Bulletin Board
Plant of the Month
Turkish Filbert
Corylus colurna
Location: Grid S-11 west side of the gravel road, just past the upper pond
This is the largest growing Filbert, eventually forming an upright pyramidal form 60’ or taller. If more than one tree is available they will set a good crop of edible nuts. They are smaller and have harder shells than the commercial Filberts or Hazelnuts; but essentially the same flavor.
The nuts occur in clusters, surrounded by a spiny husk. The husk does not seem to deter squirrels from finding the nuts. They start feeding on the nuts before they fully ripen and drop, but I still found some nuts left over from last year on the ground around the trees.
There are two adjacent trees in the Arboretum, one was planted in 1996 and one in 1997.
Monthly Projects
A lot of September seemed to be hot and smoky, then someone flipped a switch on Sept. 18 and it has cooled off dramatically and even rained enough to let me shut off the irrigation. With only three student crew members with limited availability we have been doing well to more or less keep up with the mowing and irrigation.
We do have a few things to plant this fall, including new peonies for the peony collection, some replacements in the Iris garden, a new Sugar Pine (Pinus lambertiana) and a Silver Tip Fir (Abies magnifica) to add to our California native tree collection. We also have a number of the California species of Bristlecone Pine (Pinus longaeva) growing in the Forest Research Nursery’s greenhouse, waiting for them to get big enough to plant outside.
