In the face of shifting weather patterns influenced by a changing climate, the garden can be a really confusing place these days. What stressors are coming next, and which plants will have the resilience required to stand up to whatever those prove to be?
With no group of plants is that more essential to think about—or trickier to figure out—than with trees. Because of their long lifespans, a tree planted today will be reaching maturity in what may be a whole different world. At Mt. Cuba Center in Delaware, the esteemed native plant research site, a new effort called the Resilient Tree Canopy Project is under way to begin to think about tree choices for the future. Mt. Cuba’s director of horticulture, George Coombs, is here to talk about that work.
George Coombs, who became director of horticulture at Mt. Cuba Center in December 2018, was before that the Manager of Horticultural Research, and oversaw studies in its famed Trial Garden area, where species and cultivars of native plants are tested for their performance side by side. He joins me today to talk about how the Mt. Cuba team is beginning to assess native tree species for their roles in the landscape of the future, and I’m glad to welcome him back to the show after too long an absence.
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