Vaughn's Lillie Oakleaf Hydrangea

It is pretty close to maximum hydrangea time here at Tiger Gardens. Since I've already posted about that wonderful time, I think I'll simply post about one of my hydrangeas today. It is Vaughn's Lillie and is a sweet little oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia 'Vaughn's Lillie').

Oakleafs are my favorite hydrangeas because they give year round interest and are very easy to grow. I think they are the easiest of all the hydrangeas and most adaptable. They are drought tolerant and can be grown in a wide range of conditions such as full shade to full sun. They are most splendid. If happy, oakleafs can grow to be very large. This can be a drawback so breeders have begun trying to breed smaller oakleaf hydrangeas. One such cultivar is Vaughn's Lillie.
I had the pleasure of visiting the world renown Don Shadow Nursery in Winchester Tennessee last May with my master gardener group. One of the plants I purchased was this little hydrangea. Hey, how could I pass up a new cultivar (at least to me) of an oakleaf? I've been most pleased with it's performance. This shrub is planted in full shade right next to a mature oak tree. It gets no special care, but just plugs along at it's own pace. In the one year it's been growing here, it has filled out rather nicely and not grown up all that much. See how full it is even in full shade? You can just see the oak tree's trunk in the back lefthand corner of the picture. This oakleaf was bred to remain only about 3-4 feet tall and wide. It is also a double. The blooms are so compact and dense that you cannot see through it at all. A really nice feature of the blooms is that when they begin going by they turn a chartreuse color and remain so for several months, finally turning to a brown. A lovely shrub....

in the garden....

This was not the original post I had planned on posting today. I have tried without luck to get permission to post a lovely garden in Franklin, so this is a back up. Hope you all enjoyed the Garden Tour Week and don't mind the hydrangea.

Final note: As a person who grew up in the 1970s I was most influenced by both Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson and The Jackson 5. Yesterday was a sad day and both of these icons will be missed. I wish for the best for their families in this time of grief.

Identify a tree

I was walking down my Georgia driveway the other day and noticed these strange leaf's on the ground. They fell from our trees in our front woods and I wanted to know what type tree we have. I collected several specimens then headed to the house. I have two small books about trees that I refer to for Identifying my trees. Both books are totally different and you will see more of that later. I also have many different books about birds and find no two of them the same. I prefer the book which shows the bird in Male, Female as well as Juvenile Plumage because they are so different.
I need a tree book that is much better then the two I have as they are not so great with descriptions. Like my favorite bird book, I would like a tree book that would show the tree's Bark, Shape, as well as close up of Spring, Summer and Fall foliage. Then I may have a better chance at identifying it correctly.

I open up the book and look at the leaf shapes and sizes. As you can see there is a big difference in the shape of each of the leaf's I have collected. This is the best I can come to matching these to a picture. They don't really look like this leaf to me so lets take a look at the second book shall we....

Ah, now this book shows the leaf looking a bit more like one of the leaf's that I have. What do you think? See how differently this book represents the leaf compared to the first book?
Once finding the pictured leaf which mostly resembles my leaf, I then move on to geographic location. As you can see this leaf is found in Georgia so I think we are on to something here. Next, I read the description. I don't agree with the bark color as none of my trees bark appear black. Hum, but the remainder is right on the money. Especially the part I underlined for you with the leaf's being variable in shape. So I do believe I have Blackjack Oak tree's in my front woods.

This is how I IDENTIFY A TREE, In the Garden...

*NOTE: Janet over at Queen of Seafood sent me to this sight to see that I may have a Water Oak instead of Blackjack. Strange thing though, this sight says: The tree should be in Full Sun, my trees are in full Shade. Should be in moist area, we don't see much rain fall throughout the year. Will NOT find them in Sandy Soil, my trees are in Sandy Soil. Hum, this is why I have trouble identifying trees in my yard.

Cameron of Defining your Home hubby has a Forestry degree and agrees this is a Water Oak....

Thanks for the corrections ladies, this is a wonderful thing about blogging! I have now truly identified my tree. I am off to the book store for a new book!

Oak Leafs

Oak leaf hydrangeas, Hydrangea quercifolia, are my favorite type of hydrangea. They are so easy to grow and so beautiful! They provide four seasons of interest and require little care from the gardener. Just my kind of plant!

I never grew oak leafs until I moved to Tennessee. While landscaping the north side of my home in the fall of 2003, I found an oak leaf I thought would fit into the foundation bed (Who am I kidding? I saw it, bought it, planted it there, simple). It absolutely loved it here! It grows next to my heat pump, but has plenty of room to spread its wings and grow in its natural form. I mulch this bed every other year with pine needles and I think that also helps this oak leaf.

For the first two or three years it seemed the oak leaf grew painfully slow. I thought it would never fill out! Starting from scratch and with all small plants can make me feel like my landscape vision will never come to fruition! Finally, the oak leaf has matured. It has not only matured, but it provided with me with 24 seedlings last fall. I probably never would've found the seedlings if I had mulched in 2006. I am sure they began growing in that year and took a bit of time to grow large enough for me to find them. I dug all of the seedlings up and planted them around my one acre plot. They are now growing very fast and some may even bloom this year.

This one oak leaf hydrangea made me realize just how much I liked the genus because of its ease of care (moist to dry soil, part sun or shade, and no pruning). I liked it so much I decided to plant three of them in my front center garden. Oak leafs can get quite large and my initial one is now about 8 feet wide by 5-6 feet tall. I thought the grouping of three directly out my front door would make a nice peak in the middle of the center garden. Right now they are very small and the center garden is off balance vertically, but I have faith the oak leafs will grow quickly and soon take their rightful spot as the climax shrub in this prominent center garden.

The first picture is of one of the oak leafs in that garden. It is not a regular oak leaf such as the initial one I started with. No, it is the cultivar 'Snow Queen'. I purchased two for mere dollars at a big box store markdown sale. Unfortunately it then took me another year before I could find an affordable third 'Snow Queen'. Jackpot last fall while shopping in another city. The nursery I visited had a good sized 'Snow Queen' hydrangea marked 50% off. Patience does pay off and I think this is the only time I have stuck to my guns with a specific cultivar in a specific spot. I can't wait to see the bloom!

The Snow Queen cultivar is said to have larger flowers. Not sure, but the above flower is pretty large as far as flowers go. Nearly a full foot long!

The above oakleaf is 'Vaughn's Lille'. I am not sure if it is going to make it or not. I purchased this cultivar at Don Shadows, but right now it is not happy and looks very different.

All oakleafs have four seasons of interest. Spring brings new leaves; which are shaped like oak trees. Late spring to early summer brings large white blooms; which persist into the summer, fall and winter. The blooms slowly fade to rose or pink or browns. In addition to the persistent blooms, oakleafs have super red fall coloring; which is mottled and variegated. As a bonus, when the oakleaf gets some maturity, the bark begins peeling.

All oakleafs like acidic, moist, well drained soil, but I have found they can tolerate dry soils once established. They do fine in sun or shade. They rarely need any help from the gardener and I do not recommend pruning them.

in the garden....