Amur Velvet Near Your Home. Description, Landing And Leaving. Growing. Photo

2023 Author: Ava Durham | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-27 07:13

A big tree is already a part of the macrolandscape. Such a tree on the site "works" not only close, but also becomes a noticeable "reference" point of the neighborhood. In the old days, it was customary to plant linden, willow, birch or ash near the house. Returning, the owner saw this green lighthouse from afar. The tree survived more than one generation of the owners of the house, it became so dear to them that a hand did not rise to cut it down. The same Englishmen, great masters of landscape design, never cut down old trees, even if they do not agree with the new decisions of the owners of the estates. In this case, most likely, the path is "bent", resting against the tree-patriarch. Because they believe: respect for old trees is respect for your own history and culture.

The range of large trees that can be “registered” on plots in central Russia is quite large. These are not only trees of many of our forest species, but also a large number of introduced ones: nuts (gray, Siebold, Manchurian), maples, horse chestnut, overseas oaks, poplars, ash trees. Conifers: fir, spruce, pine, including cedar, false beetle, larch. And of course, Amur velvet.

One day, leafing through a richly decorated book by a British author on garden design, I came across a photograph with the Latin inscription 'Phellodendron amurense', that is, Amur cork tree. On a flat English lawn, a mighty tree grew with a trunk in two girths and powerful branches, gently extending upward.

The whole tree did not even fit into the frame, but the relief longitudinal grooves of the bark were clearly distinguished, eloquently speaking about its venerable age. Shrubs and flowers grew around, but it was clear that the composition was built around this patriarch, and remove him, the plot would become simply meaningless. Amur velvet (as this tree is called here) is familiar to me, but here it looked somehow in a new way, primarily because of its unusually large size.

Here the British know how to serve goods in person, I thought. But then I remembered the trees growing in our Vladimir, and thought. No, ours are no worse, although they are clearly inferior in size. A small grove of velvets has been settled in our city on the lawn in front of the technical university for 30 years. Under the diffused shade of their transparent crowns, the grass grows well, on which, I think, it is very comfortable for students to lie down. Trees grow in a sparse group, so they do not tend to rise too much. Their concatenated trunks for the most part emerge from the ground obliquely, branching begins higher than human growth, and the umbrella-shaped crowns are somewhere above. At eye level, the grove is completely transparent.

There is some kind of attractive beauty in the trunks of the Amur velvet. The graphics of the branches and especially the bark, from which the nobility of an old tree, is enchanting.

I must say that in the middle lane, Amur velvet trees grow small, reaching a maximum of 10-12 m, more often they only slightly exceed a large apple tree. Frosty winters occasionally damage annual growths, but this does not noticeably affect their development. Plants bloom and bear fruit almost every year. For example, the harsh winter of 2005-2006 did not affect our velvets at all.

In the wild, Amur velvet grows in the Far East, reaching west to the Zeya River. Outside of Russia, it is found in China and Japan.

The Amur cork tree belongs to the Rutaceae family. A characteristic feature of the plant of this family is the smell inherent in fruits and leaves. Think of fragrant citruses, fragrant rue, ash - each plant has its own scent. Velvet has a smell of leaves and fruits. You cannot call their smell pleasant, but you only feel it when you touch the leaves or fruits or crush them.

In culture, velvet trees, one might say, are low and will fit even into a 6-acre plot. The leaves of the tree consist of 5-13 lanceolate, with a rounded base and an elongated tip of the leaves. It is characteristic that velvet is dressed in foliage later than trees of other species, and is exposed first at the very beginning of October.

Velvet flowers are rather small, yellowish-green, inconspicuous. And the tree blooms at the end of May, almost imperceptible for people. But it attracts bees, for them it is a good nectar plant. By the way, velvet is also a medicinal plant.

The velvet fruits are spherical, berry-shaped, with a dense glossy surface, black when ripe, about 1 cm in diameter. In our conditions, they ripen only in October and do not fly around until mid-winter.

The Amur cork tree is a wonderful park breed with beautiful leaves and habit. But the deeply grooved light gray bark, surprisingly soft to the touch, especially attracts the eye. A technical cork is made from the bark of the Amur velvet, carefully cutting it and removing it in layers so as not to damage the bast layer. The cork layer is quickly renewed. But this is only information for thought, I still do not advise you to perform such an operation on your tree.

It is not difficult to grow Amur velvet. It tolerates transplanting well (despite the taproot, which allows it to be firmly anchored in the soil). Velvet grows rapidly, seedlings per year jump the mark of 0.5-0.6 m, and in two they can reach a height of one and a half meters. Velvet is exacting to soil fertility, photophilous, hygrophilous, but drought-resistant. This tree can be grown practically in the entire European part of Russia (with the exception of the northernmost regions and the arid south), as well as in many places in the south of Siberia.

When choosing a place for planting Amur velvet, keep in mind that a tree can live up to 300 years. Therefore, you should not plant it in those places where it can be damaged by future restructuring and laying of communications. There should be at least 3 m from the paths, well, think about the neighbors on which the shadow of your tree may fall in the future.

The best substrate for velvet is powerful cultivated loam. Sandy soils are not suitable at all. When planting, you should dig a hole with a diameter and depth of about 0.5-0.65 m, filling it with a mixture of garden soil, turf soil, humus and sand in an approximate ratio of 2: 2: 2: 1. It is better to plant in early spring or autumn, no later than mid-September. At a later time, it is better to dig the resulting plants obliquely until spring to avoid death from frost. The ideal age for a transplant is 1–2 years.

Water the plants regularly to keep the soil moist. In the future, "water" only in drought. Fertilizers and dressing are desirable, but only in the first half of summer. Any rotted organic matter and complete mineral fertilizer in bulk under the crown with subsequent digging will suit the Amur velvet.

To interfere with the growth of the crown of the Amur velvet should be done carefully, avoiding large wounds. Pruning should be done in the spring, the wounds should be immediately covered with pitch. The purpose of pruning is to form a tall, unbranched stem to the height of a person, in order to emphasize the beauty of the trunk. However, you can not interfere with the growth of the tree at all, it is beautiful in itself, let it be formed "at your discretion."

It is also useful to loosen and mulch the trunk circle, but you can also turf the soil.

Amur velvet looks beautiful on the lawn. An environment of small ornamental shrubs such as low thuja, privet, Thunberg barberry, fir trees, junipers will suit him. The cork tree goes well with birch, maple, oak and is beautiful in all seasons.