The Golden Gingko

The Golden Gingko

Photos by Donna Strama

“The Ginkgo plantation at Blandy is spectacular - just the place to enjoy the brilliant fall color of the leaves and take a guess at when they will fall. Ginkgo leaves drop with eerie sychronicity leaving a dense carpet of hundreds of thousands of spectacular ‘brimstone yellow’ leaves.” –Sir Peter Crane, president Oak Spring Garden Foundation.

At Blandy Experimental Farm, part of the State Arboretum of Virginia just west of Upperville on Route 50, the Ginkgo Grove undergoes a magical transformation each fall. The leaves transition from green to gold. Country ZEST photographer Donna Strama got there just in time. Here’s what the Ginkgo Grove looked like in late October.

The book, Ginkgo: The Tree That Time Forgot was written by Sir Peter Crane, president of the Oak Spring Garden Foundation in Upperville. He is an expert on the history of the Ginkgo biloba. “Ginkgo, with its distinctive leaves and 200 million year evolutionary history, is one of the most easily recognized of all our trees, and also one of the most fascinating. It is as unique among trees as the platypus is unique among mammals.”