PLANT Pairing: Persimmon & Sumac

Food, Winter Interest and Beautiful Fall Color!

Our plant pairing for December is  American Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) with Shining Sumac (Rhus copallana)

The American Persimmon is a beautiful keystone species that seems to feed everyone in some way or another.  Just about every bird and mammal, including humans, take delight in its fruit.  Just make sure to wait until it is fully ripe before you eat the fruit.  Otherwise the tannins will make your mouth pucker like nearly nothing else can.  Not quite ripe persimmons are perfectly safe to eat but it’s highly unlikely that you would be able to finish the first bite without spitting it out.  I usually wait until after the first frost to harvest native persimmons and/or spread a tarp under the tree as soon as I notice any on the ground.  Harvesting from the tarp just about guarantees that the fruit will be ripe. In addition to feeding most every bird and mammal in the neighborhood, American Persimmon is also a host tree to 55 different moths and butterflies including the beautiful black and white Hebrew Moth, the American Painted Lady Butterfly, and the soft, cinnamon and chocolate brown Promethea Silkmoth with its 3-4” wingspan.  A member of the ebony family, the heartwood of the persimmon is nearly black and extremely hard.  It has been used to make the heads of golf clubs and billiard cues.

A persimmon or three (see below) can make a stunning addition to your yard.  In good conditions, they can reach a height of 80 feet and 20-30 feet wide.  We generally find them at the edges of forests where they may reach those heights in their search for sun, but never gain the width.  In your yard they may stay shorter and spread out more.  Their fall leaf color ranges from yellow to orange to bright red. The bright orange fruits remain on the tree long after leaf drop keeping the trees showy for at least the beginning of winter.

They prefer full sun to part shade and moist, but well drained, sandy soils, but they will tolerate hot, dry conditions, poor soils, wind and urban settings so they can make great yard trees.  As with almost all trees, they are best started from seed or very small plugs because the taproot is easily damaged during transplanting or by being held in a pot for too long. Don’t despair that you will never get fruit from your tiny seedling though.  A persimmon tree started from seed will start producing fruit after 4-10 years, which is really not that different from the timing for a larger tree.  Never forget that all trees are more likely to remain healthy and live longer if you start with a very small tree or seed. Small trees or seeds are also cheaper or even free, much, much easier to plant and usually catch up with larger transplants within 3 years, growing faster and stronger than the larger transplant each year after that. Persimmon trees, like many fruit trees, are dioecious, which means that there are male and female trees.  It’s a good idea to plant in groups of three to increase your chances of having one of each gender. Don’t worry, you can plant them relatively closely together so they take up less space.  If you do this, their intertwining roots will also increase their stability during storms. If there are already persimmons within 50 feet of where you intend to plant, your chances of setting fruit are definitely increased, but your lone persimmon may end up being a male so it’s still best to plant in multiples if you are planting the straight native.

Shining Sumac is also a keystone species. Like the Persimmon, Shining Sumac feeds many songbirds and other creatures, including humans, with its large clusters of bright red drupes.. The original pink lemonade is made by soaking sumac berries in water, then straining and adding sweetener.  There are many recipes for sumac lemonade online. Check them out! Dried and powdered sumac berries are also a staple spice in many Mediterranean and middle eastern countries. The tart flavor and reddish purple color sprinkled on grilled meats and salads and added to marinades is absolutely delicious!  Shining Sumac is a host tree to 53 moths and butterflies including the Showy Emerald moth, giant pale green Luna moths and the bright orange Regal Moth.

Shining Sumac has dense panicles of white flowers from July to September that become bright red drupes that remain in fall and into winter.  Its fall foliage is bright red.  Next to the yellow, orange and red fall display and orange winter fruits of a Persimmon tree, the visual effect of pairing these two plants is stunning. 

It is a multi-stemmed large bush that grows to 7-15 feet in height and easily forms colonies so it is good for filling in empty areas that need a bit of screening.  It prefers moist to dry fertile soils, but will tolerate a wide range of soil types including poor ones.  It will not do well in wet spots and prefers full sun so will do best if planted on the south side of any grouping of trees.  It is resistant to rabbits, drought, erosion, dry soil, shallow rocky soil and can grow just fine near Black Walnut trees. If you aren’t sure why I mention Walnut trees, please click through on the link. It’s very interesting!  

— MaryBeth

Book:
Planting in a Post Wild World by Thomas Rainer and Claudia West

If you want a single book that blends garden design, ecological sense, and practical encouragement for making your yard a richer habitat, The Living Landscape is an excellent pick. Co-authored by landscape designer/photographer Rick Darke and entomologist Doug Tallamy, the book argues that beauty and biodiversity are not opposing goals — they are mutually reinforcing. The volume is lavishly illustrated and organized around readable design principles that show how to create layered, living landscapes that are beautiful to people while supplying food, shelter, and seasonal resources for insects, birds, and other wildlife.

Darke and Tallamy begin by examining patterns in wild places — how layers of groundcover, herbaceous plants, shrubs, understory and canopy trees form working ecosystems — and then translate those patterns into garden-scale strategies. Along the way you’ll find chapters on planning outdoor “rooms,” selecting plant palettes that serve both aesthetics and function, integrating edibles and fragrance, and designing edges and transitions so wildlife can move through a neighborhood rather than encounter a wall of turf. Darke’s photography makes the approach feel attainable and inspiring for small and large properties alike.

The book reframes decisions about which plant, where to place it, and how to shape a bed as opportunities to support life rather than simple aesthetic choices. It offers concrete design tools on how to compose layers, where to leave structural winter interest, and how to make paths and lawn areas work with habitat patches rather than against them. Because Tallamy supplies the ecological rationale by explaining how insects drive food webs and why native plant choice matters, the book helps gardeners make defensible, long-term choices and explain them to family, neighbors, or clients. In short, it gives both the “why” and the “how.”

The Living Landscape sits between a beautifully illustrated coffee-table book and a practical design manual. It is especially helpful for anyone who wants to marry aesthetics and conservation in residential settings.

The Living Landscape is eye-opening and practical. It will change how you see your lawn, encourage you to think in layers and seasons, and give you clear inspiration for projects you can tackle in your own yard. Keep it on the shelf as a design reference and an inspiration book to return to when planning the next season’s changes

Shannon

December To-Do list

• Use wood ashes on your bulb beds, and lightly on your lawns if soil pH is below 6.0.  Contact your local Agricultural Extension Agent to find out how to get free soil testing April 1- November 30 every year.

• After Christmas, plant live Christmas trees in the landscape. Keep these trees indoors no more than 14 days.

• Plant trees (including fruit trees), shrubs and vines (including grape and kiwi).  Now is the very best time for planting woody perennials as long as there is not a hard freeze predicted during the first two weeks after installation.  Bushes and trees that thrive in Piedmont NC can survive a hard freeze, but it’s better to avoid the extra shock to their systems too soon after transplanting.  If a hard freeze does come shortly after transplanting, covering your newly planted trees/shrubs with sheets or blankets for the hours below 28 degrees will help them get through it.

• If you have fruit trees, bushes, shrubs, or roses, now’s the time to cut off dead branches, but wait until mid January to mid March to trim for shape or prune for health.

• Gather greens and berries like holly for winter decorations.

• Remove “weed” or undesirable trees from your landscape.  If you are fighting serious invasive trees like Tree of Heaven, Mimosa,  Paulownia, Chinaberry, Chinese Tallow Tree, or Bradford Pear, do some research or check in with your agricultural extension agent before you start cutting.  Some trees send up baby trees from their root systems when cut down and may need special treatment.  If you know that you have any of these trees in your yard, it is better to work on removing them sooner rather than later when they’ve had a chance to really start spreading.  

• Take leaf cuttings of your favorite houseplants like African violets and begonia.

• Take hardwood cuttings of landscape plants like forsythia, flowering quince, holly, and hydrangea and force the flowers in the warmth of your home to remind you of the promise of spring, or start new bushes to plant out in spring.

• Cover your strawberry plants when temps go below 25°F with pine needles or wheat/barley straw.  If you would like Chandler strawberry plants, we have bare root plants for $1.00 each.  Contact Mary Beth at marybeth@birchmeadowgc.com to order yours.  

• Take inventory of all your gardening tools. Replace or fix broken items, clean tools, and sharpen blades.

• Continue to fill your compost bin with unwanted fallen leaves.  Leave your leaves where they land whenever you possibly can to help support the soil, soil life and lightning bugs.  

• Clean the gutters.

• Feed the birds.

• Give flower beds a nice cover of shredded leaf mulch.

• Plan your spring garden and get a head start by ordering seeds before they run out.

• Remove snow (if we get any) from tree branches, shrubs, and bushes; the added weight can bend and contort plants. (But do keep the snow on the ground as it acts as an insulator.)

• Turn off sprinklers and put away your hoses before the first frost.  

Layers

A garden is never just what we plant—
But all that moves beneath and between.
Roots trace old stories underfoot,
Reaching through to find strength.

We see the stem, the leaf, the fruit
Be it tree  or bush or grass
All a part of the great mother earth
And we, the humble caretakers.

We shape the land,
but the land shapes us too,
teaching us to leave room
for life to weave itself whole.

— Shannon

Happy Gardening!