the small leaves it sprouts. This means, keeping it on a windowsill facing south will most likely burn it. Putting it into a room that receives sunlight at some point during the day will be good enough. Many times you will find bamboo planted in water and rocks, but it actually grows better potted in soil. If it is kept in water, be sure to use distilled or filtered water. The less fluoride, the better.  And for the healthiest plant, change the water every two weeks or so. Try not to keep your plant by a drafty window in winter, relocate it to the top of your fridge or an upstairs bedroom to avoid it getting too cold.


Other uses: There are no other uses of lucky bamboo.

Fun facts: There are about 1,450 different species of bamboo plants that the pandas eat. As for the lucky bamboo, there are many cultivars sold. In order to get the fun shapes you see in stores, you can manipulate what kind of light and what direction of light the plant gets. This is extremely difficult, but can be done!

Beware - don't let your pet get close to these plants, as bamboo can be very toxic to them. One your bamboo is cut (and you buy it), it will not grow any taller, but it will grow leaves and they will grow.

Information and pictures from: http://luckybambooshop.com