Nut Trees as Used in Landscaping

Dr. Lewis Edwin Theiss Muncy, Pennsylvania

I was asked to speak on the subject of "Planting Nut Trees for Those Who Have Space for Only a Few," but I am going to speak on using nut trees in landscaping. We should know what is meant by the term landscaping. It may mean planting blue spruce or junipers around the house in a pleasing way, or you may use plants. The object is to make a picture which gives a certain impression of our home. We can just as well use nut trees in such a way as to make a beautiful picture, so that when one looks out any window of his home he gets a beautiful picture or vista, or when one goes by and sees your home, he sees a beautiful picture.

We tend to follow too stereotyped ways of doing things. There is no reason why we should make a liability of our property. We can just as well have nuts to help make an asset.

Trees are very much like words. We have two words in the English language that express more than any others. They are "home" and "mother." We also have trees that connote much. Of course, it depends on what picture we wish our homes to convey. I want mine to have a cozy yet prosperous look. Now you ask, "How are you going to produce that look?" It is by the materials you use and how you use them. And you can use any you wish.

We might divide plants into two groups, cultivated plants and wild plants. In trees we have some fruit trees which are never worth a cent. Apple trees suggest home. If you are driving through the woods and come upon an apple tree, you immediately think, "Someone had a home here once." Of course, it might have grown from a chance seed but that is the thought you have at once. The apple tree connotes the thought of home.

I happen to be a fruit tree as well as a nut tree grower. The difference between them is that you have to spray the fruit trees.

Longfellow said, "Under the spreading chestnut tree the village smithy stands." That was probably very true as there were lots of chestnut trees at that time. So we have nut trees that give us this connotation of domesticity. They make us think of home.

We must also consider the foliage. A tree with fine foliage such as the walnut is preferable for the lawn. The walnut gives a fine shade but does not interfere with the growth of grass. The English walnut makes a dense shade, nothing grows under it. Hickory also gives a dense shade. All these things we have to consider when choosing trees to plant about our yards.

In my own grounds I have black walnut, Persian walnuts, pecans, filberts, hicans and some others. I feel we might as well have something around our places to help pay the taxes. We might as well get a little pleasure out of our property. Some of us have vegetable gardens. Nut trees can be an asset to your property in the same way if you will plant the proper kinds.

You all know the black walnut. It grows to be a large spreading tree but it needs good soil. Another nice tree is the Japanese walnut. This tree is quite beautiful. A sport of this tree is the heartnut. It also is a very beautiful tree and a rapid grower. I have a little group of these trees and I have never seen trees grow so fast. I have a Japanese walnut, a grafted heartnut, and a Japanese seedling. They look exactly alike but bear different kinds of nuts. I have one tree which is a seedling. It is eight years old, beginning on the ninth year and is 20 to 25 feet high. I have a heartnut which is a little bit older which I bought from Mr. Jones. That tree has suffered a lot at my hands. I dug it up twice and changed its position, cutting it back, and still it is growing fine and a big tree for ten years. It has a spread close to 40 feet and reaches to the house top. It certainly looks more than 10 years old. I think a tree like that is very useful planted by a house because of its rapid growth. The foliage is very lovely. I have measured some of the leaves and some are a yard long. Another tree I have growing near the house is a Potomac English walnut. It is a very vigorous tree, has a dense shade and a very good grower. A very lovely tree to have in the yard.

I have also, the Butterick, Busseron and Indiana pecans in the side yard. They bear quite well, particularly the Butterick but I like the Busseron better. I think they are going to be very large trees. I think they will be like the elms in New England. The foliage is not so large and coarse and is a little different from the black walnut. They have been very successful for us.

We do not know much about getting revenue from our trees as we use all our nuts in the family. A pound of nuts I raise myself is worth much more to me than a pound I would buy in the grocery store because of the fun I get in growing them.

I have chestnuts that have escaped the blight so far. They say the Japanese variety is very hardy and very resistant to blight. As to the nuts, I do not know much about them.

Another nut tree that we do not often think of is the beech tree. I have never seen a beech tree that had nuts on big enough to amount to anything.

We have heard a lot about filberts this morning. Filberts make beautiful hedges. I shouldn't advise anybody to grow a filbert hedge along the road or where it would be a temptation to people to steal. But where you wish to erect a screen to shut out an undesirable view, they make a very nice hedge. They are very pleasing as to foliage. We have a very nice crop of filberts this fall. If you have a little place that you want to screen in, why not do it with a hedge that is both beautiful and productive.

We also have a peach almond. That is worth growing just for its blossom. People go to Washington to see the Japanese cheery blossoms but they are no more beautiful than the Ridenhower almond when in bloom. The blossom is 2 inches in diameter. The hull dries and parts through the middle leaving the nut easy to get out. My farmer calls my tree "the dried peach tree." The fruit looks more like a peach seed than an almond. It is more difficult to crack than the usual almond but it certainly is interesting in the springtime. I hope in your landscaping you will make use of nut trees, and when you want a hedge you do not have to have a privet or a barberry one. You can make a hedge of roses or of filberts.

Dr. Deming: Will your pecans have a good crop? Are they well filled?

Dr. Theiss: Yes, they are well filled and have a very delicious flavor. In the market you could not offer them in competition with the paper-shell variety, but we are quite well pleased with them.

Dr. Deming: Isn't that rather a record for distance north?

Dr. Theiss: I do not know. Mr. Reed, how far north do pecans grow well?

Mr. Reed: I believe our best authorities are Dr. Deming and Dr. Theiss. I am surprised as we have some pecans in Washington with which we were discouraged, although they are now developing.

Dr. Theiss: I must say we have very satisfactory trees and lots of nuts.

Mr. Hershey: About six weeks ago I saw a tree which had been bearing for 40 years. It was at Schuylkill Haven near Pottsville, in the mountainous country where it gets very cold. An old man told me the tree was 60 years old. Imagine my utter amazement since we believed that the pecan would not bear that far north. I showed the old man some Busseron nuts and he stated that his were slightly smaller but very thin shelled. The seed of this tree came from the Wabash in Illinois. He had another tree there about 30 years old which has been bearing for quite a few years.

Prof. Neilson: Have you had any experience with Turkish hazels?

Dr. Theiss: No, I have Barcelona, Du Chilly, Red Aveline, White Aveline, and Jones-Rush hybrids.

Prof. Neilson: It appears that they are very ornamental and very symmetrical and hardy trees.

There is a possibility of using nuts in a new confection made of honey. There is a new method of drying honey perfected by Dr. Philips and Dr. Dyke, and when this is mixed with nuts it forms a really good confection. My wife has worked out several good recipes.

Mrs. Neilson: The new method of drying the honey allows it to be wrapped in wax paper without sticking to the paper. This is quite an advantage in marketing it.

Prof. Neilson: The Broadview Persian walnut is a very ornamental tree and can be grown by those who live very far north.