Don't talk to your plants - listen to them - rain, wind and foliage

Sunset, March, 1995 by Steven R. Lorton

Listen carefully. There's music in your garden. The percussion and woodwind instruments are needles, stems, leaves, and branches that patter and tap. whistle and rustle. The musicians that play these instruments are wind and rain, as well as the occasional passing human or pet.

This is a good time to discover plant music, with drippy and blustery weather outside and human noises driven inside, reducing competition with the natural symphony. Winter's cool, moist weather is also conducive to adding sonorous plants to your garden; put dormant plants in the ground now and they'll be ready to grow in spring.

WHISTLES AND RUSTLES

The expression "whistling pines" evolved honestly. With long needles and an open branching pattern, pines make a pleasant whoosh when wind blows through them. In the Northwest, the great native whistlers are white pine (Pinus monticola) and ponderosa pine (P, ponderosa). These are big trees, though. For garden-scale musical pines, try Tanyosho pine (P. densiflora 'Umbraculifera') or Austrian black pine (P. nigra). Less melodious because of shorter needles, but still quite tuneful, are shore or beach pine (P. contorta) and mugho pine (P. mugo).

The best rattlers have leathery leaves set on generous stems. Two eucalyptus (E. gunnii and E. niphophila) that thrive in the Northwest rattle beautifully, as do members of the genus Populus: aspens, cottonwoods, and poplars.

As for rustling, the bamboos are a one-instrument symphony. And big grasses, such as Miscanthus sinensis, play well, too. Grasses are especially effective in winter when they are dry and have been left standing. Cut them back in early spring just before new growth emerges at the base.

For maximum resonance, be sure to place plants where they'll be exposed to the wind, unsheltered by your house or other structures. You can play conductor by putting plants of different heights in the wind path.

PATTERS AND PLOPS

It's a wonderful, restful sound," says Seattle gardener Homer Harris, who used a roofing nail to put a few holes in a rain gutter so that water would drip onto the leaves of his Fatsia Japonica. Big, firm leaves make the best drums for rain. In addition to fatsia, large-leafed ivies like Hedera canariensis, H. colchica, and H. helix make excellent water music, as do the large leaves of Acanthus mollis and hostas like H. sieboldiana. Leaves to be dripped on fare better under low overhangs; if raindrops fall too far, they can riddle the leaves.

TAP, TAP, TAP ...

A stiff twig on a deciduous tree, judiciously pruned to tap against a window in the wind, will make its presence satisfyingly known all winter. Vine and Japanese maples are excellent tappers. Dogwoods (especially Cornus kousa and C. florida), as well as the deciduous magnolias, are also good choices.