Green & Grounds

What's New?

 

  I'm sure most everyone has seen the new plantings of arborvitae's along Dulaney valley road, these trees were generously donated to the club by two members Mr. Rick Watson and Mr. Scott Michel. Rick and Scott had the vision, purchased the material, and implemented the plan, and with the use of there crews from Beechtree landscaping and The Perennial farm planted 225 green giant arborvitae's. These deer resistant trees will grow at a rate of 1 - 2 feet per year and will mature at around 35 feet to provide a solid screen from the heavily traveled Dulaney valley road. When you see Rick and Scott around the club give them a big thanks for their generous donation to help improve the overall appearance and functionality of the club.

While on the subject of trees, some golden eagles provided us with some interesting information on the Dawn Redwood trees that are so prominent on the course. The Dawn Redwood is one of three species of redwood, the Coastal California Redwood, and the Giant Sequoia being the other two, only the Dawn Redwood is deciduous. These Redwood trees were thought to be extinct for over 1.5 million years until a living tree was found in the vast wilderness of a Chinese province in 1941 by forester T. Kan. In 1948 the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University sent an expedition to gather seeds from these Dawn Redwoods and soon after seedling trees were sent to universities and arboreta around the world for growth trials. The Dawn Redwood has proven relatively easy to propagate and grow in moist temerate climates and has the ability to grow to 200 feet although none of the original seeds collected have grown that tall yet. The Dawn Redwoods on our course were planted in 1970 when Mr. James Watson had gotten an entire truck load of this "new" tree. If the trees planted in 1970 were 5 years old that means they were started only 17 years after the original expidition to China to gather seeds which means the trees on the course are quite possilbly very close decendents of those seeds gathered in china. Thank you to Mr. Jack Huppler for the information on the trees.



Sincerely,
Douglas J. Hall
Golf Course Superintendent
Towson Golf and Country Club