Mark Muehmer and John Isovski

Day 1: Friday October 4

With an early morning wake up call, I sprung out of bed and went on my way to meet up with my fellow classmates to begin our trip to Cuddy gardens. Driving through a mist, we all hoped things would clear up, sure enough the weather cooperated. We met up with the head of maintenance at Cuddy’s, Lucas, and he briefed us on our weekend tasks. We began with moving the tropicals from the dry garden (cacti, palms) into the sunroom for over wintering. This was a tedious and dangerous task. We had to be careful not to break any of these fragile specimens.  We moved the Bananas in to the carport to get ready to be moved to the Fanshawe Greenhouse. We thoroughly trimmed the Bananas and took the debris out.

 

In the afternoon we checked and watered all planters and hanging baskets that are around the house, hatchery and stables. While watering, we noticed that hundreds of apples had fallen from the tree and were obstructing the path. Attracting wasps, bees, and flies, we knew this mess had to be cleaned. After filling wheelbarrows full of apples, the place was looking good. The final tasks for the day were to clean the mess we had made when moving the tropicals inside. Then we briefly helped weed the hoop house until the end of the work day. It was a successful day, now many tropicals will be happy for the winter and the yard is kept to its high standard of perfection.

 

Day 2: Saturday, October 5th

We unlocked the gardens with the sound of rain drops in our heads. The weather was looking dark yet optimistic. It soon cleared and we began getting the rock garden in to prestige shape. We blew and raked all of the walnut leaves out of the garden then began to weed. By the time we finished weeding, new leaves had fallen and we blew off once again. This seemed like a never ending battle between the walnut leaves and us. We picked up the walnuts and apples that had fallen over night. A lot less apples then day one, but still enough to attract those unfriendly wasps.

 

Then we found are selves in the green house area, moving Acer, Rhus, and Buddleia’s, from 1 gallon pots to 3 gallons. This included the process of creating a soil mixture of half bark soil and half Promix. This gave the plants the fertility to grow yet the stability of mature soil and will help with growing in the spring. With the day coming to an end, we cleaned and locked down estate and headed home for a good night’s rest.

 

 

Day 3: Sunday October 6th

We arrived to an unpleasant surprise of the power being out. This was no issue as Mark started work in the greenhouse while John blew off the paths. Mark helped Zach organize the greenhouse by categorizing the plants. We also weeded and organized the plants in the hoop house. In the afternoon we helped Sally from Landscape Ontario move some supplies for this Fridays ‘CLT’ testing. We also filled in the holes that the cactus and bananas left. John blew every path off for a final time, and then we began to vacuum the mess we made and sweep up all the dirt we tracked in the house over the weekend. We were very thorough, because we know how important esthetics are in a botanical garden. So after the estate was looking phenomenal, we ventured home to attend to our own gardens and recover from a weekend full of hard work.

 

Plant Profile

Acer nigrum

Black Maple

Mark and John’s opinion: A classic Ontario native tree. This tree produces great autumn colour and should be planted in a place that its beauty can be enjoyed. It needs room to grow and will often prove better than an A. saccharum in stressed environments. It has a better heat and drought tolerance than the A. saccharum. The autumn colour is what sets this tree out from the crowd. This tree can also be used to harvest maple syrup and for lumber.

Family	Sapindaceae (Aceraceae)
Genus	Acer
Species	nigrum
Category	Woody
Type	Tree (deciduous)
Propagation	Can be done by seed or from soft wood cuttings. The seed needs to be extracted from the samara and stratified at 4°C for 4 months. Cuttings are to be taken in June.
Habitat	Zones 4-8 (UDSA) Found in climax forests in Southern Ontario and in through the Mid-West of USA (Quebec, West Virginia, Kansas).
Shape	A straight central trunk with widely spreading branch system in the open
Growth	Slow
Flowering Period	April
Cultivation	Can be cultivated easily with well drained soils.
Pests	Southwest injury due to its thin bark. Leaf spot, Japanese leaf hopper, bladder gall mite, and forest tent caterpillars.
Notable Specimens	The A. M. Cuddy Gardens, Strathroy, Ontario, Canada. Also found within Southern Ontario Forests.
ID Characteristic	Autumn colour: yellowy orange. Stem colour is straw colour.
General Description	A majestic, medium- large tree, with outstanding autumn colour.
Flower Description	Greenish, yellow, 3-5cm long in April-May.
Bark Description	Smooth when young, then becoming a more defined as time goes on. It will develop light grey bark as it develops.
Leaf Description	Opposite, simple, 3-6” wide, 3-5 lobes, dull dark green above, a yellowy green beneath. With leaves wilting, giving it the appearance of suffering from the early stages of wilt but everything is fine.
Texture Description	Medium textured.
Colour Description	Impressive autumn colour, a rich dependable, butter yellow.
Bud Description	Two axillary buds at terminal. Grey dust brown in colour. Plumper than A. saccharum buds.
Fruit Description		Samara in September-October.
		Sources: "Canada Plants." • Acer Nigrum (Black Maple). N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2013.   Dirr, Michael A. Manual Of Woody Landscape Plants. Champaign, IL: Stipes Pub., 1977. Print.   Native Plant Database." Acer Nigrum (Black Maple). N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Oct.