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Country Lifehome garden Trees give yards fresh looks as seasons change — Steve Levey faced a challenge: How could he bring light to his clients' dark, cramped first-floor sit- ting room? AKRON, Ohio (MCT) Levey's solution, however, was anything but. It's a common problem. The Akron, Ohio, artist and interior designer bright- ened the room by installing a partial glass floor in the home office directly above, adjacent to a new window in that same upstairs room. The floor serves as a sort of internal skylight, flooding the sitting room below with sunlight and giving its occu- pants a glimpse of sky through the window. It's also a sleek architec- tural accent that gives the home office the artsy, con- temporary edge the home- owners prize. MCT photo Kintoki, or Japanese Cornel Dogwood, produces tight yellow flowers, not the traditional white dog- wood blooms (MCT) — Each year, the Pennsylvania Horti- cultural Society, which sponsors the famed Philadelphia Flower Show, chooses a few out- standing woody plants for their vigor and multi-sea- son beauty. Evergreens are good "bones" for your yard, adding structure and a touch of greenery throughout the year, but plants like these four give your landscape something different to look forward to as the months flip on the calendar. The 2012 Gold Medal winners are: Rising Sun Redbud. This medium-sized tree, a member of the Cercis canadensis family, is a spinoff of the native east- ern redbud. Small, rosy, orchid-like flowers appear on bare branches in early spring, bringing visits from the first bees and butterflies of the season. The bark is smooth tan with a yellowish cast. Emerging heart-shaped foliage is tangerine to apricot. It's cold hardy in zones 5-8, and tolerates city-style pollution. The tree grows 10-20 feet tall and almost as wide, and likes to grow under taller trees like it does naturally in the woods. Forest Pansy with heart-shaped burgundy foliage is anoth- er popular spin off of the native redbud. tinge in winter, adding more interest to your sea- sonal gardens. Portugal laurel is slower growing than cherry laurel, but more tolerant of heat, sun, wind and drought, accord- ing to extension experts. It's cold hardy zones 7-9, making it more suitable for temperate climates. Darts Duke Viburnum. This semi-evergreen grows 8-10 feet tall and wide, and produces mass- es of 6-10 inch creamy- white flowers in May; bright red fruit changes to black in the fall season. It tolerates full sun or heavy shade, and is a nice alter- native to dogwoods that may not do well in your yard. It sometimes reblooms in October. It's cold hardy zones 5-9. You'll find these plants at independent garden centers nationwide and mail-order specialty plant sites like Fairweather Gardens at www.fair- weathergardens.com and Forest Farm at www.forestfarm.com. Learn more about the non-profit Pennsylvania Horticultural Society at www.pennsylvaniahorti- culturalsociety.org Kintoki, or Japanese Cornel Dogwood. This dogwood, a member of the Cornus officinalis family, is a bit different from the native species because it tolerates full sun, as well as partial shade, and produces yel- low flowers, not the tradi- tional white blooms, March-April. Reddish- purple, large, cherry-like edible berries form around September. It also sports bicolored flaking bark in shades of brown and orange. It grows 10- 15 feet tall and wide, making it ideal for small yards. The small tree is cold hardy in zones 5-8. Portuguese Cherry Laurel. The evergreen large shrub or small tree grows 10-20 feet tall, but can reach 50 feet tall in the wild. The cherry tree produces 5-10 inch white flowers in late May, fol- lowed by small purple-red cherries that ripen to shiny black by fall (beware, the leaves and berries are toxic). The bright green foliage on red stems take on a bluish Kathy Van Mullekom is gardening columnist for the Daily Press, Newport News, Va.; e-mail her at kvanmullekom@aol.com; follow her at roomandyard.com/diggin, Facebook.com/kathyvanm ullek om, Pinterest.com/digginin and Twitter.com/diggindirt. & Structural glass brings possibilities to light to add strength. Even if the top ply were to break, the bonding material would prevent the whole panel from shattering, Marinos said. That eliminates the danger of someone falling through. It's possible for structural glass to break, Marinos said, perhaps because something hits the glass or because of incorrect installation, improperly engineered sup- ports or contamination in the glass. Still, it's unusual. He said he's seen steel beams being hurled against structural glass and bounc- ing off. The floor is an example of the use of structural glass, glass that is specially manu- factured to serve as a struc- tural element in a building. Usually it's used in com- mercial settings, but it sometimes shows up in high-end homes in such forms as glass walls, canopies, floors, stair land- ings and stair treads, said Manuel Marinos, president and chief executive officer of Innovative Structural Glass in Three Rivers, Calif. Even in more mainstream homes, frameless shower enclosures made of structur- al glass panels have become common. new material, although it's being used in new ways. It was developed in the early 1900s and was often made in colored, opaque form to cover buildings' exterior walls and give them the sig- nature streamlining of the Art Deco and Art Moderne styles. Structural glass isn't a One of the earlier types of structural glass was Vit- rolite, which still clads countless bathroom walls and fireplace surrounds in some older homes. MCT photo Interior designer Steve Levey stands on the struc- tural glass floor he used in a west Akron residence. fragile substance for a floor, but this glass is specially engineered for strength. Structural glass is thicker than annealed glass, the kind that's used in typical house windows, Marinos said. It's also processed dif- ferently, although the pro- cessing varies according to how the glass is to be used. Structural glass is engi- neered specifically for each application, he explained. The forces to which the glass could be exposed are considered, be it hurricane winds, the impact of a bullet or just the pounding of high heels. Then both the make- up of the glass and the processes for manufactur- ing it are designed to allow the glass to withstand those forces, he said. floor, the glass is tempered, meaning it's heated to a near molten state and then cooled rapidly with air. That causes the internal part of the glass to try to push itself out toward the outer layer, creating a tension that strengthens the glass, Mari- nos said. In the case of a glass Besides being strong, it's beautiful. A wall of glass can provide a view of the outdoors that's uninterrupt- ed by metal or wood frames, Marinos noted. He said it's also possible to cre- ate curves and other inter- esting shapes, or to dress up structural glass with images that are sandblasted into the glass or either silk-screened or printed on. Saturday, May 12, 2012 – Daily News 3B The kind of elegance comes at a price. "It is expensive, no ques- tion about it," Marinos said. Nevertheless, he said even a fairly small piece of glass can have a big aesthetic impact. Glass floors are also laminated, created from lay- ers of glass with a bonding material between the layers His company, for exam- ple, created a 4-by-4-foot floor panel for the com- bined kitchen and dining area of a home in Califor- nia, providing a view of the river that flows underneath that part of the house. The panel was about $300, he said. For Levey, though, the best part of using glass for his clients' floor was the novelty. The 3-by-7 1/2-foot floor panel Levey installed is about an inch thick and rests in an aluminum frame set into the room's white oak floor. Getting the panel to sit flush with the wood floor was no small feat, consider- ing the house dates to the 1940s and its floors weren't level, said Levey, who runs Steve Levey Interiors. The glass floor is strong enough to walk on, although the clients' dogs won't cross it and their guests sometimes hesitate to step on it, Levey said. "Wearing a skirt is the only drawback," he said with a laugh. Glass may seem like a Tehama County DAILYNEWS Farm Bureau and RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Candidates Forum co-sponsoring the The Races Invited: US Representative District 1 Assembly District 3 Superior Court Judge 1 Superior Court Judge 2 Supervisor 1st District Supervisor 2nd District Supervisor 5th District May 23 ★ 6:30 pm Red Bluff Veteran's Hall Why - So that the voters of Tehama County will be educated and better able to make their voting choices.