Noah's Ark

Why do I have pairs of trees or doubles of shrubs in my garden? Not groups of three, not single specimens, but two of a kind. Most of the big woody plants here have been planted in twos, sometimes side by side, sometimes in two different areas of the yard.

It started with the big red maples planted the year after we moved in. Two of them.

A couple years later I planted a sweetbay magnolia, then another one. Now there are two, not yet the same size, bracketing the corner of the house.

There are two black gums in front of the house. I do have more tupelos out back in the meadow and by the bridge, but the front yard has a symmetrical pair of them framing the house.

I planted two blackhaw viburnums and trained each one into a tree form. One is under the bathroom window, the other is in the Blueberry Garden in back.

There are two Austrian pines, buddies next to each other along the back perimeter of the yard.

Two flat round Birds Nest spruces flank either side of the entrance to the front walk, threatening to grow out and across the walk to join ranks.

Two red carpet roses were planted side by side below the bedroom window, then moved. They moved together and are side by side in the driveway garden now. They blended together to look like one shrub, but there are two.

I planted two doublefile viburnums, although to be exact, one is 'Shasta' and the other is 'Mariesii'.

I have two Corneliancherry dogwoods, one by the driveway, the other by the Birch Garden.

There are two mounded dwarf white pines anchoring the center of the Birch Garden.

I have two dwarf Blue spruces, one at the top of the driveway, and one in the garden in back.

Two identical plants can make a formal statement, framing an entrance as the Birds Nest spruces do by the walk, or as the tupelos in the front yard do. But for the informal look of my yard everywhere else, why do I have so many pairs of large woody plants?

It's not like the trees and shrubs I chose need a male and a separate female (some types of woody plants do, but not the ones I have.) And it's not like I have a deliberate design repetition going. . .  I just have random pairs.

It's like Noah's Ark here; plants came into my garden two by two.