Garden Tour: Twisted Old Trees
This is another post about the Corrales garden tour we took recently.
One of the gardens we visited was a small horse property, and while some areas had the elements of the "typical" Corrales garden -- roses, lush green lawn and bubbling water fountain -- in other areas of the garden it also had more typically Santa Fe elements of gravel and dry loving perennials.
Even the house itself looked more Santa Fe to me than the others we visited, although all were adobe style low slung mud brown homes.
But the real standouts for me were several ancient palo verde trees growing around the house and in the courtyard.
I thought they were desert willows (Chilopsis linearis), and originally posted that. This post has been modified to reflect that I was wrong. I think these old twisted trees were palo verdes (Cercidium).
The one in the courtyard took up the corner, and then stretched its immense arms out across the open entrance and all the way to the other side.
I couldn't get far enough back in the small walled courtyard to get a picture of the whole thing. This snaking horizontal branch comes from the corner tree which is all the way over on the left, far out of the picture and on the other side of the entrance. This limb is 40 feet out from the trunk. It's completely unsupported by poles or cables.
Here is the limb from the other side as you come in through the wall entrance. You walk under the twisting branches. The tree is on one side, the huge branches arch and lean over to the other side.
There were six or seven more of these giant gnarly twisted trees lining the drive and around the house.
Their trees had been planted tightly in the corner of the courtyard or right up against the house, but then artfully pruned to twist and grow over the walls or away from the house. The thin canopy of small leaves allows a lot of openness.
One of the gardens we visited was a small horse property, and while some areas had the elements of the "typical" Corrales garden -- roses, lush green lawn and bubbling water fountain -- in other areas of the garden it also had more typically Santa Fe elements of gravel and dry loving perennials.
Even the house itself looked more Santa Fe to me than the others we visited, although all were adobe style low slung mud brown homes.
But the real standouts for me were several ancient palo verde trees growing around the house and in the courtyard.
I thought they were desert willows (Chilopsis linearis), and originally posted that. This post has been modified to reflect that I was wrong. I think these old twisted trees were palo verdes (Cercidium).
The one in the courtyard took up the corner, and then stretched its immense arms out across the open entrance and all the way to the other side.
I couldn't get far enough back in the small walled courtyard to get a picture of the whole thing. This snaking horizontal branch comes from the corner tree which is all the way over on the left, far out of the picture and on the other side of the entrance. This limb is 40 feet out from the trunk. It's completely unsupported by poles or cables.
Here is the limb from the other side as you come in through the wall entrance. You walk under the twisting branches. The tree is on one side, the huge branches arch and lean over to the other side.
There were six or seven more of these giant gnarly twisted trees lining the drive and around the house.
Their trees had been planted tightly in the corner of the courtyard or right up against the house, but then artfully pruned to twist and grow over the walls or away from the house. The thin canopy of small leaves allows a lot of openness.
Comments