Via site feedGinkgos in Turin, Italy. Photo courtesy of jvision.
Ginkgo Sundays: House and Garden
Ginkgo gate from Landscape ArtDesign.
Ginkgo Fridays: Jewelry
Ginkgo brooch in yellow gold from Talisman Jewelers.
Ginkgo Wednesdays: Photography
Image courtesy of Ki-young Choi (최기영).
“A glorious tree, for 11 months”
From Peter Baniak of the Memphis Commercial Appeal:
What is that smell? Did someone—oh, wait, has late October passed already?
Well then, that smell would be from the tree that looms over my back yard.
We have a ginkgo tree, a beautiful, gigantic ginkgo tree, complete with a swing hanging from one of her sturdy branches and shade garden underneath. And she is woman—smell her roar.
You see, the female ginkgoes are the ones that drop mounds of fruit this time of year. The fruit is small—a little smaller than a golf ball—and looks like a miniature apricot. Inside is a white nut that the squirrels go ga-ga for. Sound charming?
Ginko Sundays: House and Garden
Ginko chair, designed by Ernst & Jensen.
Festival of the Trees now accepting entries
Jade at Arboreality is hosting December’s Festival of the Trees. You can send your entries to jadeblackwater [at] brainripples [dot] com, and don’t forget to put “Festival of the Trees” in the subject line. The deadline is November 29.
Ginkgo Fridays: DIY
Ginkgo leaf casting mold from Acorn Naturalists.
Reader Photos
Reader Michael Glasgow kindly sent in these photos of two female ginkgo trees on the campus of Indiana University Bloomington. (You can see by their color that it was longer ago than it should have been, but I won’t detail the computer troubles that led to this late posting.)
Michael says that the one on the left is 12 feet 8 inches in circumference, and the other is 13 feet 4 inches in circumference. I find it remarkable that these female ginkgo trees have been allowed to live long enough to reach this size, but I also know that some campuses have strategies for dealing with the fall fruit (in my area, part of the strategy involves a gaggle of Korean women).
If you’d like to see these trees, Michael gives directions:
They are straight up the sidewalk from the sample gates. They’ll be on your left near the top on the hill. The sample gates are on Indiana Avenue across from Starbucks.
Ginkgo Wednesdays: Photography
Image courtesy of robertvk5.
Ginkgo resources
I found a fascinating collection of ginkgo papers at Urban Forestry South Expo. Each is written by Kim D. Coder, professor of community forestry and arboriculture at the Warnell School of Forest Resources at the University of Georgia. The documents include:
- Ginkgo Seed Collection and Preparation
- Ginkgo: Eldest Tree Survivor
- Identification and Silvics of Ginkgo
- Selected Ginkgo Forms and Cultivars
I’ve found some interesting tidbits that I’ll share later.
Ginkgo Sundays: House and Garden
Gingko tile border from Wandering Fire Pottery.
Affordable ginkgo
A reader recently asked if I could recommend any inexpensive ginkgo items. She wanted something small that wasn’t going to break her budget.
Price points for inexpensive vary from budget to budget, but on the whole, many items that I post are out of my own reach. That’s all right, because even if I could afford to buy every ginkgo item out there, I wouldn’t. I enjoy the search, and I enjoy looking at what I find. Not everything is for sale, anyway, and I don’t deliberately search for items that are.
But my reader has a point. We admirers of ginkgo sometimes want something of our own, whether it’s a pressed leaf, or a print, or a set of coasters. Or we might want to buy a gift for a fellow ginkgo lover.
In the future, I’ll start tagging items under US$100 (perhaps broken down further by US$25, US$50, etc.). If you’re looking for a quick ginkgo gift idea, you can check the category list on the sidebar for the price point that works for you.
Prices, of course, are subject to change, and Ginkgo Dreams cannot be held responsible for rapidly changing information. Use what you can, and leave the rest.
Ginkgo Fridays: Paper
Hemp Heritage Notes from Greenfield Paper.
Search function enhanced
Readers are now able to search on all text on Ginkgo Dreams via the search input box. Previously, the text box only allowed one to search titles.
Ginkgo Wednesdays: Photography
Image courtesy of chipple.
Casey Trees releases list of Washington, D. C. champion trees
The Casey Trees Endowment Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting trees in the United States capital, recently released its list of champion trees in Washington D. C. The list includes the ginkgo tree at Farragut Square, measured at 141 inches in circumference; 79 feet in crown spread; and 102 feet in height.
Links:
The upside of the emerald ash borer
The emerald ash borer has made inroads in several Midwest states. Here in Michigan, billboards and news reports advise us not to take firewood with us when we go camping, but to purchase it at the camp site, in order to avoid inadvertantly transporting the insect. Thousands of ash trees have been cut down when infestations are discovered.
Howell, Michigan is one city that is selling trees to residents who lost trees to the ash borer. The Ann Arbor News reports that ginkgo trees are one of the varieties that are recommended as replacement trees:
Under a special incentive program underwritten by the DTE Energy Foundation, 1,600 trees of various species will be made available in the spring for a reduced cost to homeowners.
The city of Howell and other partners will have 200 landscape-quality trees in seven-gallon containers for purchase by residents for approximately $25. Available species include sugar maple, red maple, gingko, tulip tree, red oak and littleleaf linden. Distribution will be in April 2007. Agencies and organizations partnering to make the ROOT Program possible, in addition to the DNR, MDA and DTE Energy Foundation include the USDA Forest Service and Ray Wiegand’s Nursery.
Female ginkgo trees replaced in Mishawaka
This is the second recent local (to me) story about ginkgo trees being removed. The first was due to road construction, but this one is everyone’s favorite reason to cut down a ginkgo tree:
Crews were out in downtown Mishawaka on Wednesday replacing 10 of the city’s female ginkgo trees with 10 male trees.
The problem with the female trees is that they produce fruit that looks like berries. Webster’s New World College Dictionary calls the fruit “foul-smelling.”
Honestly, did the reporter actually need to fall back on a dictionary definition to know that ginkgo nuts smell like dog poop?
Local businessman Mike Richard had a more colorful description:
“Thank God we’re getting rid of the Roman vomitorium,” he said. “I’ve wanted those things gone from downtown for years.”
Ginkgo trees raise a stink, get the ax
In Charleston, West Virginia, at least:
Several of Charleston’s beloved ginkgo trees—the smelly ones, at least—got the ax this week.
Tree trimmers for the city were scouring downtown streets Thursday looking for female ginkgos that have started bearing seeds. The trees flower, shed and the fruit-like seeds drop down. They ripen quickly and eventually start to reek.
By early Thursday afternoon, workers for Charleston’s Public Grounds division had chopped down five female ginkgos on Virginia Street, Summers Street and Kanawha Boulevard. They were looking for more to cut down.
The female trees most likely will be replaced later this year with male ginkgos that don’t produce seeds.
Read the rest at the Charleston Daily Mail.
Ginkgo Sundays: House and Garden
Ginkgo Glory Kimono quilt pattern from Michael Miller.
Ginkgo Fridays: Jewelry
Hand-carved porcelain pendant from H. B. Jewelry.
Festival of the Trees #5
The fifth Festival of the Trees is now up at frizzylogic. Enjoy!
Ginkgo Wednesdays: Photography
Photo taken at Molbak’s Nursery in Woodinville, Washington, USA. Image courtesy of slidegirl64.