Page 12 THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – Friday, July 24, 2020 Saugus gardens in the pandemic Here’s what’s blooming in town this week to make your walks more enjoyable By Laura Eisener A great place in town to see interesting trees, shrubs and perennials is Saugus Ironworks National Park on the banks of the Saugus River. Its plantings include native species reintroduced along the riverbank, an herb garden originally designed in the 1970s to showcase species important in the 17th century, ornamental trees and shrubs on the upper lawn and an intriguing mixture of trees, shrubs and vines along the nature walk in the lower section of the property. This year the grounds have been open so people can walk around and view outside features, walk on the nature trail and observe the birds on the river from the dock and the casting bridge, but this is the first week in 2020 that there have been rangers on the site. One of the trees most commented on is a woody plant known as European smoke tree. It is on the front lawn of the Appleton-Taylor-Mansfi eld House, just to the right of the front door as you enter the site. It is also known as smoke bush, because it usually starts out multi-stemmed rather than single-stemmed, and at a 20 foot mature height its size is right on the edge of where we distinguish trees from shrubs. I have also heard it called “The Fluff y Tree,” which describes it perfectly through the summer. It has fl uff y, beige infl orescences that look like smoke. The fl owers themselves are yellowish and tiny, blooming in June, but the hairy peduncles (fl ower stalks) remain all summer, and at this point in July have a few small, hard, beige fruits that each contain a single seed. Look closely, and each “puff ” of smoke has one or two tiny, fl at dots which are the seeds. Old names for this shrub include Venetian sumac, dyers’ sumac and young fustic, all referring to the yellow-orange dye made from its wood which was popular up until the mid-19th century when synthetic dyes became available. Smoke tree is in the same family, the cashew family (Anacardiaceae), as sumac, but most people will not have an adverse skin reaction to smoke tree as they might to poison sumac (Toxicodendron vernix). Smoke tree has distinctive blue green oval leaves, very diff erent than the compound leaves of sumac. A few years ago when I volunteered as a weeder in the Saugus Ironworks herb garden, I noticed a visiting family absolutely enthralled by “The Fluff y Tree” – they danced around it, took many pictures of themselves with it and eventually came and asked me if I knew what it was called. It was fun to see a whole family show such enthusiasm when they encounter an unfamiliar tree! I’m sure there were other things they liked about their visit, but there was no doubt that everyone in that family would remember “The Fluff y Tree” with delight for decades to come, and they told me they’d be checking out nurseries to buy one to plant in their own garden to remember their vacation. One of the features that makes the Ironworks plant somewhat unusual is that it is not the purple leafed variety (Cotinus coggygria, ‘Royal Purple’), which is widely available in nurseries and which has been planted in many gardens in Saugus. The purple leafed variety is very striking, the peduncles also a purplish color, so it is dramatic contrast to the green foliage of most garden shrubs and trees that may be growing around it. Also avail“THE FLUFFY TREE”: Smoke tree at Saugus Ironworks, when in bloom in June, has fluffy, beige inflorescences that look like smoke. (Courtesy photos to The Saugus Advocate by Laura Eisener) able is a variety with golden leaves from spring to fall (Cotinus coggygria, ‘Golden Spirit’) and pale pink to beige infl orescences in summer. A close relative, American smoke tree (Cotinus obovatus), is more diffi cult to fi nd in nurseries or gardens. It is very similar with larger oval leaves and similar “smoke” in summer. The Native American species has a nice orange-yellow fall foliage while the European smoke tree does not have spectacular fall color. European smoke trees are monoecious, which means male and female flowers occur on a single plant. American smoke tree is dioecious, which means male and female fl owers are on separate plants, so you usually need two diff erent plants for seeds to be produced. A beautiful orange perennial blooming in many Saugus gardens – including mine – this week is butterfl y weed (Asclepias tuberosa), which is sometimes known as pleurisy root. It can be found in several places at the Ironworks, including the slope leading down to the industrial buildings. It became popular recently because it attracts pollinators, especially butterfl ies, has an attractive fl ower and is better behaved BUTTERFLIES LOVE THIS: A beautiful orange perennial – called butterfl y weed – grows on the hillside at the Saugus Ironworks. It’s blooming in many Saugus gardens this week. in a garden than the common milkweed (Asclepias syriacus), which may be the best butterfl y plant. Butterfl y weed was 2017 Perennial Plant of the Year because of its many garden attributes, including resistance to deer and other pests. One of Robert Frost’s early poems, “The Tuft of Flowers,” tells of a clump of butterfl y weed spared from the mower’s blade one morning, which Frost and a butterfl y arrive to appreciate later in the day. I fi rst read this poem for a paper in Mr. Regan’s English class at Saugus High and it stuck with me. Monarch butterfl ies and several moth species lay their eggs on butterfly weed and the hatched caterpillars can live on the plant, but it is not the preferred larval food. It does not convey the level of protection from predators and disease that a diet of milkweed conveys with the cardenolides in its sap. If you break a stem, you will notice that butterfl y weed’s sap is clear, not milky like milkweed. Still, it provides ample nectar for many butterfl ies, including monarch, as well as for hummingbirds and other pollinators. Butterfl y weed fl owers are usually tangerine orange although some cultivated varieties, such as ‘Butterfl ies Mixed,’ may have reddish or yellowish fl owers, and ‘Hello Yello’ has bright yellow rather than orange fl owers. It can be expected to bloom for several weeks in July in sunny locations. Once the fl owers pass, it will develop follicles pointed at each end but somewhat narrower than those of common milkweed. These split to disperse seeds with fl uff y “silk” called comas attached that help them fl oat a distance from the parent plant. It makes a very good cut fl ower unlike milkweed species with a thicker sap, and it can be paired well in an arrangement with other fl owers and foliage. The slopes of the Ironworks also have many common milkweed plants, so this is one of the places in Saugus where monarch butterfl ies are most likely to be found. When I visited the Ironworks this week, I did see a monarch fl ying from one milkweed to another. Unlike butterfl y weed, the fl owers of milkweed are pale pinkish and arranged in a sphere, but if you look closely at individual blossoms you will see that they have a very similar shape to the butterfly weed fl owers. The milkweed is much taller and its leaves are a paler green, much larger and rounded at the ends unlike the narrow dark green foliage of butterfl y weed. Editor’s Note: Laura Eisener is a landscape design consultant who helps homeowners with landscape design and plant selection and placement of trees and shrubs, as well as perennials. She is a member of the Saugus Garden Club and off ered to write a series of articles about “what’s blooming in town, since so many people have taken to walking the streets in their neighborhoods as a way to get some exercise and get out of the house!” Town receives $360K CDBG-CV program grant to help businesses hurt by COVID-19 (Editor’s Note: The following info is from a press release issued this week by Town Manager Scott Crabtree’s Offi ce.) S augus Town Manager Scott C. Crabtree announced that the state Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) has awarded the Town of Saugus a grant of up to $360,000 through the Community Development Block Grant COVID-19 opportunity (CDBGCV) program to provide fi nancial assistance to local small businesses that are being negatively impacted as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This funding will provide the necessary resources for the Town to provide grants of up to $10,000 per business to qualifying microenterprises (a commercial enterprise that has fi ve or fewer employees in which one or more of whom owns the enterprise) adversely impacted by COVID-19. The Town Manager, Board of Selectmen and Town officials investigated and researched funding opportunities in order to provide microenterprise assistance to help address impacts due to these unprecedented times. Offi cials applied for aid and were awarded up to $360,000, made available through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act of 2020 (CARES Act) to DHCD by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) via amendment to the existing DHCD CDBG FY2019 One Year Action Plan. “I am extremely grateful that Governor Charlie Baker, Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito, and the Department of Housing and Community Development awarded the Town of Saugus this grant funding to support our community’s small businesses, many of which have been devastated during these diffi - cult times,” said Crabtree. “This fi - nancial assistance will provide us with the necessary resources to help some of our business community, which has always served as the Town’s partner. The Town is extremely grateful to the business community and the commercial taxpayers [along with the residents and the MSBA] for its substantial contribution in funding for the District-Wide Master Plan Solution which includes the new 6-12 Middle High School and renovations to the current Belmonte and Veterans Memorial Schools.” The CDBG-CV opportunity supports communities across the Commonwealth in their work to provide vital services to low-income residents and small businesses affected by COVID-19. The Town’s Offi ce of Planning and Economic Development, in conjunction with the Town Manager’s Office, will oversee the implementation of this grant and subsequent distribution of funds to eligible small businesses. Eligible small businesses that are interested in applying for assistance should contact the Offi ce of Planning and Economic Development at 781-231-4045. For more information, contact the Town Manager’s Office at 781-231-4111.
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