We talk a lot about the semantic load of gardens, their style, symbolism. And involuntarily appeal to those elements that become common symbols of a garden. For cypress we know Mediterranean garden, a Japanese – bonsai. In this series, sooner or later, the question arises: what can be called its plant symbol? I asked this question to many people, and even if not immediately,and after some thought, almost all called Apple.
And really, probably, there is no tree more close to a garden, and regardless of a historical era or estate to which the owner of this site belongs (it grew both in a garden of the peasant, and in a garden of the master). And most people who call this plant as a symbol of the garden do not mean just an Apple tree, but an old spreading tree with a gnarled trunk and branches hanging from the weight of apples to the ground.
This is really a very expressive tree, the beauty of which we have many underestimate, growing it solely as a source of fruit (with an abundance of which, by the way, then themselves and fight).
Botanical summary
Apple (lat. Mālus) is a genus of deciduous trees and shrubs of the Rose family (Rosaceae) with spherical sweet or sweet-sour fruits. It comes from the temperate zones of the Northern hemisphere.
The genus belongs to the tribe Maleae of the subfamily Spiraeoideae. It has 62 species (2013). The most common: domestic Apple, or cultural (Malus domestica), which includes most cultivated varieties in the world (whose number exceeds 10 thousand), plum Apple, Chinese (Malus prunifolia) and low Apple (Malus pumila).
Many species of Apple trees are grown as ornamental plants in gardens and parks, used in field-protective afforestation. All species are good honey plants. Wood from Apple dense, strong, easy to cut and well polished; suitable for turning and joinery, small crafts.
Apple trees are bred in most areas with a temperate climate. Among all fruit plants of moderate latitudes Apple belongs to the first place in the area of landings and yields. Many varieties of Apple trees yield a ton of fruit from one tree and above.
Commercial gardens are located in places where there are no extreme temperatures, soils are fertile and enough water for irrigation. The main world fruit producers are Germany, Italy, France, Spain, China, Japan, USA, Canada. About half of the apples sold are in the “Delicious” and “Golden Delicious” varieties, which are most common in the United States. Both of these varieties can grow in a wide range of conditions.
The beauty of old Apple
With age, the Apple tree acquires a very picturesque pattern of branches and an unusual curvature of the trunk. This is possible only with those plants that grow slowly and live long. The Apple tree is as follows. If it were a fast-growing species, we would eventually see anything from sky-high shoots to sheer weeping branches, but definitely not such a picturesque architectonics. And this form itself is worthy of the painter’s brush.
But in addition to it there is also a mad riot of spring flowering, and a generous abundance of fruits, the color of which, depending on the variety, can be very diverse. The Apple tree looks extremely beautiful and when winter throws a snow cover on its spreading umbrella-shaped crown.
In such adult plants interesting and bark. And if we can admire the spectacular form of the crown from the side, the bark is just what attracts us when we sit under the beloved parent Apple tree. We can even run our hands over it, remembering how smooth and gentle it was when we were children sitting in the same place. And the bark, especially covered with mosses and lichens, is the main evidence of age.
At the risk of incurring the wrath of fanatical fruit growers, talking and writing about the dangers of moss, lichen and generally exfoliating plates of the bark, but I can not do anything with myself. I can’t afford to put on a hard MITT and just like that negate what was created for decades…
We consider the Apple tree a symbol of the garden, but in fairness it should be noted that its stylistic plasticity is very, very large. And it is not only a garden in which it symbolizes, of course, Paradise on earth. It may well be and Sakura, around which a rocky garden, or, for example, a great background for English mixborders.
But of course, we are all closer to using this tree in its true incarnation. After all, most of us are so familiar and dear memories of the endured under the flowering or fruiting Apple table, and sometimes the samovar, and the subsequent many hours of family tea with talk about the past, dreams of the future. And in the garden its style is also quite plastic.
There are not so many plants that will be equally spectacular and the house with the columns, and the rickety log cabin. And with Apple trees precisely so. That is why it is suitable for the role of a family, ancestral tree for almost every family. To plant an Apple tree with the birth of a child is very cool. Probably, there is a certain sense in planting such a tree after the death of a loved one.
Most of us on the site grow Apple trees, and often quite old. And most often it is not one tree, and overgrown garden. It should be noted that the Apple orchard we perceive a little differently than single Apple trees: whole and almost without isolating individual trees. The garden is much more difficult to admire from the side. You always want to enter it and enjoy the presence in it. But a separate Apple tree-on the contrary. Hence, we must act only in accordance with these wishes.
The first part of this article is over, read the rest here: Old Apple Trees Through the Eyes of a Landscape Designer (Part 2).
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