Well, bananas can’t really grow in Hudson, but the term “banana belt” is used for small areas that are surrounded by colder areas, such as the Eastern shore of Lake Michigan (thus allowing cherries to grow there among other things). So am I in a banana belt of not? Why do I really care? Well here is why.
One of my little hobbies is architecture, including in particular landscape architecture. For example, I designed this pool in the desert (albeit with some help), about 10 years ago.
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Anyway, back to the shining city on the hill. In Hudson, I designed this courtyard area, which in back has a long garage structure that I built, with a unit above it, in which Dan and I currently live.
The photo above shows the entrance to the unite above, with a door to the left that goes into the garage. To the right is a dirt space, in which I want to plant a tree that goes up about 15-20 feet, but stays very narrow with a columnar shape. I wanted a deciduous tree, with non invasive roots, that would survive in my climate zone. So off to google the internet, and I found this glorious specimen, that was invented and patented around 1990, and is very rare.
So another google search of nurseries. I finally found one, and only one nursery, in Oklahoma that had just one of this species in stock.
However, I was worried if it would survive in my climate zone, although I think I have a bit of fudge factor because it is in a very protected area, and the walkway has heated coils below to melt the snow (I have read too many stories about old man having heart attacks while shoveling snow).
So off to the USDA hardiness maps for plants. They developed a far more detailed and sophisticated map about 5 years ago, that ferrets out micro-climates. And lo and behold, I am about 1 block within the banana belt zone that takes in a part of Hudson that is close to the river. The red dot that I marked below on the zoom in map of the climate zones shows the planting location. (Just to the east and northeast of me, the elevation drops about 70 feet, and back into the colder zone –cold air likes to sit in narrow little valleys). The tree is rated as being able to survive the green zone (0 degrees to -10 degrees F), but not the blue zone (-10 degrees to -20 degrees F).
So, I ordered the tree. When planted I will add another pic to this post showing its installation, and then in a year of two, if still alive, I will update this post again, with a pic of how it is progressing, or not, if it dies on me, heaven forbid. Wish me luck. I really want this beautiful specimen to greet me every time I go through my front door! Japanese maples are my favorite species by far. I use them a lot in my landscaping projects.
