Ornamental Trees for your Garden!
Trees have been growing on this planet for the last 50 million years. They provide us fruit, shelter, shade, fuel wood, and timber wood for making furniture, ships, paper, and many other innumerable products. In addition, they also give us great joy with their beauty, fragrance and flowers. Rainy season is ideal for planting most trees. Except for sub-temperate, temperate or deciduous ones, most can be planted in the monsoon months. A large majority of them can also be planted during the spring season i.e. in February and early March. Deciduous trees are best planted in dormancy during winter months. With the gardening space getting smaller, more and more home gardens are now seen with fewer and smaller trees. However, many gardens still have enough space to accommodate some trees. Small trees are now more in fashion as compared to much larger trees that formed the focal points in any garden in earlier days. It was also common to have a combination of shade trees, fruit trees and flowering trees in most gardens of India. But now, planting shorter flowering trees and some dwarf fruit trees has become the norm. There are a large number of trees that can be planted in home gardens here in Uttarakhand. To make a proper selection of suitable trees, some things need to be considered. It is important to remember how big is the garden, what is the purpose of selecting any tree, where is it to be planted in the garden.
PLANTING THE TREES
Preparation of Ground: Trees are perennial plants and will live for many years. It is therefore best to prepare the soil and the ground as well as possible. As per the landscape plan, pits should be dug up to 60 x 60 x 60 cm size. For smaller trees and shrubs, the pits can be smaller. The soil should be well mixed with 10 to 15 kg of cattle dung manure, 50 gm of Sterilised Bone Meal, one kg of Neem Cake and 10 gm of some soil insecticide like Fenvalerate or Chlorpyriphos dust to check the attack of termites. This dusting must be immediately followed by watering to settle down the soil. If the soil does not have good drainage, then it is important to improve the soil by adding bulky organic matter and large amount of coarse sand after digging the entire soil up to a depth of four to six ft. This is not an easy thing. After this, the planting can be done in the centre of the pit. Spacing should be done as per the size of tree to be planted. For example, a small flowering tree like Delonix Regia (Gulmohar) would need a spacing of 8 to 10 ft between each tree per row. Jacaranda will require about 12 ft to 15 ft. of spacing.
SELECTION OF TREES
This depends upon many factors which have to be taken into account when selecting the trees.
Purpose of Growing: We must know if we want our tree to be a specimen, or provide us shade. Is it is going to be ornamental or a flowering one? We must know if we want them for our avenues or for screening purposes.
Specimen Trees: Such trees are planted singly for their attractive shape and beautiful foliage or for drooping branches which reflect humility. Some suitable trees are Araucaria cookie, Callistemon lanceolatus (Bottle Brush), Magnolia grandiflora (Champa), Plumeria alba (Pagoda Tree or Frangipani), Cassia fistula (Amaltas), Cassia nodosa (Pink Cassia), Delonix regia (Gulmohar), Erythrina indica (Parrot Tree) and Salix babylonica (Weeping Willow).Shady trees: Such trees have mostly a round canopy of umbrella crown. Their leaves are normally large and dense so that no or little sun is allowed underneath them. They are planted with an aim to provide shade in a particular part of the garden. Common trees grown for this purpose in North India are, Ficus beghalensis (Banyan tree), Ficus Infectoria (Pilkhan), Ficus Benjamina, Mangifera indica (Mango- Not suitable for the hills), Jackfruit (Not suitable for hills), Melia azedarach (Persian Lilac), Milletia ovalifolia (Rosewood), Pongamia pinnata (Karanj), Mimuspos elengi (Maulsari), and Azadirachta indica (Neem - not suitable for the Hills)
Flowering Trees: These trees produce colourful flowers and are planted for their beautiful flowers. One can choose as per one's choice. Since different trees may flower at different times, it may be wise to choose such trees that some of the other tree is always in bloom at any time of the year. Some common flowering trees grown in Uttarakhand are Bauhunia spp. (White or pink flowers during Spring when leafless-Deciduous commonly called as Kanchan or Kachnar in Hindi), Callistemon (Bottle Brush- flowering from all the year except in winter), Cassia fistula (Amaltas-deciduous flowers from April to August), Cassia nodosa (Pink Cassia- flowers April to August), Peltophorum africanum (Called Peela Gulmohar or Caesalpinia. Tabebuia aurea (Trumpet Tree), Jacaranda acutifolia (Deciduous tree flowers from March to June and in the hills from April to July commonly called Neeli Gulmohar), Erythrina blackii & Erythrina cristagalli (Deciduous tree-red flowers March to May commonly called as Pangar in Hindi), Plumeria alba Frangipani), Plumeria acutifolia, Butea monosperma (Dhak or Palash), Thespesia populnea (Round the year), Lagerstroemia speciosa (Jarul- flowers during the rainy season) Tecoma gaudichaudi (Yellow flowers from May to September), Tecoma Stans (Yellow flowers all through the year), Magnolia Grandiflora (Badi Champa), Magnolia Solungiana (Beautiful Pink Flowers during spring months highly suitable for the Hills as well as Doon Valley), Murraya Exotica (Kamini), Bombax Malabarica (Red Silk Cotton commonly called Simbhal or Semal) and Delonix regia (Gulmohar- flowers march to June but susceptible to frost in colder regions of the state).
Trees for Screening: Tall upright trees can be planted very close to each other to give an ultimate look of curtain or screen. Such trees are planted to hide some objects or boundaries. Some suitable trees are Grevillea robusta (Silver Oak), Eucalyptus sp., Poplar sp. and Polyathia longifolia (Ashok). For Fragrance: For this purpose, trees like Pterospermum acerifolium (Kanak Champa), Plumeria alba (Pagoda Tree), Magnolia grandiflora (Bari Champa), Michelia Champaka, (Swarna Champa), Mimusops elengi (Molsari) and Millingtonia hortensis (Akash Neem) are suitable.
Trees for the hills: Although most of the trees mentioned before are suitable, but some like Delonix regia, Ficus Benghalensis, Ficus infectora (Pilkhan), Mimusops elengi (Molsari) and Mechelia champaka are not very suitable. Some other trees are particularly suitable for hills only and are commonly grown in places like Mussoorie. Among them some are Junipererous communis, Malus (Crab Apple), Willow, Cedar, maple (Acer japonicum), Gingko Biloba, Camphor, Flowering Cherry, Spirea, Myrtus communis (Myrtle), Cypress and Rhododendron are very suitable and should be grown.
FRUIT TREES
Mango, Sapota, Jackfruit Syzygium (Jamun) and Guava are not suitable for the hills. Other like apple, Walnut, Almond, Pear, and apricot are not suitable for the plains. Most of the deciduous trees for the hills should be planted in winter months when dormant.