BOOKS: The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben

Unlike arborists, who care for significant trees in parks, gardens and public amenities, silviculturists look after the care and general health of commercial forests leading up to the time of harvest. Their skills are diverse but are informed by closely observing the changes in their arboreal charges, season by season, decade after decade.

Much has been written about the art of growing and caring for trees. It is not a new genre and authors have approached the subject in many different ways. The author of this book is a German silviculturist of thirty years standing, although he unpretentiously describes himself simply as a forester.

The Germans, in particular, have always had a close relationship with their trees and forests and this has imbued much of their national culture and identity. This book steers away from Romantic mythology and concentrates on what makes wild and cultivated forest trees and their ecosystems so dynamic and wonderful.

This could have been a dull work, but the author brings his subject alive with good writing. Although clearly acquainted with the latest academic research on trees and forest ecosystems, Wohlleben successfully treads the narrow path between accessible language and technically informed detail with apparent ease.

“I thank you, dear reader, for having explored some of the trees’ secrets with me – only people who understand trees are capable of protecting them.”

Peter Wohlleben

Through the close examination of the tree species under his long-time charge in Germany (mostly beeches, oaks and conifers), Wohlleben observes how trees like to grow in natural forests. We learn how they communicate with each other through their roots (the ‘wood wide web’), and how ‘mother trees’ deliberately slow the development of their progeny so they don’t grow too quickly. We discover that these young plants ultimately develop stronger trunks and root systems this way which in time help guarantee a long life.

The author compares the slow start of forest trees to the specimens planted by gardeners in urban settings. These pampered root pruned plants – Wohlleben calls them ‘street kids’ - often grow well initially but never reach the size, strength and longevity of many of their wild cousins. Much of the book examines the many reasons for this.

Ultimately, Wohlleben makes a provocative appeal for humans to break down the barriers between the kingdom of animals and plants. Acknowledging that in recent decades we have begun to treat animals with more respect and dignity, he argues that this should be extended to trees. 

While anyone with an interest in the natural world will enjoy this fine work I think arborists and horticulture students will especially benefit from reading it as it helps the planter and carer of urban trees better understand the frailties of growing trees divorced from their wild kin.

The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben. 

Black Inc, $29.00 Paperback ISBN: 9781863958738

This review, by Silas Clifford-Smith, was first published on the Gardendrum website

Old Apples

I grew up in an English village which was noteworthy as a centre of apple growing. One apple grown in the district was a variety known as the Baddow Pippin. This richly aromatic and spicy apple was first found growing in a garden in the nearby village of Tolleshunt d'Arcy in c.1785. This variety was first known as D'Arcy Spice but the name was changed when it began to be commercially cultivated in 1848.

Around my home there were many acres of orchards given over to growing apples and pears, and the village supported 12 fruit farms in the 1960s. As well as the Baddow Pippin, popular varieties locally grown included Bramley's Seedling, Cox Orange Pippin, Laxton's Superb and Worcester Pearmain. In the 1970s and 80s many of the English orchards went out of business unable to compete with cheap imports from France and elsewhere following Britain's decision to join the European Union. With the rise of new imports of Golden Delicious and the Australian bred Granny Smith many old English varieties, sadly, went out of commercial cultivation.

The experience in Australia is somewhat different to Britain. Apple production in Tasmania, Victoria and the eastern Tablelands was once high and almost every home in cool temperate areas had an apple tree. The popularity of the apple was reflected in the lists of 19th century nurseries such as the 1889 catalogue of John and William Gelding's Nursery in Sydney which listed a staggering 133 varieties of apples for sale, mostly of British and North American origin.

The apple maintained its popularity in Australia for many decades, but late last century consumers developed a taste for more exotic fruits. The competition from other fruits, increased pests, and the ending of mass exports to Britain after they joined the European Union led to a steady decline in the number of productive apple orchards. As in Britain, the decline in fruit consumption has seen a reduction in the number of varieties available in supermarkets and fruit markets.

For those with an interest in growing unusual varieties of apple there are now many heritage apple lovers who are trying to encourage the growing of old varieties by commercial growers and home gardeners. One such devotee is Stuart Read from the Australian Garden History Society who has put together a list of farms and nurseries where you can source unusual apples from around Australia. Stuart's list also includes a link to the Heritage Fruits Society.

Mistletoe - friend or foe?

One of the most fascinating group of plants growing in the Australian bush is mistletoe, and they are often found growing on native trees throughout the country. These plants are sometimes perceived as worthless parasites that weaken trees prior to their death. While this is partially true their value to our environment has been underestimated. Recent research on these highly evolved native plants has led to a reappraisal of their importance to the ecosystem.

The nectar from this mistletoe flower attracts 
a diverse range of birds, bees and butterfly's

Mistletoe's are a world-wide group of plants which are found in many different habitats. Most early settlers would have known the European Mistletoe (Viscum album), a commonly seen plant culturally associated with pagan fertility rights.

Australia has 85 species of mistletoe, mostly from the Loranthaceae plant family. Most mistletoes are found growing on open forest and woodland trees such as eucalyptus, wattles and she-oaks. While most mistletoes photosynthesise from their own leaves they are usually dependent on the hosts sap for water and nutrients.

Mistletoes are often seen growing on trees near the edge of woodland along roads or near cleared land. A 2004 study by ecologist David M Watson near Albury in New South Wales found that 80% of trees growing along habitat edges carried mistletoe compared with fewer than 5% in the interior.The reason for their preference for habitat edges was, according to Watson, related to increased light, decreased fire frequency, increased run off from roads and decreasing numbers of mistletoe eating animals such as possums and gliders at habitat edges. These environment factors have subsequently led to these plants being abundant on the edges of woodland.

While the presence of mistletoe can have a negative affect on the health of the host tree these plants certainly attract a wide range of animals. Associate Professor Watson found that the presence of mistletoe increased the abundance of bird species by 20% or more when compared to similar bush where the mistletoe had been removed. Watson is of the view that the presence of these well adapted plants is 'one of the key factors allowing our woodland-based animals to survive in what's left of their habitat.'

A drooping mistletoe growing on eucalypt

Many birds, animals and insects feed on the flowers, fruit and leaves of mistletoe. Birds birds found feeding on mistletoe include parrots, Eastern-Spinebills and of course the tiny Mistletoebird which feeds on the sticky fruit of the plant. The spreading of the sticky seed by the Mistletoebird is the principal way that new mistletoe plants grow on other host trees. These plants are also important food plants for bees, butterflies and Christmas beetles and are a popular nesting site.


References and further reading

Misunderstood Mistletoe by David M Watson, published in the March 2004 issue of Wingspan magazine


Mistletoes of Southern Australia by David M Watson, CSIRO publishing 2001 (highly recommended)

The Australian National Botanic Garden in Canberra has a fascinating mistletoe web site which will be of interest. http://www.anbg.gov.au/mistletoe/

William Cobbett, the cottager's friend

William Cobbett, English writer, democrat, and North American emigrant of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, was vitally concerned with gardening as it affected the agricultural classes. His books and opinions were known in early colonial Australia yet it is intriguing that he is rarely mentioned in modern historical accounts and his influence in Australia is yet to be fully documented.

William Cobbett M.P. in late life (1831)

The son of a publican and small-scale farmer, William Cobbett (1763-1835) grew up in the English market town of Farnham during the years of the American Wars of Independence. His father was a rare local supporter of the American Revolution and from him William seems to have inherited his love for dissident opinion and unpopular causes.

Cobbett’s interest for ornamental gardening began while working as a garden boy at Farnham Castle. A visiting gardener told him about the impressive royal gardens at Kew. He immediately decided to see them for himself, so the next morning he walked thirty miles to Richmond, and persuaded a Kew gardener to give him a job in the King’s garden. Cobbett only briefly worked at Kew before returning home to work in the fields and gardens of his home county of Surrey.

Eager to experience the world, Cobbett moved to London in 1783 and secured a clerical position in a legal firm. He soon bored of clerking and the filth of London, and joined His Majesty’s 54^th Regiment of Foot and was soon dispatched overseas. Cobbett arrived in Canada in 1785, and was involved in the border disputes with the infant United States of America. Cobbett spent seven years in Canada and rose up the ranks to become a regimental sergeant major. He returned to England in 1791 and promptly left the army.

Back home he publicly campaigned against the financial and physical abuses in the army, and soon made important enemies. When threatened with libel and physical assault, he escaped with his family to France. After six months in revolutionary France, he fled in 1792 to the United States and made his home in the capital, Philadelphia. He quickly established himself as a teacher of English to French émigrés and also became a journalist and writer of political pamphlets, often writing under the pen name ‘Peter Porcupine’. During this period, Cobbett became increasingly fascinated with gardening and took great interest in horticultural developments in the infant republic.

Richard Ingrams excellent
2006 biography of Cobbett

He was subsequently sued for libel and decided to return to his homeland. Back in England, Cobbett continued his writing career and established the Political Register newspaper, which soon became the largest selling paper in the country. Being the weekly paper’s principal writer Cobbett kept a close eye on what was happening in national politics, but he was increasingly troubled in how England had changed since the Napoleonic Wars and the arrival of the industrial revolution. His developing thoughts saw the Political Register move away from populist conservatism to become the most radical newspaper printed in Britain. Cobbett – the democrat - also established a published account of debates in Parliament titled, Cobbett’s Parliamentary Debates. Several years later, after bankruptcy, Cobbett sold this pioneering publishing title to his printer, a Mr Hansard.  

In 1817 Cobbett again fled to the United States. This time his home was Long Island near New York where he set himself up as a farmer. While living in Long Island he wrote The American Gardener (1821) one of the pioneering books on horticulture published in the United States. After living in North America (in total) for seventeen years, Cobbett returned to England.

From 1821to 1826 Cobbett began his famous horseback tours of the English countryside. Cobbett’s lively accounts of these journeys were popular with his readers and were later published in Rural Rides (1830). The author’s frank realist writing style, in this classic work of English literature, certainly offers a counter view to the romantic images being created by contemporary writers and artists such as Wordsworth, Austin and Constable. While writing Rural Rides, Cobbett also published The Woodlands (1825), a book on silviculture that reflected his interest in trees.

A recent edition of Cobbett's Rural Rides

After his return to England in 1820 Cobbett established a plant nursery at Kensington where he grew many North American trees, such as the false acacia (Robinia pseudoacacia). Another American species he successfully promoted was a variety of maize which he modestly called ‘Cobbett’s Corn’. Cobbett believed that maize was a wonder crop that had the potential to transform English agriculture. The problem was that Indian Corn (as it was then known) was frost sensitive, and with only a few months of guaranteed frost-free weather in England there was insufficient time for the maize cobs to mature. Cobbett’s son discovered a dwarf strain of maize growing in a French cottage garden and obtained some seed. Trials back in England found that it grew well through England’s shorter summer. To help sell this variety Cobbett published a book titled A Treatise on Cobbett’s Corn (1828), which as a gimmick he printed on paper made from maize fibre.

Cobbett introduced the Black Locust
tree, Robinia pseudoacacia, to Britain

The 1820s was the decade that saw Cobbett’s greatest writings on garden related matters. This period saw a massive increase in the British population and a corresponding rise in the middle classes. In response, there was increased interest in learning about plants and gardening. The best known garden writer of the time was John Claudius Loudon (1783-1843), a prolific Scottish-born horticultural journalist who wrote extensively on garden matters. While Cobbett did not write as much as Loudon on garden subjects, he was no slouch either. According to Cobbett authority, Associate Professor Ian Dyke, Cobbett ‘composed for publication a remarkable thirty million words – a total doubtless unmatched in the history of English letters.’

Cobbett updated and expanded his earlier American Gardener for the local market. His English Gardener was first published in 1829 at a modest five shillings and was written for a well-heeled audience. Garden historian, Anthony Huxley compared Cobbett’s English Gardener with other contemporary garden tomes, such as Loudon’s Encyclopaedia of Gardening:

‘Compared with such, The English Gardener, with its comparative paucity of illustrations, may appear a thin, dull volume. However, its limited size must have made it a good deal cheaper, and I imagine that Cobbett’s general reputation must have encouraged people of the time to buy it.’

The English Gardener was a best seller and went through many editions up to 1860. For modern readers, the most entertaining parts of this book are Cobbett’s condemnations of certain crops such as purslane, which he describes as a ‘mischievous weed, eaten by Frenchmen and pigs when they can get nothing else.’ But by far his most despised plant was the potato, a plant introduction which Cobbett felt was indicative of the sad decline in the agricultural lands. He felt that the rural poor’s dependence on this crop, would lead to calamity. Several years after his death, he was partially proven right, with the mass deaths in Ireland which followed the spread of the potato blight.

Cobbett defined the health of the rural poor by a simple test. Happiness for a rural worker was defined by access to the three B’s – bacon, bread and beer. To Cobbett these were the three clear measures of agricultural happiness. This homespun belief may explain why Cobbett wrote Cottage Economy (1822), his best selling book during his lifetime. In this cheaply priced volume, Cobbett taught the cottager some of the skills needed to be self sufficient, including instructions on how to make bread, brew beer, keep livestock and how to weave hats out of grasses. It is highly likely that copies of this humble work accompanied many migrants bound for the English speaking colonies.

Title page of a later edition of The English Gardener

Cobbett’s influence in Australia is less known. Cobbett never visited Australia and made little mention of Australian plants and gardening in his many publications. But the Australian colonies were starved of skilled gardeners so it is understandable that there was a need for gardening advice. One of the earliest local works to provide gardening guidance was the Australian Pocket Almanack of 1825. This volume included a long extract on Cobbett’s views on successful hedge making, which had originally been published in Cobbett’s American Gardener. Apart from republished extracts, Cobbett’s garden themed books were certainly being imported into the colony during the 1820s and 30s, and possibly well into the middle years of the century. Sydney bookseller James Tegg was advertising Cobbett’s, English Gardener in the Sydney Herald in February 1837, several years after the Cobbett’s death.

An Australian garden of the mid 19th century

It is hard to say how much influence Cobbett had on early Australian gardens but looking at artistic images of productive gardens created in the early decades of the nineteenth century, many are similar to the small holdings known by Cobbett in England and North America. Gardening in the early years of the Australian colonies was mainly about survival and self efficiency rather than ornamentation, so it is logical that the writings of William Cobbett, which promoted self sufficiency for rich and poor, would have appealed to many local settlers.

This posting was first published in the May 2008 issue of Australian Garden History and is based on a lecture I gave at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney, in 2006.

On the naming of plants (part 2)

Many gardeners enjoy plants simply for their individual form and beauty and don't care about knowing the botanical name. Sadly, I need to know all the names of the plants I grow, therefore I rely on plant labels to remind me of the common name as well as genus, species, and cultivar details. Despite my love of recording plant names I hate seeing plastic plant labels left on plants after they have been planted. These nursery tags not only look unsightly but in time cause damage when the plants grow around the wire attachment. So if we eschew the tags given to us by nurseries what kind of label should we use?

While this old style plant label is clear and
informative markers are worthless when
 they are placed next to the wrong plant

I love the detailed labels used in botanical gardens. In the past these labels were large and detailed as can be seen in the old label shown above. This easy to see marker is perfect for large trees and shrubs but was expensive to make. In recent times botanical institutions have preferred  cheaper and more discrete tags. While these smaller labels work well for garden staff they are frustratingly hard to see for garden visitors. Many a time I have traipsed over garden beds trying to find the name of a noteworthy plant.

A quirky way of identifying trees

Trees need good sized labels which identify the plant by its common and scientific name. If the label is not attached to the tree passers-by may be confused over what tree is being sign-posted. One quirky technique is to make the label into the the leaf shape of the intended tree.

For the home garden large labels are unnecessary and we can rely on more subtle methods. For shrubs and small trees I like to use aluminium or copper labels. These can be etched with the plant name by using a pencil. As long as the wire attachment is loose the label can stay on the tree for many years.

An attractive durable plant label made of slate

Usually gardeners know the names of the plants we commonly use but may simply need a reminder on correct spellings and variety names. Labels are essential for bulbs and herbaceous plants whose foliage dies down during its life cycle. For perennials and and small shrubs I often don't label the plant at all and rely on recording the location in a note book.

What's your preferred type of labelling?

Twist of Lemon

What is an Australian garden without a lemon tree? In some cases, it’s the only plant in a neglected backyard, uncared-for and forlorn, yet battling on year after year. From a simple dressing for fish and chips to Greek tzatziki dips, the lemon has been the acid juice of choice since early settlement.

Lemon (Citrus limon) is the number one fruit tree grown in gardens and for all but the coldest parts of the country there are excellent varieties that are suitable for home use. Lemons have an obscure genetic history and may have been hybridized in Europe and the Middle East through crossing several older south-east Asian citrus parents. Evidence of its long European lineage can be seen in images of lemons that appear in wall paintings in Pompeii and several other Classical period sites.

Lemons grow well in most of Australia apart from the true tropics, areas with hard winter frosts or the dry unirrigated interior. The two main varieties of 'true' lemon available in Australia are 'Eureka' and 'Lisbon'. Other varieties of lemon are often faux lemons crossed with other citrus, such as 'Lemonade' (a cross between a lemon and an orange).

The North American raised cultivar 'Eureka' is the most common lemon grown in home gardens as it’s a prolific fruiter and bears few thorns. Its main downside is that it dislikes frost. One of the oldest varieties of lemon in Australia is Lisbon which was available in the country by the mid-1850s. This variety is far more cold-tolerant than Eureka, but has the disadvantage of being much thornier and a less prolific plant. Despite this, 'Lisbon' is the fruit of choice for most commercial growers.

A healthy Lisbon lemon tree

What ever they claim on labels lemons don't make great pot plants as they easilly stress during warm periods. If you are keen to have a container specimen of citrus try growing cumquats.

Perhaps due to its popularity with home gardeners, citrus is the most asked-about plant in garden phone-in sessions. These queries relate more to the fruit’s popularity than to any reputation for being problem prone. Typical queries relate to lack of fruit, pests and diseases and correct times to fertilise. Fertilising confuses many gardeners. Simply, lemons (and most citrus) require plenty of high-nitrogen fertiliser to produce good fruits, ideally applied in early spring and around mid-summer. An ideal liquid feed is human urine such as that left in a child's potty.  Make sure the mix is applied to wet soil and water in well after application. I like to mulch my trees with hay or straw mixed with some chicken manure. Make sure you keep the collar of the plant away from the mulch to avoid collar rot.

The sweet perfume of lemon flowers 

Lemons demand full sun to flower and fruit well, and require regular deep watering during hot weather.  Major pests are scales, beetles and bugs. These can be treated by various means, but require proper identification before attempting a cure (something I will mention in the future). A great reference is Judy McMaugh’s, What Garden Pest of Disease is That?

When selecting a new lemon it's a good idea to select a plant grown on a named rootstock. These are often named on the plant label. Despite their many pests, lemons are easy ornamental plants to grow and make a satisfying low-maintenance fruit tree for the home garden.

politics in the garden

Several years ago while on a visit to Vietnam I discovered a distinctive looking annual bed in a Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) park. While the plants used in this formal bed were far from unusual - red bedding sage and golden marigolds - the design was certainly eye-catching.  At the centre of the planting was the hammer and sickle, the best known symbol of the international communist movement. While I had seen images of the hammer and sickle on my travels in the past I had never seen the emblem replicated in flowers. What made the planting scheme even more bizarre was that above the annual bed was a hoarding advertising Samsung electronic consumer goods; perhaps, a fitting image for contemporary Vietnam.

A bold design for an annual bed 

Reflecting on the hammer and sickle image I thought about other political signs or slogans which had been replicated in nature. One that quickly came to mind was the amazing discovery found in a pine plantation near Berlin in the early 1990s. During a low-level aerial survey a swastika patten was visible in the forest below. It is believed that the trees were planted in the late 1930s by local Nazi Party sympathisers. The golden colour was formed by larch trees - a deciduous conifer - during their brief autumn colouring prior to needle-drop. Shocked by the discovery local authorities removed most of larches in fear of the forest becoming a Nazi pilgrimage site.

While idological symbols in gardens are certainly unusual, politics is never far away from how we live. While nearly all garden writers choose to ignore politics and ideology in their work, British garden writer Martin Hoyles has embraced the theme from a socialist viewpoint. Hoyles has written several books on garden history where political perspectives have been central, most notably in his 1991 Story of Gardening (Journeyman Press, London). While most standard garden histories eulogize the journeys and adventures of plant collectors, Hoyles believes that these developments reflect the plunder of the natural world to serve the interests of colonial expansion and elite western collecting tastes.

An alternative view on garden history

Hoyles' books are highly recommended as they make us challenge our standard views on the history of gardening. Although hard to find they can be sourced at Floreligium (Australia's specialist garden bookshop) in Sydney or (dare I say it) via the internet.

An arresting image

Several months ago I came across an unusual etching of a street scene in an antique market.  Divorced of any cars or people the main subject in the print was the power lines and the mature hoop pines growing at the edge of a park. The work was untitled but was signed Christine A. Pecket and dated [19]35. I didn't buy the work at the time, but regreted not doing so as soon as I left the building.

Etching by Christine A. Pecket

Luckly two months later the etching was still for sale on my next visit to the market. The image was too striking to ignore, so, this time, I purchased the work. Captivated by the unusual composition I immediately wanted to learn about its creator. I soon discovered that Ms Pecket was not mentioned in the New McCulloch's Encyclopedia of Australian Art (the standard general reference on Australian artists) or Heritage: The National Women's Art Book (the main reference for Australian female artists).

The signature had a clumsy youthful feel as if written by a hand not used to writing her name. Perhaps Christine Pecket was a school girl when she made the etching, this might explain the absence of a title and edition numbers. Despite the crude signature the image was most arresting and deserved further enquiry.

Despite the lack of knowledge in the standard art history references, I soon discovered that there were a few interesting paintings by her as well as some pieces of pottery illustrated on the internet. I also discovered that she had written an autobiography in the 1970s. Further research on some on-line sites revealed that she had lived for many years in Sydney, close to where I live.

While the previously mentioned reference books were unforthcoming I next turned to the Design & Art Australia Online (DAAO), an excellent free-access website managed by the University of New South Wales. This site has the ambitious goal of documenting every artist who is working or has worked in Australia. So far about 8,000 artists have been documented and I am pleased to have been involved with the project since its launch in 2007.

Christine Pecket's autobiography, Some Facets of My Life, tells of her battles recovering from polio when she was a girl and how she battled with her severe disabilities during her lifetime. Despite being forced to labour in many unglamorous jobs she worked as an artist for over forty years. At the end of her book there are a number of her images reproduced including the street image illustrated above.

For the record, in her book, the illustrated etching is titled 'Ormond Street, Ashfield' and shows the street where she lived during the 1930s when she was studying art in Sydney. The park in Pecket's etching is Ashfield Park, and this fine Victorian-era reserve still has many fine examples of hoop pines (Araucaria cunninghamii) as well as circular beds of canna lilies.

The distinctive shape of the hoop pine

Intriged by Christine Pecket my research into her creative life continues. Hopefully my biography will appear on the DAAO website in the next couple of months.  http://www.daao.org.au/ In the meantime if anyone has any information about her or has examples of her work I would love to here from them.

Deciduous Magnolia

The English diarist Dr Samuel Johnson once said that "when men grow old they start planting trees". This may well be true in the 18th century but why wait now? Late autumn and early winter is without doubt the best time to buy and plant most new plants and the mild temperatures allow young trees almost six months to establish a root system before the onset of summer heat.

Deciduous magnolias come mainly from cool temperate parts of China and Japan. They are slow-growing but make wonderful specimens in temperate wind protected gardens.

While I usually say you should wait to see a plant in bloom before you buy, the magnolia is an exception as you're better off trusting the picture on the plant label and planting now. If you wait until the usual flowering time in late winter and early spring before you buy the young plant often lacks early vigour because they miss out on that cool settling-in period before summer. Many a magnolia has died during its first summer because it has been planted too late in the season.

In the right spot deciduous magnolias live for many decades, so with a bit of luck you'll be enjoying your trees in your old age - not still planting them.

Now what are you favourite varieties of deciduous magnolia? Suggestions welcome.