May 06, 2022| Community, Environment, LHF Environmental & Cultural Center
By: Marty Kane
Why not celebrate National Public Gardens Week or "Go Public Gardens Days," May 6-15, by visiting the gardens at the Lake Hopatcong Foundation's Environmental & Cultural Center, 125 Landing Road, Landing. Our gardens are open to the public and include more than 50 varieties of native perennials along with some interesting native trees.
Thanks to a partnership with The American Chestnut Foundation, our gardens include five American Chestnut trees. The Chestnut was one of the most important trees in the eastern United States before it was devastated by a blight (fungal disease) in the early 20th century. Chestnuts were very prevalent and popular here at Lake Hopatcong (as witnessed by the area of the lake known as Chestnut Point). The Lake Hopatcong Foundation applied for and after a vetting process was approved to receive five seedlings in 2016. As a native species, the American chestnut is well prepared for the local climate. The trees now range in height from 8' to over 15’. Last year, one of the five trees produced our first chestnuts – an event, which will hopefully become an annual tradition in our gardens!
Also in our gardens are two Pawpaw trees. This is a fascinating native tree, which produces sweet-tasting fruit with large seeds that are easily removed. The fruit is described as a cross between banana, mango, and pineapple. It is deer resistant and is the only member of a tropical plant family native to New Jersey. Native Americans and early settlers widely ate the fresh fruit, used it in cakes and sauces, and dried it for winter use. Because the fruit must be eaten within days of harvest and is susceptible to bruising, the Pawpaw is not commercially grown. We hope to be able to sample Pawpaw fruit from our garden within the next couple of years.
Finally, two years ago, we added the American Plum tree to our gardens. This native small tree is not widely grown but produces aromatic clusters of white flowers in early spring, followed by edible red plums with yellow pulp which ripen in August or September. The fruits are only about one inch in diameter but are edible and while the skin is thick and tart the inside of the fruit is supposedly very sweet. Our trees had their first flowers this year and hopefully, we will see fruit in the near future. We understand that deer love the fruit so it could be interesting.
We hope you will stop by to enjoy our gardens and check out our selection of native trees!
