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November 29, 2008
Living Souvenirs of Our Frontier Past
Master Gardener Column 11/29/08
The scenery of southeastern Arizona is a roller coaster ride for the eye. Rolling plains climb into sky-high peaks which then, just as suddenly, drop down to the next expansive plain. This cavalcade repeats itself over and over, south into Mexico, and east across New Mexico all the way to Texas. Called "sky islands," these sudden, green mountains pimple the plains eastward all the way to Big Bend National Park in southwest Texas.
The roll and fall of the country is distinctive and so are its plants, and it was this combination that enticed me to drive down there last February. As a gardener used to planting in the limestone soils of the Grand Canyon watershed, I decided to cast about the Southwest's other high altitude locales for plants that can tolerate Williams' local conditions. I gambled that, because the Southwest's sky islands contain innumerable limestone peaks and mesas at or above the 6000 foot level, there's got to be a tree or two that gardeners in the Northland could put to use down there.
The gamble paid off. I discovered that an array of hardy oaks rule the roost in our sky islands' boulder-fields and gorges. The region starting at the western side of Texas' Trans-Pecos Range and extending through New Mexico's southern mountains all the way to Arizona's eastern ranges, is the home of tens of species of high elevation oaks not seen on local plant palletes. All are accustomed to monsoon rains, occasional arctic cold, dry, windy springs, and limestone soils.
Suffering from a fit of inspiration, I brought a large sampling of the region's oaks home with me. I purchased a dozen West Texas Chinquapin oaks, a Valley oak from Southern New Mexico, a Canby Oak and a Mexican White oak - both from northern Mexico, an evergreen Net-leaf oak from Carr Peak, Arizona, a Silver Leafed Oak, and a Chisos Red Oak and a Vasey Oak - both from Big Bend National Park's high elevations. Taking a risk I added a couple of red oaks not known for acclimating to alkaline soils, a Texas Red oak and a Buckley oak. I packed the dormant seedlings carefully for the icy ride north to Williams and got busy planting them into the warming ground as soon as I got home.
Eight months later, my souvenirs from the southwest's badlands have made a good start. Kept safe within layers of wire, insulated by a cool, deep mulch and irrigated weekly, all the oaks have taken to their holes and put on a lot of top-growth. The Chisos Red Oak grew over three feet. The Valley Oak has pushed-out several foot long branches. Some of the Chinquapins have made 18-inch shoots. And, after a short battle with chlorosis, the Buckley Oak greened-up and leapt 10-inches.
Winter has finally arrived and a thick frost coats everything this morning. The next three months of cold and ice will test the new oaks' mettle. Signs are good so far, as all the oaks stopped growing back in late September, well in time to harden-up new wood for the hard winter ahead.
Williams' scenery may never feature in a classic Western like 3:10 To Yuma, and Ben Wade's gang isn't going to be holding up the Grand Canyon Railroad anytime soon. But now, in one spot above Cataract Canyon, you can crouch behind sprouting oaks and imagine that you are sitting among the peaks and rocks and towns of southern Arizona's frontier lore.
Credit for this experimental planting goes to Michael Melendrez of Trees That Please (www.treesthatplease.us), a tree grower and oak enthusiast in Los Lunas, NM, and also to Gary Foss of Oaks of the Wild West (www.oaksofthewildwest.com), a nurseryman near Paliminos, AZ, who grows and sells Southwest oak seedlings.
Steve Shields is a Master Gardener Volunteer. Dana Prom Smith, a Master Gardener volunteer and coordinating editor of the Master Gardener Column for Coconino County Cooperative Extension, can be contacted at stpauls@npgcable.com. For more information about the Master Gardener Program, call Hattie Braun, Coordinator of the Master Gardener Program, at 774-1868 ext.17 or visit our Web Site: highelevationgardening.arizona.edu.)
Posted by maxmaddy at November 29, 2008 6:10 AM