The Boothbay Region Garden Club was privileged to welcome Penny O’Sullivan, author, designer, and woody plant lover to speak at the general membership meeting held May 11 at St. Columba's Episcopal Church.

O'Sullivan has authored 13 garden related books, more than a dozen periodicals on all aspects of gardening, and is the current editor of Coastal Home, a regional home, garden and lifestyle magazine based in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. She also writes and edits for several nationally known garden magazines and keeps up a prolific schedule of speaking engagements at garden clubs, flower shows and academic institutions throughout the Northeastern region of the U.S. She has addressed the Garden Writers Association in faraway Portland, Oregon and participated in the Horticultural Industry Expo and Pesticide Conference in Dover, Delaware and now she has shared some of her knowledge and experience with those lucky enough to have attended last week's Garden Club meeting in Boothbay Harbor.

The focus of her presentation was the "four season landscape" where trees and shrubs can offer interest to year round gardens, something of great appeal to those of us who endure the long, cold, monochromatic-like winters of Maine. In her book "The Homeowner’s Complete Tree & Shrub Handbook," O'Sullivan maintains that "woody plants can be the heart and soul of the home landscape plan. Their contribution to the yard might include a springtime canopy of blossoms; colourful, delicious summer fruit; a regal year-round silhouette; rough and rugged bark; or seasonally changing foliage. Their presence is a soothing anchor in the ever-changing environment of a typical yard."

O'Sullivan's talk included a PowerPoint presentation as well as an in-depth handout on trees and shrubs that can beautify our gardens all year long by careful and appropriate selection. She offered the following garden points to be considered in our choices:

Balance – Use strong and interesting shapes to beautify your garden in any season. Examples are beech trees, wild and black cherry trees and boxwood and junipers.

Color Extension – Use plants that flower all season. Hydrangeas, forsythia (both spring color and green in summer), mountain ash and Oxydendron Arboreum (sourwood tree). 

Decorative Bark – Dogwoods, shagbark, paper birch, and Stewartia. Fruit trees can add color to your garden landscape as the year progresses.

Combine low growing flowering plants for summer with your trees to allow the eye to move upward to see the color of the trees as they change in the fall.

If the above shortlist of tips has whetted your appetite for more, check out O'Sullivan's comprehensive titles to grow and enhance the appeal of your four season garden!

"The Homeowner’s Complete Tree & Shrub Handbook: The Essential Guide to Choosing, Planting, and Maintaining Perfect Landscape Plants" (Storey Publishing, 2007) and "The Pruning Answer Book: Solutions to Every Problem You’ll Ever Face; Answers to Every Question You’ll Ever Ask" (Storey, 2011).