{"id":1302,"date":"2006-10-15T00:21:00","date_gmt":"2006-10-15T00:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/?p=1302"},"modified":"2014-10-01T03:39:06","modified_gmt":"2014-10-01T03:39:06","slug":"do-i-want-a-ninebark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/?p=1302","title":{"rendered":"Do I want a ninebark?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/10\/PA140117.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><span style=\"font-size:85%;\">We&#8217;ve been looking for a small tree or shrub to replace this old bridalwreath spirea for a few years now. I almost hate to yank it out because it&#8217;s been there forever and the mockingbirds sometimes like to nest in it. The center of the shrub is woody and it hardly blooms anymore, so today I went to the nursery around the corner hoping for a bargain. The nursery stock was all 25% off, but I didn&#8217;t find anything that grabbed me.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:85%;\">I asked one of the owner&#8217;s sons if he might recommend something; he&#8217;s<a href=\"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/10\/PA140112.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 168px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 248px\" height=\"278\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/10\/PA140112-225x300.jpg\" width=\"198\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a> always made good suggestions in the past so I trust his ideas. He suggested I consider this Common Ninebark (<em>Physocarpus opulifolius<\/em>) pictured at right. I liked the reddish purple foliage and the pinkish white late spring flowers sounded nice. I wasn&#8217;t sold on it though, so instead took a few pics to show my husband.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"font-size:85%;\"><\/span><br \/><span style=\"font-size:85%;\">I checked my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Manual-Woody-Landscape-Plants-Characteristics\/dp\/0875637957\/sr=8-1\/qid=1160871518\/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1\/002-6401828-7975259?ie=UTF8\">Manual of Woody Landcape Plants by Michael Dirr<\/a> to see what he has to say about the Ninebark. From the section on landscape value: &#8220;<em>Quite coarse and therefore difficult to use in the small home landscape; limited in usefulness because of rather meager ornamental assets; bark on older stems exfoliates into papery strips exposing a rich brow<a href=\"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/10\/PA140113.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/10\/PA140113-225x300.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>n inner bark; unfortunately, this character is masked by the foliage and dense tangle of stems.<\/em>&#8221; Also, &#8220;<em>The Minnesota Landscape Aboretum has a large collection of ninebarks and after looking over the entire group, I still came away with the opinion that about anything is better than a Ninebark.<\/em>&#8220;<\/span><br \/><span style=\"font-size:85%;\"><\/span><br \/><span style=\"font-size:85%;\">Well&#8230; I guess that answers my question!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:85%;\">Do you have a favorite shrub or smallish tree? Can you suggest something that might be nice as a specimen for full sun in the middle of our back yard? I&#8217;d prefer something that blooms and has berries that the birds might find tasty. My husband is inclined to plant a pine, but I want something a bit more showy in such a prominent spot.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We&#8217;ve been looking for a small tree or shrub to replace this old bridalwreath spirea for a few years now. I almost hate to yank it out because it&#8217;s been there forever and the mockingbirds sometimes like to nest in it. The center of the shrub is woody and it hardly blooms anymore, so today &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/?p=1302\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Do I want a ninebark?<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1302"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1302\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}