Garden Photo of the Day

Trees Make the Garden

Old specimens of trees are the heart of this public garden

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Linda Micciche shared these images of a new public garden in Fremont, California, which is planned to officially open to the public in April 2019.

The oldest residents of the San Jose Mission District in Fremont, California, are the beautiful trees and ornamental plants within the Gardens at Palmdale. The garden’s Monterey cypress, although not indigenous to this area, is estimated to be more than 300 years old and was probably planted by the Franciscan missionaries.

A new nonprofit trust, the Gardens at Palmdale, Inc., was endowed by the Sisters of the Holy Family to preserve the dignity and charm of the core park area of Palmdale, encompassing all the significant landscaping, historic trees, shrines, and grottos. The Gardens at Palmdale will be a meditative walking landscape in the English style. People will be welcome to stroll, share conversation, and admire the landscape, trees, and flowers from sunrise to sunset.

This view of the house on the grounds looks across an old well turned into a planter.

 

Trees are a feature of this garden. This spectacular specimen is a giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum, Zones 6–8).

 

Another spectacular tree: a ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba, Zones 5–9) in all its fall glory. Ginkgos are known for their habit of dropping nearly all their leaves at the same time, creating carpets of bright gold on the ground.

 

This view of the garden features a dramatic fountain.

 

The best, and hardest to acquire, attribute in nearly any garden is huge, mature trees. These giants are pure magic.

 

Southern magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora, Zones 6–9) is native to the southeastern United States but is a beautiful garden fixture wherever it is grown.

 

Persimmons (Diospyros kaki, Zones 7–10) are beloved for their sweet orange fall fruit, but they also make a wonderful ornamental feature with their bright fall foliage.

 

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Comments

  1. User avater
    meander_michaele 10/09/2018

    Mature trees add so much to a garden... whether it's public or private. They give such a sense of connectedness to the cycles of nature and cause a stirring in the heart. The ones you photographed are beauties, Linda. Congrats to Fremont on the upcoming birth of its new public garden...glad it is starting out with some senior citizens already in place.

  2. User avater
    treasuresmom 10/09/2018

    I just love ginkgo. That fall color is out of this world.

  3. btucker9675 10/09/2018

    What a gorgeous garden - thanks for sharing!

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