Ginkgo biloba

Keeping with the theme of great fall color, here is a picture of one of our Ginkgos. They just light up with their lemon color WHEN they color up. It is more of an iffy thing with them. They are late to color compared with some others, and at the first frost simply drop their leaves. If like this year the first frost is late, they have plenty of time to color up and are just gorgeous. Ginkgos are one of those fossil frees along with Metasequoia which were thought to be extinct until found in China not all that long ago. Despite its appearance, the ginkgo is a conifer and should be listed as such in catalogs, though it usually isn't since by appearance you'd never guess it. The only pest we have problems with in the ginkgos are voles. They are very selective about what they eat - hostas being one of their most favorites - and will bypass what would seem like yummy things to get just what they want. One year Hank leaned on a ginkgo and it just fell over. The voles had eaten every root off and it had nothing left under ground. We now use castor oil or other mole repellents around things they are likely to bother.