Protecting Our Portland Birch Trees from Bronze Birch Borer

Posted by Carol

· August 24, 2016

Protecting Our Portland Birch Trees from Bronze Birch Borer

NE Portland birch tree marked for removal by the City of Portland due to bronze birch borer.

Birch trees marked for removal by the City of Portland due to bronze birch borer.

Birch Trees Dying from Bronze Birch Borer

Many developers, builders and home owners picked the Himalayan White Birch (also called Jacquemontii,) for its crisply white bark and over planted them. They even planted them in parking strips with no irrigation, in full hot sun, which is not a good place for a birch. My Vancouver client’s neighborhood had over 200 mature infected trees removed. They had already lost 2 birch trees and I made tree replacement suggestions as part of their Landscape Design in a Day.

Back in the 1980’s the Himalayan White Birch was touted as the new success story because it had been hybridized to repel the Bronze Birch Borer (BBB). At that time I was a student learning about trees at a local community college. The European Weeping White Birch had been decimated by the BBB so everyone was very excited about the new Himalayan White Birch. Over the next 20 years, the bronze borer changed its preferences and became attracted to the over planted Himalayan White Birch. It makes sense from an evolution perspective; why not change to fit the food that is available? Smart bug!!!

City of Portland has tagged this borer damaged birch tree for removal

30 years ago Himalayan White Birch was used because it repelled Bronze birch borer.

Recently I have noticed the dreaded yellow tape of death tied around birch trees in the city. I create my Landscape Design in a Day drawings on site so I am in every conceivable neighborhood. The Bronze Birch Borer is now all over Portland and has spread south to Klamath Falls.

Today when I see my client has a birch tree, I give them the current research and it’s mostly bad news. I often include in their design a potential replacement tree for when, not if, their tree is devastated by the Birch Bronze Borer.

Heritage River Birch in winter. River Birch (Betulus Nigra) is a safe replacement tree – Bronze birch borer does not feed on this birch tree.

Protecting Your Portland Birch Tree

My research says watering your trees regularly before they are infected is a huge step toward preventing the disease. If you have a birch tree that is thriving or only has minimal borer damage, consider starting to irrigate it ASAP. Start by deep watering it every week to two weeks starting in early summer into mid to late fall. Don’t let your tree get stressed. (Deep water is a long slow soak with your hose.) Under no circumstances should you water your tree every day – that is not helpful. (See my watering tips blog).

Pesticide treatments

I’m also reading that more people are using a chemical treatment (which will help your tree) than they were initially. I’m not very happy about that because the treatments will harm bees. They are mostly drenches that are systemics (bad for bees) or injections done by tree services which are also systemic in nature (and so bad for bees). Apparently the timing of the treatment and how it is done can make it less lethal to bees but isn’t this backward of saving the bees and therefore our food supply? If it were my tree, given my very strong feelings about protecting bees, I would try watering deeply and regularly and not treat the tree with pesticides. If the tree is too far gone I would have it removed, grieve and plant a new tree that is resistant to disease and insects and prefers little summer water.

Weeping Katsura tree has similar texture to Birch

Katsura tree at Lan Su Chinese Garden in Portland, Oregon

In short, if you love your tree, start taking care of it. The first trees that died were neglected, poorly sited and in neighborhoods chock full of white barked birch trees.

Weeping Katsura is my go to birch replacement now since borers have killed so many birches.

Weeping Katsura in one of my clients gardens in Willamette Heights.

Signs of Bronze Birch Borer

The first signs are yellowing foliage in the top of the tree. As the insect infestation continues, small branches and tips die. It moves on into the larger branches. Declining to the point of death usually takes several years. There are other signs of borer; ridges in a lightning pattern and a distinctive D shaped hole in the bark. There can be a kind of stain coming from the holes, a sort of reddish liquid which looks as bad as it sounds.

Katsura tree with beautiful fall color.

New Resistant Varieties-Maybe

I am hesitant to trust that new resistant white barked birch varieties will stay resistant if we over plant them as we did the Jacquemontii/Himalayan white birch. I offer the river birch which has a brown peeling bark and typical birch leaves. Alternatively my favorite replacement for birch trees is the Katsura tree also called Cercidiphyllum. The Katsura has the graceful shape somewhat reminiscent of a birch tree with heart shaped leaves that flutter in the breeze. I feel it is a safer choice since it is not related to birch at all but alas no white bark!

Selecting trees that have the best chance to become mature old trees is my way to contribute to my clients and our community. Keeping up to date on the best trees to use and keeping my selection diverse will make the best urban forest for the future.

Kym Pokorny, (now writing for OSU’s Extension Service), says these are good replacement choices; ‘Heritage’ river birch (Betula nigra ‘Heritage’) and ‘Whitespire Senior’ gray birch (Betula populifolia ‘Whitespire Senior,’ which has the whitest bark of the replacement tree ideas. I suspect if we over plant these borer resistant birch trees, the borer will change its tastes to the available food so the best thing to do is plant lots of different trees.

Katsura ‘Red Fox’ is a smaller tree that is getting used in irrigated parking strips.

I came across a lovely old white birch tree just the other day in the Buckman neighborhood and gave my new client, who had just purchased the home, some information on how to care for the tree. The tree seems untouched by borer and is situated where it gets some afternoon shade. He will start to summer irrigate. Perhaps some birch trees are unique individuals because they were grown from seed and this unique genetic combo may cause them to be unattractive to the BBB. We can only hope that some of these remaining individual trees, if irrigated, will remain to grace our landscapes and homes. In 2010 Kym Pokorny, my favorite garden writer, warned that our graceful white bark birch trees might become a tree of the past in Portland. Boy was she right!!

Categories : Garden Pests, Garden Tips, New Improved Plants, Plants I Recommend, Tree Selection

Tags : birch tree pest, Bronze Birch Borer, disease resistant trees, dying trees, insect infestation, parking strip, small trees, street trees

Lawn Do Over for Portland Landscapes

Posted by Carol

· August 10, 2016

Drought Tolerant, Synthetic & No Lawns Landscaping

Landscape Design in a Day's newly installed drought tolerant RTF grass.

Landscape Design in a Day’s newly installed RTF grass with dry stream bed.

This is the year for rethinking the lawn. As a Portland landscape designer many of my new clients want to make big changes in their landscapes. I am recommending clients replace their old lawns with new and improved grass varieties.

My Lake Oswego clients, George and Marcia, contacted me completely discouraged about their front yard. I met them in the fall after our particularly hot and horrid summer of 2015. They had spent their entire summer watering and watering their lawn. It wasn’t dead on the October day that I came to their home but as you can see it was quite unattractive.

Uplands Neighborhood of Lake Oswego before drought tolerant lawn.

Damaged Lake Oswego lawn

They decided it was time to hire a designer and start over with their landscape. It is a typical Lake Oswego landscape with heavy clay soil, fir trees nearby with thirsty roots, and drainage problems.

Before we even started the landscape design process, I was able to share information about a new lawn grass that uses less water and is more durable than the grass (perennial rye grass blends) we have been using for the last 30 years. Working closely with Kevin Schindler of Autumn Leaf Landscaping Inc. we replaced their old lawn with Rhizomatous Tall Fescue (RTF) grass and designed a naturalistic dry stream bed that also solves the drainage problems. Solving the drainage problems also enhances the health of the grass. Even RTF grass doesn’t do well in a boggy winter soil. George and Marcia are very pleased with the appearance and performance of the new grass. They love their new dry stream bed and how it has pulled together the entire front yard, giving it a dramatic focal point.

They are no longer slaves to watering with drought tolerant lawn.

Installation day at George and Marcia’s Lake Oswego home.

This year several of my clients have taken out their old grass and installed RTF. From a distance it looks like any lawn, in fact it looks more uniform because it grows so thickly that it tends to crowd out weed grasses much better than our perennial rye grass does. My Lake Oswego clients especially appreciate the fact that RTF tolerates more sun and heat and if they did decide to let it go dormant, it will come back beautifully. RTF can even handle a south facing lawn with reflected heat from a sidewalk. This is the most difficult place to successfully grow grass so Portland landscape professionals are embracing this new product.

It is available as a roll out turf product (sod) and as seed. Kuenzi Turf & Nursery

After front lawn of drought tolerant landscaping in Rose City Park.

Rose City Park Neighborhood

No grass lawn for drought tolerant landscaping.

West Portland Park Neighborhood

Other clients want no lawn designs, thinking it will be lower maintenance. No lawn will mean lower water usage but replacing a lawn with paths and plants does not promise low maintenance. Even the fairly new minimalist style using 90% round river rock and 10% plants isn’t as low maintenance as you think. Someone has to blow dust and debris out of the river rock frequently to prevent weeds from building up. Many clients simply don’t want to mow any lawn and are fine with the first two years of extensive weeding that is needed to get a no lawn front yard established. For a lot of people, however, weeding is the least favorite gardening chore.

Synthetic Lawn Installed in front yard for drought tolerant landscaping.

Newly installed synthetic lawn in Parkrose Heights neighborhood

Other clients are installing synthetic lawn. Before you sneer at the idea of fake grass (which I did when I first heard about it), check out these photos of my Southeast Portland clients Bob and Norma Bleid. They gave themselves a retirement gift, front and back synthetic lawn. No water, no chemicals, no fertilizer; it is the ultimate low maintenance landscape lawn.

Early fall is a particularly good time to install a new lawn or landscape. With a good irrigation system landscapes can be installed any time of the year. As a Portland landscape designer I am not fond of July or August installations, I know my clients will be “nervous nellys” seeing their plants’ leaves droop, scorch and burn in the summer sun. The fall rains typically do a beautiful job of providing the moisture needed to get plants (including grass) well established. This eliminates the stress and worry of summer planting.

If you are interested in having your landscaping updated, redesigned or help with a plan – contact us for more information.

Categories : Before and Afters, Fall Gardening, Garden Tips, Gardening Green, Low Maintenance Landscape Examples, New Improved Plants, No Lawn Front Yards, Summer Garden Tips, Synthetic Lawn and Dogs

Tags : drainage problems, drought tolerant grass, dry stream bed, landscape drainage, low watering, mid century modern style, No Lawn, no lawn front yard, synthetic lawn, xeriscape plantings

Portland Landscape Designer’s Advice on Watering

Posted by Carol

· July 26, 2016

Portland Landscape Designer’s Advice on Watering

carol lindsay portland landscape designer with lupe

Portland Landscape Designer Carol Lindsay (with client’s puppy Lupe)

You know how Facebook gives you that reminder about something you were doing a year ago today…………Well! Let me tell you, a year ago today I was sick with worry about my clients’ gardens because of the horrible, everlasting, record breaking, summer of hell. Do you remember? It was unseasonably and unreasonably hot early in our spring and it stayed that way all summer. I grew up here and I was in shock and a kind of grief actually. I missed our normal summer.

As a Portland landscape designer I’m always trying to teach my clients about how to water. Did you know you can train your plants roots to grow more deeply? This has many health benefits and one of them is that the plants will be less stressed in high heat periods, another is they won’t need as much water which is nice for your water bill and for the environment in general.

People who don’t know the tricks of proper watering really struggled with their plants and lawns and had many plant losses. Most were busy watering every day and either rotting their plants or doing such a light watering that the only thing that grew well was their water bill. A big shock for me was the number of clients whose lawns did not come back at all due to the extreme heat. They let their lawns go dormant, something that thrifty Portlanders have been doing for decades. The lawns did not come back with the fall rains. This had never happened to anyone I knew before. The spring of 2016 was very busy for Portland landscape design professionals. People were replacing their dead lawns and remodeling their landscapes. So now it is July of 2016 and it’s just starting to get hot. Whether your landscape is mature or has recently been installed it’s not too late to learn how to water properly and protect your investment.

So it’s time to share my watering tips with you again. SUMMER WATERING TIPS

Categories : Garden Tips, Gardening Green, Summer Garden Tips

Tags : how to water your garden, plant watering tips, root rot, summer watering, sun damaged plants, when to water

Heuchera for Modern Landscape

Posted by Carol

· July 13, 2016

Modern Landscape Design with Portland Designed Heuchera Plant

Portland Heuchera plant great for modern landscape design.

Plethora of Heuchera leaf color and variegation.

Dan Himes, Portland’s own plant designer, of Terra Nova Nurseries took the old fashioned Coral Bell, a simple cottage garden plant that was beloved for pale spring flowers and created the dramatic colorful leaves of the modern coral bell (Heuchera). He didn’t stop there. Over the past 30 years he

‘Lime Marmalade’ Heuchera

has given designers a whole new color palette to create with: leaves of peach, orange, russet, burgundy, amethyst, chartreuse and near black.

Many of the leaves are variegated and create the most amazing patterns. He has also created many different sizes of plants. I can use a Heuchera in the mid border with the top of the leaves at 10 inches tall and 24 inch flowers like ‘Lime Marmalade’ or plants a mere 5 inches tall with 10 inch flowers like ‘Cherry Cola’. In recent years he has also created a diverse selection of flower colors.

‘Cherry Cola’ Heuchera is great at the edge of a pot.

The original garden coral bell bloomed in pale pink, today I can have flowers in hot brick red, coral, hot pink, near orange (no true orange yet) varying shades of yellow and even shocking chartreuse. Some varieties are really all about the leaves and the flowers are a very quiet white or cream with stunning dramatic leaf color and variegation, but the newer varieties can have it all, bold dramatic leaves with the perfect hot flower color to accompany them.

So many choices are exciting to me but can be daunting to a typical home owner. Twenty different varieties can stop a person in their tracks.

‘Blackberry Crisp’ Heuchera

I’m not trying to pick a pretty plant, it would be hard to do as they are all attractive. I always design for function and select a plant for what I want it to do. I use ‘Blackberry Crisp’ because the leaves look good even in the winter. They are perfect for entry pizzazz. Some Heuchera flower for a long time in summer but have no winter interest so I use those near the patio.

There are many varieties I use for shade and some for near full sun. I love to use the new 5 to 6 inch tall plants at the edge of containers. These little guys look great with Spring Heather and Hens & Chicks. Coral Bell can pull a garden together visually by repeating it along a pathway. Their shape softens the potentially harsh lines of a modern minimalist garden plan. No matter what your style, old fashioned, naturalistic or modern they add the dramatic color that every client wants in their landscape.

Heuchera softens the edges of pots beautifully

Dan’s contribution is significant. There are many plant designers in the world and many of them worship at Dan’s feet. I was in the Netherlands visiting a famous garden designer and plant designer named Piet O’Doff who designed the 9/11 memorial garden. After he learned I came from Portland, Oregon he said to me, “why did you come all this way to see me when you live 15 minutes from Dan Himes”?

From a designers point of view Dan’s work is very exciting. His plants give me so many choices to create the perfect planting plan for my clients. True confession: to keep up with Dan Himes, I created a spreadsheet on my favorite coral bells so I can select them for size, foliage color, flower color, foliage height, sun exposure and more. It’s not that easy for me either.

Categories : Garden Tips, New Improved Plants, Plants I Recommend, Spring Gardening

Tags : bold colors, colorful leaves, container plants, easy care plants, Heuchera, spring flowers

Scarlet Runner Bean

Posted by Carol

· June 29, 2016

Gardener and guest blogger Chrissy Lavielle tells us how to grow and cook scarlet runner beans. Her recipe below, “Scarlet Runner Bean Soup”, is fantastic.

Scarlet Runner Bean. Photo courtesy of Seed Savers Exchange

Early in April, when the soil is just beginning to warm up, I plant the scarlet runner beans. It seems so cruel to bury those beautiful, thumb sized black and purple beans in the cold, damp earth, but they always burst happily to the surface in two or three weeks – depending on how cold it is. When they get to be about six inches tall, I tie long strings onto a wire I’ve strung in the eaves of the porch, just above the bean plants. I tie the other end of each string around the upper part of a plant. As summer begins to progress, the beans spiral gracefully up the strings. By mid July they’ve made a 15 foot tall, thick, green curtain dotted with brilliant scarlet flowers that shades the west side of the porch from the worst of the summer sun.

By late autumn, the flowers have been replaced by long dry parchment brown pods filled with those beautiful beans. The cotton string doesn’t compost well, and it’s slimy remnants catch on trowels and shovels and weeding forks for several years. And so I choose a sunny afternoon in November and spend it picking beans and unraveling string and summer from the twisted vines.

Shelling the grocery bag full of bean pods takes an easy hour – less if someone helps. I put the beans in a pottery bowl and leave them on the kitchen counter to dry. Whenever I find myself standing next to them, I push my hand down into the mass of cool, satiny beans and stir them around. It feels wonderful and makes a comforting, pattering sort of sound.

I use the spiral cut ham bones from the Yule Ritual to make a fabulous stock for the beans.

To make the stock:

Put a bunch of ham bones or bones saved from several pork roasts in a stockpot and cover with water or chicken broth. Add some salt and lemon juice to pull the calcium out of the bone. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 4 hours.

After about 2 1/2 hours add:

A few yellow onions, carrots and ribs of celery

A large can of diced tomatoes

10 pepper corns

Fresh sprigs of parsley, sage, rosemary and/or thyme

After the 4 hours, strain stock from bones and vegetables.

To make the soup:

Soak about 1 1/2 – 2 cups of beans in water overnight. Strain and rinse beans. Put them in a 1 1/2 – 2 quarts of stock and bring to boil. Simmer for about 1 1/2 hours. Add a few spritzes of Tabasco sauce and adjust seasonings. Puree about 1/2 the beans in a food processor and add back to thicken the soup.

You can add pasta and/or garnish with fresh chopped basil.

Categories : Easy Edibles, Garden Tips

Tags : easy edibles, edible plants for your front yard

Lawn Do Over for Portland Landscapes

Drought Tolerant, Synthetic & No Lawns Landscaping

Portland Landscape Designer’s Advice on Watering

Scarlet Runner Bean

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