Baluchistan in the 1980s was a different time.  As an American, as a USAID consultant for the fruit industry, I was treated by my hosts in fine fashion.  After all, the money was flowing into the country from various aid agencies.  Pakistan was having to deal with hundreds of thousands of refugees from the Russian/Afghanistan war and the USA was helping the Pashtuns, the second largest ethnic group in Pakistan.  They were Afghans.  So, at the time, I was one of the good guys.  My first encounter with a chaste tree in the wild was in a narrow dry mountain valley in this western province.  The white to lavender blooms were dancing above the finely cut leaves of ten to fifteen foot shrubby trees that ran along the stream.  This is the home of the chaste tree.  For centuries farmers had captured the mountain run off of these streams into stone aqueducts that carried the flow out of the canyons down into valleys and then into small canals that split and split again to feed fruit orchards, vegetable farms and local villages.  A system of waterways are the Karez irrigation system of the region and they serve as more than just an irrigation source.  They tie farmers, villagers, and communities together in a long history of water rights, cooperation and wars.  When we talk about water wars, this place wins.  Along the run of the flow out of the mountains, the adjacent lands prospered.  This is one of the natural homes of the Chaste tree.

Columbia Park, Shreveport, LA

Vitex agnus-castus is an ancient tree.  It’s home is a wide swath across the Mediterranean.  It enjoys many names including hemp tree, chaste tree, chasteberry, Abraham’s balm, and monk’s pepper.  Vitex agnus-castus is a bit different from related Vitex species in that it can tolerate some winter freezing without dying.  The tree was used in basketry.  However, I cannot verify if its reputation as an anaphrodisiac is true.  That means anti-libido.   You might have seen it coming.  Chaste tree?  Monk’s pepper?  At any rate, it is reported to have been used in men’s prison to keep the more festive males in check.  There are reports sailors made good use of it during their long voyages on the sea.  Just the name Monk’s pepper implies something; I’m not sure what.  Anyway,  the ground seed does look a lot like pepper and I can attest it tastes a little like pepper, but I never really wanted to overindulge.  I can also testify that the rumor that Hillary Clinton was going to make it the state tree of New York is patently false.  It’s just another darn example of that fake news problem.

Vitex agnus-castus can be cut back annually and will still rebloom

Long naturalized here and there, the species has been in cultivation in the South since 1670. The chaste tree is a butterfly attractant and sports showy blue, white, mauve, or pinkish blooms from May into September.  This small tree can be left to reach 10 -15’ in height or whacked back to more desired proportions.  If the spent blooms are cut away, the tree returns with another vigorous show of flowers.  While exceptionally drought resistant, the chaste tree appreciates a good garden soil and moisture and vigorous plants mean longer and more dramatic inflorescences.   In the north, the species can be effectively used as a perennial.  Since it blooms on new growth it cannot be knocked out of a bloom show even when frozen close to the ground.  Vitex is easy to root.  While considered to be a cross-pollinating plant, single plants will self pollinate and make seed as well.

The variety ‘LeCompte’ is a nice form with long blue inflorescences and it came from the town of LeCompte, Louisiana.  It was captured out of a home landscape by Greg Grant and a van load of SFA students.  The story goes that the van screeched to a stop, the doors flew open, the cuttings were liberated, an escape was made good and the whole escapade took less than fifteen seconds.  It may not be true but it does lend credence to the adage that if you have ten horticulturists in a room you’re looking at nine thieves.

LeCompte

There are many varieties.  Salinas Pink and Flora Ann are introductions that showcase pinkish blooms with Flora Ann the pinkest in the trade. Both are  Greg Grant introductions. These two provide a little different twist to the normal blues, lavenders and whites of most varieties in the trade.

Vitex agnus-castus ‘Flora Ann’ is a Greg Grant introduction and still the best pink

Other varieties include:  Abbeville Blue – Deep blue flowers; Alba – White flowers; Blushing Spires – Soft pink flowers – a poor pink in our region; Fletcher Pink Lavender-pink flowers – not in our collection; Lilac Queen – Lavender flowers; broad spreading; 20 feet tall – not in our collection; Montrose Purple Rich – violet flowers; Rosea – very pale light pink; Sensation – lavender blue; Shoal Creek – Large blue-violet flowers on 12 to 18″ inflorescences; leaf spot resistance; Silver Spire – White flowers.

A current variety trial near the coliseum parking lot runs from North to South.itex agnus-castus has a long and interesting history.  It’s a plant with a story.  It’s tough, drought resistant and reliably flowers.  It may have value if you’re locked in a prison cell and need to keep your mind properly focused.  It attracts bees and butterflies.  If you don’t like the way it’s acting, you can cut it all the way to the ground and it’ll return that spring and be flowering by summer.  Texas A & M University named it a Texas Superstar and branded it with yet another name.  It’s now promoted as the “Texas Lilac”, which I objected to simply because it’s not a darn lilac (Syringa species) and it’s not really a Texan.  It just immigrated here.   My protest went nowhere and I’m more convinced than ever that fake news is winning.

Back in late May, 1998, Greg Grant and I were admiring a particular Wisteria frutescens in the SFA Mast Arboretum’s “lines of vines”, a collection of 96 vines on posts.  The plant was found by Lynn Lowrey, legendary plant hunter, near the dam of a lake in southeast Texas that was oddly named Dam B.  We were discussing the merits of the plant.  It had nice-sized blooms for the species, clean foliage, good texture, a little repeat blooming, and had been easy to keep in bounds.  There we were scratching our heads for a good name when in a flash, one of those pesky bumble bees made a dive at Greg’s head.  He rocked backwards took a swat at the critter and muttered, “Damn bee”.  I said, “That’s it!  We’ll name it Dam B.”  After all, the plant was collected at Dam B.  To Greg and I, the name made sense but the problem remained with the spelling.  Should we go with “Dam B” or “Damn Bee”?  This created a healthy debate on who might or might not be offended.  Were there better names out there, or would this grab the public attention to plant more native Wisterias?   We never really settled the issue, couldn’t come up with a better name, and the inspiration soon left the both of us so the name ‘Dam B’ stuck.  Over the years, the clone has been passed around and can be found in commerce, either as ‘Dam B’, or occasionally as ‘Lowrey’, and rarely as ‘Damn Bee’.

‘Dam B’ sports light blue/lavender, finely scented, pendulous flowers in six-to-ten inch long racemes that mix perfectly with the fine-textured foliage.  This plant enjoys a heavy flowering season in late May and June and then blooms lightly and sporadically throughout the summer and into the fall.  Pruning and deadheading certainly encourages repeat blooming.  Our specimen “on a stick” was easy to keep in bounds and the suckers from the crown are easy to take care of in comparison to their Asian cousins.

Wisteria frutescens ‘Dam B’

‘Dam B’

This selection of Wisteria frutescens has been with us many years and I have seen it at other locations; it’s a promising candidate for the southern gardener wanting a less rambunctious vine with wisteria-like charm.  There are other Wisteria frutescens to consider.  ‘Amethyst Falls’ out of Head-Lee Nursery in South Carolina remains a popular standard, sports dark bluish purple popcorn like blooms and is popular because it never sets seed which allows it to bloom repeatedly.  We have Wisteria frutescens ‘alba,’ the white flowering form and another seedling in the Arboretum. ‘Memphis Blue’ enjoys a long true blue inflorescence.  ‘Longwood Purple’ is another dark flowered popcorn bloom form.  Our collection also includes three selections by Maarten van der Giessen of Best Liners of Semmes, Alabama and they look strong.  Our latest acquisition is a “pink” form found by Peter Loos and Matt Welch several years ago near Pascagoula, Mississippi.  While not a sizzling hot pink, there’s enough pink there to give us hope for future selections.

Wisteria frutescens ‘Peter’s Pink’ really is kind of pink

‘Peter’s Pink’

Wisteria frutescens is native, hardy, drought-tolerant and much better behaved than those closely-related, yet less civilized Asian cousins, Wisteria floribunda, the Japanese wisteria and Wisteria sinensis, the Chinese wisteria.  The main problem with these two brutes is growth rate.  A vigorous Chinese or Japanese Wisteria can become a monster if left untended for very long (like overnight).  Root suckers can gain an incredible foothold far from camp.  Plant Wisteria frutescens.

Propagation is easy. Softwood cuttings under mist in June and we have had good success with hardwood cuttings taken in late winter.  All Wisterias appreciate full sun, a well-drained soil and good horticulture during the establishment years.  A three year old vine is here to stay, quite capable of dealing with heat, drought, cold, floods, and the gardener’s neglect and occasionally, abuse.  Tough plants for a tough place on earth.

Is beach Vitex a beauty or a beast?  Isn’t this an invasive species? Isn’t this the dreaded “Kudzu of the beach” now threatening the Carolina dunes? Isn’t this the focus of all kinds of eradication campaigns? Why would any serious horticulturist even talk about a plant like this, much less write about it? Well, we’d just like to quietly point out that there are many areas of the southern USA where it’s quite common in landscapes – and it’s simply just another interesting non-invasive exotic plant. That’s the case in our region of Texas. It’s no thug here.

Beach vitex in the lines of vines

With over thirty years of experience with this hardy evergreen species in the USA – it’s an immigrant from Hawaii, believe it or not – we can now say there are many parts of the South where beach Vitex is rather tame. This is a species grown in fairly large numbers from a wide range of wholesale nurseries in Texas, Alabama, and Louisiana. Considering the fact that this is one tough immigrant from Hawaii, and the fact it’s easy to keep alive, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that it appears here to stay. Given a little positive horticulture, the plant can be downright beautiful, and it’s in that vein the plant can be used. First, let’s give testimony and respect to the species as a landscape candidate, without discounting its invasive potential in areas where it finds itself too much at home. Writing this piece conjures up memories – thirty years ago – of some officials of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department visiting J.C. Raulston, Director of the North Carolina State University Arboretum, and suggesting to him that promoting, growing, thinking about or touching this plant was just about the most horrible thing a horticulturist could do.

Beach vitex makes a big trunk when trained on a post

Yes, this plant is easy to grow. In coastal sandy spots, it can go where you don’t want it to, and when it’s there it can and will smother native vegetation. It can be a bad boy. So here’s the rule: In those sections of the country that beach Vitex is way too frisky for its own good, don’t plant it, and, when you see it, kill it. In our Zone 8 region of Texas, we have never seen a seedling and if landscapers used the plant as described in this treatise, well, the end result is no problem. As a groundcover in our region, beach Vitex is not that voracious. At the San Antonio Botanical Garden in Texas (a bit warmer than Nacogdoches, Texas in the winter and summer), Paul Cox reported that it’s “manageable”. Knowing Paul Cox, that might not be too good. At any rate, experience is a good teacher.

First, how bad is this plant? Well, it is a native of the USA, but only because it comes from Hawaii. First introduced as an exciting groundcover over 30 years ago as a potential groundcover for sunny dry spots, this introduction made its way to the sand dunes of South Carolina, and it’s there that beach Vitex has come to be quite frightening. This brief note isn’t intended to stir up a fight in the horticultural crowd. The invasive exotic issue is real and one that deserves respect and attention. We know that. However, an invasive in one spot can be quite docile in another and it’s in that vein this article is presented.

Lines of vines in the old days, two thugs side by side?

If you happen to live in a region of the USA where beach Vitex never throws seedlings – and where it’s easily managed in a run – the plant does have attributes. We have long enjoyed it as a vine in our “line of vines” collection. The foliage is beautiful, clean and fully evergreen. The blooms are relatively inconspicuous coming in the fall as blue spikes. While attractive up close, they are never overwhelming. Our most conspicuous specimen in the Mast Arboretum “line of vines” has been trained to a post and never fails to gain approval by visitors.  We’ve used the plant as a vine and as a groundcover and found that it responds to an occasional shearing. Once again, let me repeat, we’ve never seen a seedling in our Zone 8 garden (not that we won’t find one tomorrow!) – and in our garden it’s not that vigorous, nor does it generate much fear and loathing. That said, tread with trepidation.

Scuttelaria suffrutescens ‘Texas Rose’ is a pink-flowering skullcap that’s actually from Mexico.  It’s surprised Southern gardeners with its charm and durability. It’s a neatly mounding sub-shrub to one foot tall and about twice that wide with fine leaves and twigs.  It sports bright pink snapdragon flowers and makes a shiny addition to the front of any border or as specimens massed.  In mild winters here in the Pineywoods, it’s evergreen and has never failed to perform well if given just a little attention.

P.C. Standley describes the type specimen from Coahuila, Sierra de la Silla near Monterrey, as a small shrub.  While more popular in the gardens of central and west Texas, this plant deserves greater use in the dry, sunny gardens of East Texas with Zones 8 and 9 most suitable.  We have found that good specimens always elicit some kind of urge to pet the plant – probably because the mound appears and happens to be very firm to the touch.  The plant has a bright show in May and early June and the blooming period persists throughout the summer and fall if under decent horticulture. It ends to rebloom after rainfall events.

‘Texas Rose’ Scuttelaria in the Bicentennial Garden, Houston, Texas

There are now a number of pink-flowering forms of this species appearing in mostly western nurseries and they appear under different names including ‘Cherry skullcap’, ‘Mexican pink skullcap’, to ‘Texas Rose’.  I suspect but can’t prove they are all the same clone or seedlings of the clone that goes all the way back to an expedition to Mexico with Lynn Lowrey and Ray Jordan in October 1987.  From the Friends of the SFA Mast Arboretum Newsletter # 5 and if you’ll please forgive that this is an ancient scan and a few pages are out of order, there’s some interesting information that can be found HERE:

http://sfagardens.sfasu.edu/images/files/Documents/Newsletters/lh%20October%201987.pdf.

This chronicles an interesting expedition to the San Madre Oriental mountains with Lynn Lowrey and Ray Jordan back in a time that Mexico was peaceful and inviting.  In that piece, I wrote that, “after backtracking east to the main road that runs between Montemerellos and Monterrey, we made one last side excursion to Chipinque.  The mountain town and associated forest is home for thousands of Mexican redbuds, numerous oaks, and a forest floor of salvias and penstemons.  On one hike, a large-flowered Phaseolus vine was spotted, and, according to Lynn, the best find of the trip, a skullcap colony, Scuttelaria species.  This rhizomatous, perennial herb made a strong attractive ground cover in a few sun-lit forest pockets.”

Actually, as I remember the find, I said, “Lynn, what’s that plant with the pink flowers,” and Lynn responded, “what flowers?” Amazingly, I came to learn that Lynn was red color blind and could only discern reds, pinks and greens when they were real close to his eyes.  This always leads me astray.  One of the great plantsmen of all time, my friend JC Raulston, had no sense of smell.  When folks ask what’s wrong with me, I usually say, “I’m somewhat addled.”

This particular trip had as a goal primarily the collection of oak and other fall seeds that we encountered.  One of those oaks was Quercus rysophylla and one of those seedlings ended up in the garden here at SFA, a towering giant that I think is the #2 size wise in the nation.  Peckerewood has the biggest.  In the case of the Scuttelaria, a few cuttings were taken and rooted easily at SFA.  As we were about to cross back into Texas, we stopped at a favorite cantina to clean seed, organize cuttings, remove any soil from root systems all in an effort to make it through the USDA inspection station.  I can remember Lynn remarking the little skullcap was probably the best find of the trip.  Well, it certainly found its way into the market and google world.  We have found the plant easy to root under mist and plants should be moved soon after the first root initials make their appearance.  Leaving cuttings in mist after rooting too long can result in dead cuttings.

This is full sun plant for the South and should be give sharp drainage. A raised bed is perfect.  In the Arboretum, we have had good success with dry-loving plants by using sandy loam berms and a thin layer of crushed decomposed granite as a mulch.  The plant responds to fertilizer.  Some attention should be given the plants during the first two establishment years and we have not found the plant to be particularly rhizomatous, behaving instead like a green stiff mound throughout the year.  The plant survived the December 1989 dip to zero degrees and Tony Avent of Plant Delights in Raleigh, North Carolina, has kept the plant through many winters.  After a number of years, I discovered the clone had been given the name ‘Texas Rose,’ a name coined by Tim Kiphart, SFA Horticultura alum, who provided Tony with the plant. I’m confident that this is the same plant as the one in the Arboretum, the plant collected in October 1987.  As for the others that dot the trade, I’m not so sure where they came from.  There are darker flowered forms, perhaps derived from sports, or seed, or as a new collection.

I’ve always admired labyrinths and mazes.  They connect us to the past, the present and the future.  After seven years of thinking about it, we finally have a labyrinth in the Gayla Mize Garden.  It’s a classic seven course design with a wonderful East Texas look.

The labyrinth under construction.  Drone view by Dr. Dave Kulhavy, College of Forestry

The labyrinth is surrounded by a circle of ‘Slender Silhouette’ sweetgum trees.  It’s a unique columnar tree – fastigiate is the term – and the original tree was discovered on the edge of a lake in Tennessee by legendary plantsman, Don Shadow. It was reported to be 60′ tall and only 8′ wide.  Well, Don liberated some cuttings and grafted the clone.  He returned later to get some more wood and was caught by the landowner with a gun.  It’s Tennesee, you know.  He was persuaded to leave quietly and returned later to find that the tree was cut down.  However, it really didn’t matter because the original grafts took and the tree was saved for posterity.  Please don’t disparage the fact that it’s a sweetgum, often hated and reviled for the round sweetgum balls that scatter across lawns and gardens in the South.  Stepping on one barefoot can make you an enemy of the tree.  So when folks ask, does it have balls, I always say, “Yes, it has sweetgum balls, but they don’t fall far from the tree.”

Even though we’ve talked about a labyrinth for many years, it wasn’t until Eagle Scout Luke Stanley approached me about a project that this came together.  Most Eagle Scout projects involve building picnic tables and boardwalks.  When I mentioned this opportunity, Luke jumped at the chance.  While funding was an issue, it finally all came together.  The project received a boost near the end with Tim Howell’s donation of a Klingstone Paths treatment, a chemical that bonds all the pea gravel into a concrete hard surface, one that is permeable to rain.  It breathes.

Duke Pittman tamping things smooth and Tim Howell applying the chemical

So, what is a labyrinth?  The term labyrinth is generally synonymous with a maze.  However, in modern times it’s accepted that a labyrinth is not a maze and a maze is not a labyrinth.  Contemporary scholars and enthusiasts observe a distinction between the two. In this specialized usage, a maze refers to a complex branching multicursal design with choices of path and direction, while a unicursal labyrinth enjoys only a single path to the center. You can get lost in a maze.  On the other hand, a labyrinth is easy to navigate.  It requires no complex thinking to stroll one’s way to the center.  It’s impossible to get lost.  Follow the path.

After Klingstone Chemical Paths treatment

Unicursal labyrinths appeared early in man’s history as designs on pottery, baskets, body art and in drawings on walls of caves, churches, businesses and homes.  The Romans used ornate unicursal designs on walls and floors in tile or mosaic. Many labyrinths set in floors or on the ground are large enough that the path can be walked. Unicursal patterns have been used historically both in group ritual, for private meditation and in recent times have found therapeutic value in hospitals and hospices.

Our single-path classical seven-course design fits the association of the Labyrinth on coins as early as 430 BC. Even though literal descriptions made it clear that the Minotaur was trapped in a complex branching maze, from Roman times till now labyrinths were almost always unicursal. Branching mazes were later reintroduced when garden mazes became popular during the Renaissance.

Now I realize that the average East Texan may not embrace the psychic and cosmic benefits of a labyrinth.  We like chicken fried steak, Bar-B-Q, beer in a can and hunting wild hogs.  A labyrinth just doesn’t come to mind.  Some citizens are truly suspicious of labyrinths as strange and alien inspired.  However, it’s just not true.  No matter your persuasion, we encourage you to saunter to the middle and then saunter out. To get the full benefit, you should approach the entrance and concentrate on your breathing for a minute or so.  Empty your mind.  Relax.  Then start the trek. Go for a very slow pace.  For our labyrinth, it takes about five minutes to make your way to the center rock.  Sit a spell, contemplate your well being and then take the stroll out.  Science proves that your blood pressure will drop, your mood will improve, and all will seem right with the world.  In these trying times, a labyrinth might just be the medicine we need.

Ray Mize passed away March 13, 2017 in Nacogdoches. He was 86 and lived a full life. Ray was a great friend of the SFA Gardens, the University and this community.  I’ve known Ray since the 1980s.  His wife Gayla was the light in his eye.  She volunteered from the very beginning of the Arboretum and in all kinds of city beautification projects.  Ray was always in tow.  He was a cattleman and I ran a few head in Shelby County.  He liked agriculture.  I did too.  So, we kind of connected. It was Gayla that brought him to loving flowers. Behind the scene, both Gayla and Ray had much to do with the creation of the Ruby Mize Azalea Garden. Of course, everyone knew Ray adored Gayla and for good reason; she was a very beautiful, sweet and special lady in our town.

The road to the Gayla Mize Garden was a long one. There’s about 68 acres of land along University Drive that was owned by SFA. In 2008, Dr. Mike Legg in Forestry and Michael Maningas in Recreation submitted a Texas Parks and Wildlife proposal for a trails project.  The proposal needed collaborators and some matching funds.  That was us; SFA Gardens stepped up and as part of the deal, I wanted to name the property SFA Recreational Trails and Gardens (SFARTG).  They agreed and the University agreed.  Over a mile of trails came together and the SFARTG was dedicated in March 2010.  Well, time passed and the trails were there but no garden.  We did plant a line of the purple spider azaleas Koromo shikibu that are the front of the Ruby Mize Azalea Garden, but that was about it.  There’s a reality at universities: no money, no garden.

When Gayla Mize passed away in 2009, Ray had lost his soulmate. He would drive down University and see that sign shouting out “SFA Recreational Trails and Gardens.”  He would think, “where’s the $%&! Garden?”  The first I knew of Ray’s interest in building a legacy garden was in 2010.  I received a call from the secretary in the Agriculture building.  According to her, a large man with a patch on one eye had walked in to the main office.  He was carrying an axe and a crosscut saw wanting to know “where is that $#%!& Dave Creech?  He needs to get to work.”  To be honest, Ray kind of scared the ladies there in the front office.  I had moved my office to the Tucker House at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center and we soon got connected.  Ray was interested in that that frontage along University as a legacy for Gayla Mize.   We visited about what might be done.  A relationship was born.

As most of you know, things move slowly at a University. I often say our speed is deceiving; we’re actually slower than we look.  Ray visited with the administration and the University gave their blessing on the idea of a legacy garden.  Well, Ray would give us a little funding and we’d go into action.  Ray told me, “I like to try on a pair of shoes before I buy them.”  We kept at it.  Being stubborn gardeners, we kept chipping away.  It did take a serious effort to get the understory of privet, tallow, green briar vine, and honeysuckle out of there.  We took out a few trees which always add to the excitement of garden building.  We needed a clean forest floor to see what we had. We needed a garden design and Barb Stump sprang into action with that.  After all she was the designer and creator of the Ruby Mize Azalea Garden.  Who better than her!  We had to deal with some drainage issues.  There were plants to acquire and grow.  There was building a trail system inside the eight acres of garden.  In 2011, when Ray was convinced he was on the right track and our crew was up to the task, he stepped up and provided the legacy endowment.

Well before we made a serious run at planting azaleas, camellias and Japanese maples, I gave Ray a call and said get to the garden and I wanted him to plant the very first tree.  Burrows Creek defines the northern edge of the Gayla Mize Garden and we planted a nice baldcypress.  It remains to this day and I suspect it’ll be there for a few thousand years.

Ray Mize planting the first tree in the garden in 2010

The dedication of the Gayla Mize Garden took place April 16, 2012.

Dedication April 16, 2012

Ray Mize and President Baker Patillo, April 16, 2012

Ray was no average donor. He provided us with over-the-shoulder attention all the time.  Ray was old school.  Skip the paperwork, roll up your sleeves, and make it happen now.  He’d catch me in my office or the garden and never fail to nudge me to move faster.  We needed more flowers.  What the heck was I doing with my time?  I said trails take time.  Before I knew it, he had enlisted his grandson Ryan Cupit to help us get the trail base in.  Why wasn’t the gazebo finished? We’re working on it. Did I understand what it meant to make hay when the sun shines? Yes, I’m trying.  Did he have to bring some of his folks in there to make something happen?  I’d explain that it takes one hundred years to build a garden, two hundred if you don’t rush it.  He wasn’t convinced.  Ray was a man on a mission.  Our conversation usually ended with him saying, “Am I going to have to go talk to Baker?”  That, of course, is the SFASU President, Baker Patillo.  I hoped he was bluffing but it did provide additional incentive.  Ray liked to tease and he always let me know at the end of our visits how pleased the way the garden was growing.

Ray truly loved the garden. It was an important connection to Gayla and to everyone in our community.  The Agriculture in him meant he understood what it’s like to grow things on a big scale and what drought, floods and freezes can do.  He had empathy.  Ray noticed when the parking lot was full and that always made him feel good.  He liked the place being used.  Ray was more than a supporter; he was an aggressive participant for a greener Nacogdoches.  Leaving a legacy for Gayla, for his two children Jimmy and Lysa, for all his grandchildren, and for all the citizens of Nacogdoches, well, this was Ray’s way of paying it forward. When I walk the garden now, I feel there’s someone above pointing out all the stuff we need to be doing.  I suspect it’s Ray and I’ll bet anything Gayla has him planting something in God’s back forty.

Cunninghamia is referred to as China fir and is generally regarded as the most “primitive” surviving member of the Cupressaceae. It is not a fir (Abies) and most authors treat this evergreen conifer as a genus of two similar species, C. konishii of Taiwan and C. lanceolata of mainland Asia.  More recent studies have identified C. konishii in China and Vietnam as well. There’s another softer foliaged version that does well in East Texas, C. unicaniculata, which is considered, again, as a variety of C. lanceolata.     The Flora of China treats lanceolata and konishii as varieties of C. lanceolata, but other sources treat them as two separate species.  Let’s just say the nomenclature is still somewhat undefined.

Trees can reach over 100′ tall and over 6′ in diameter and are generally blessed with  pyramidal, dark green crowns. Bark is gray to reddish brown with fissures that crack into flakes that expose the inner bark.  Single trunk species are dramatic in the landscape. Over a century ago the trees were occasionally planted in landscapes, parks and courthouse squares in East Texas.  There were no doubt part of the mix of things brought into Texas out of Tennessee nurseries.  In Nacogdoches, we have some rather beautiful trees Scattered here and there.

They are indeed survivors.  There’s one nice tree in Nacogdoches, TX that rests at the front of the Westminster Presbyterian church on North street.  It’s a three trunker and while it’s a bit ratty, it remains quite a patriarch in our fair city.

I’ve encountered the tree all across the South and they no doubt date back to an era when the tree was obviously appreciated.  What drove the plantings remains somewhat of a mystery.  After all, it often features fallen branches, and the dead and dying spiny needles are no joy to the barefoot crowd.  Still the tree persists without attention or much care.

C. lanceolata on North Street, Nacogdoches, TX

There’s one form that should be planted and it sports clean foliage most of the time.  We have several C. unicaniculata at SFA Gardens, including one that dates back to the 1980s.  They do root and we’ve multiplied them for giveaways and special friends that like the rarely encountered tree.

The center tree is C. unicaniculata of good form in our collection

C. unicaniculata is soft needled

China fir can be rooted but it is agonizingly slow.  Large cuttings taken in the winter and given bottom heat under mist will root after three or four months.  Moved to a shade house they take their time deciding to survive – or not – and in a year or two they can make a reasonable small tree.  They cuttings exhibit plagiotropic growth.  That is, the cutting never realizes it’s supposed to be a tree, choosing instead to think it’s a branch.  Cutting back the resultant rooted branch can force a shoot that finally becomes a decent leader.  Perhaps this is why the tree is rarely seen in commerce.

For the conifer enthusiast, there are several dwarf varieties to choose from but the fan club remains small.  For someone looking for an evergreen conifer rarely seen, this may be the tree for you.