Two plant comments I recall vividly from two different instructors during my time earning my MS in Landscape Design at Columbia University:
1. Choose plants that have at least two seasons of interests.
2. Evergreens are boring.
Well then. Enter the Larch. Or if you prefer, the Tamarack. To avoid confusion, the Latin for this deciduous conifer is Larix laricina.
It is native to North America from the Arctic Circle in Alaska and Canada south to northern Pennsylvania. Abhores the heat, despises shade and pollution and flourishes in moist, acidic soils. Essentially, this tree thrives in pure, cold, wet mountain climates which makes it somewhat magical and elusive. Here in the Catskills, I've only ever seen them above certain elevations - west of the village of Hunter sidling up the north sides of the mountains, and along 28 outside Fleischmann's again, mostly up the north side steep hills.
The bright blue green leaves (needles) emerge in spring, turning a rather showy and rich yellow-gold-orange color in late fall usually the end of October into early November. By this time in higher elevations, the vast majority of deciduous trees are bereft of their autumn leaves, save for a straggling oak or stubborn poplar or white birch so the larch's fall foliage display is startling to behold.
Often, sick coniferous evergreen foliage will turn from green to yellow to then the deadly brown and before I was schooled in plants, I'd seen whole stands of larches in fall and thought - how sad, an entire colony is dying. Somehow, I became acquainted with the larch and realized that it was a cool conifer. It lost it's leaves. A deciduous conifer. Most conifers are evergreen and most folks think evergreens are pine trees - never mind that juniper, spruce, fir and a host of other coniferous evergreens exist.
Personally, I adore evergreens - for the fact that they are just that ever green. In summer they add much needed structure and support to blowsy perennial gardens and in winter, they shine, the only green things (besides ferns and moss) in the brown and gray winter landscape. But, for those gardening types who harbor disdain for evergreens - then why not the larch? It looks like a 'pine tree' yet offers two seasons of interest. Actually - three. The slender trunk and open horizontal branching with drooping branchlets look fabulous with a cover of snow in winter. Spring and summer find the tree all greened up in soft (no pricklies here) blue green foliage and in fall, oh the autumn blaze of glorious gold.
So there. Larch trees are hardly from Zone 1 to Zone 4 or 5. Their growth rate is slow to medium and will reach heights of 40 to 80 feet tall by 15 to 30' wide. Culture is moist, acidic soils, preferably in cool, clear unpolluted mountain air. And full sun. If you have a spot like that, consider the larch. Or, if you prefer the tamarack.
