The Historic Gardens has many unique trees that add colour and interest in autumn. We wanted to highlight three of them which are located together on the main path between the Innovative Garden and the Rose Garden.
The first is the Seven Sons (Heptacodium miconioides), native to China.
Each September you may have noticed the white flowers. In October, we enjoy the colour of the very showy, rose-pink calyces. Also note the exfoliating bark. The Seven Sons is a rare tree and thought to be nearing extinction in the wild.
Next, you will see our relatively new Albizia julibrissin, commonly called mimosa or silk tree.
Native to Asia, its leaves have a fern-like appearance and the fluffy, pink, powder puff flowerheads are fragrant and attractive to bees.
And the third of these is the Franklin Tree (Franklinia alatamaha) which blooms for several weeks in October with its large “fried egg” flowers.
The Franklinia, a small flowering tree in the tea family, is said to be among the rarest trees in the world and is extinct in the wild. In 1765 William Bartram and his father discovered a unique tree along the banks of a river in Georgia. In 1791, he wrote, “We never saw it any other place, nor have I ever seen it growing wild, in all my travels, from Pennsylvania to Point Coupe, on the banks of the Mississippi.” He collected seeds and brought them back to Philadelphia. His collection of the species was timely; within 50 years, the tree was extinct in the wild. All living Franklin trees—which Bartram named for family friend Benjamin Franklin—are descended from the seeds Bartram collected.
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