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Showing posts with the label conifer trees

3rd Baby Blue Spruce - Planted in Back - October 2023

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 What's better than two Baby Blue Spruce trees?  If you answered "Three Baby Blue Spruce Trees", you'd be correct.  This time, I've added the small (container-grown) dwarf conifer to the bed near the kitchen window in back.  You can see it in the photo below.  This goes towards my #1 item on my 2023 list - evergreens. But, it also checks some of the box on #18 - dealing with the 'kitchen window curved bed' as this is planted in front of the Weeping White Spruce and to the west of the Espalier'd Greenspire Lindens. As for keeping score on a few fronts, let's first start with the Fall Planting Tally.

Montrose Charm White Spruce Planted - IB2DWs - October 2023

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Upright evergreen tree. Those are magic words to me. When I came across a new (to me) conifer tree named Montrose Charm, I pulled out my phone and dug around.  Trying to figure out if this would work in my new conifer garden IB2DWs extended. After some hemming-and-hawing, I brought it home and planted it along the back border, sort of next-to the Ginkgo tree that is up there .  Here it is post-planting. The Montrose Charm is a "Christmas Tree Form", but gets tall and skinny - with time.  From Dutchman Tree Farms - they expect the tree to get six feet wide at maturity and have this to say :  This tall narrow columnar tree has needles that are light green and very short. The White Spruce ‘Montrose Charm’, once established, is cold hardy and drought resistant. This columnar tree is perfect for landscaping, borders, small spaces, and erosion control. I've said it before, but I love that narrow, columnar tree form.  Here's a look at a mature version of the Montrose Charm

Weeping Nootka Cypress Tree Update - September 2023

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The biggest, most-interesting, focal-point conifer in our backyard is a small Weeping Nootka Cypress tree that I planted in late May of 2021 in one of the big, swooping curves along the north side of the beds about 2/3rds of the way back.   It has now been 28 months (May 2021 --> September 2023) since this was planted and although I was quite concerned about this thing surviving, I can report that the tree has not only survived, but has been putting on a small amount of growth.  Below is a photo showing the current shape and size of this focal-point evergreen tree: It isn't super easy to tell, but when I compare the photos over the years, I can see that it has put on height from the leader (apical meristem) and all of the limbs have extended with new, pendulous growth.  The 'skirt' from the lowest limbs has grown, too.  But, I haven't touched this with a pruner since it went in and I think that's the right move.  My plan is to keep watering this in until the fir

Canadian Hemlock Trees - 4 Years Old - July 2022

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Back in 2019, I planted six tiny Candian Hemlock trees in a couple of spots of our yard.  When I say 'tiny', I mean 'tiny'.  These were less than a foot tall at the time.  Here's the first three - that went into the far back corner of our yard.  And here's the second three that went into the north side border - in the shade.  That (the shade part) is the point of these.  They are evergreens that *work* in shade.   Over time, we lost half of these.  The (dang) rabbits destroyed them during the winter .  I didn't notice until the following Spring, so after that, I've decided to protect them with chicken wire .   We have three remaining.  Two along the north border.  One in the far back.   It has been a while since I clock'd these into the garden diary/tree diary, so I thought I'd document their current state.  Are they big?  No.  But, the two on the north side are doing well.  These are the two that didn't get gnawed at by rabbits.   Here, be

Update on Pinus Parviflora 'Glauca Nana' - Japanese White Pine - Zone 5 - June 2022

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Earlier this Spring, I received a few comments on a post from last year where I talked about after some hemming-and-hawing, I brought home and planted a special tree: a Japanese White Pine - Pinus Parviflora 'Glauca Nana' .  Below are a couple of them - that are similar:   "I saw this tree and I'm intrigued.  How is your's doing?" I replied back in the comments with my thoughts (more on that below), but I thought this might deserve a full post.  First....about the tree.  It has a siren call.  You can't NOT notice it amongst the pallets upon pallets of Arborvitae and Boxwoods.  And, I have to admit...I saw the exact same thing that the two commentors had - at the Big Box Orange nursery this Spring.  Here's the beauty that was calling me to bring it home from back in May: So, I won't waste time.  My tree didn't make it.  My Japanese White Pine - Glauca Nana - went brown in Winter and got worse as time went on.  When Spring came, it was crispy, ha

Six Green Giant Thujas Planted - April 2022

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The season has begun.  With planting.  And, we're off to a strong start with six new trees going in:  Green Giant Thujas - Thuja standishii plicata.  Are these really trees?  According to the tag, they're categorized as trees, not shrubs (see the bottom photo for the tag), so I'm counting these as trees.  I put in three on the northside, three on the southside - all in the back. Here are the three on the southside: And, here (below) are the three on the northside.  I also transplanted the four lilacs over here, so you can see those in the photo below.  More on that in a separate post. Thuja standishii plicata - Arborvitae Green Giant. These are the first trees of the season with the last ones planted last Fall being the three London Planetrees that I intend to try to pleach . I haven't done a full accounting of what survived/didn't survive just yet, so I'm counting these as the: 69th, 70th, 71st, 72nd, 73rd and 74th trees that we've planted across six growin

Spring Nursery Finds: Slender Hinoki Cypress - April 2022

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The tour of conifer trees that I spotted at the Big Box nursery continues today with a look at the third tree that I've come to know: the Slender Hinoki Cypress.  Earlier this week, I posted the hardship of seeing a Japanese White Pine .  And then about my mixed and uncertain feelings about seeing a columnar Norway Spruce .  Today?  Another tree that I 'dreamed' about back in 2019:  The Slender Hinoki Cypress .  You can see the label below:  Hinoki False Cypress - Chameacyparis obtusa 'Gracilis'. I posted about this species in 2019 and talked about how the features (columnar/narrow, the movement, the needles) scratched me right where I itch .  Last Fall, I invoked this particular tree in talking about how I have an affinity for the wood box-planter with upright conifer on top .   Of the three that I've recently posted (White Pine, Columnar Norway Spruce and this Slender Hinkoki Cypress), this one is THE ONE THAT MAKES THE MOST SENSE.   If I'm going to buy on

Spring Nursery Find: Columnar Norway Spruce - Cupressina - April 2022

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Yesterday, I posted a photo and took a HUGE, deep breath and walked past a second Japanese White Pine tree that I saw at the big box nursery .  Why did I have to take a breath?  Because, I *really* wanted one of those trees.  Why did I walk past it?  Because I bought one last year.  And it seems to have failed this Winter.  But, what else did I see on that VERY SAME visit?    A tree that - like the Japanese White Pine - is also something that I've lusted after for a while.  In fact, I even posted an entire "Tree Dreaming" post about this species on the blog back in 2018.   What's that tree?  It is a columnar Norway Spruce - Picea abies 'Cupressina'.  Here's that post from 2018 .  Here - below - is the tag on one of these that I saw at the big box nursery showing the $99 price tag. Back in 2018, I said that there was A LOT to like about this tree: columnar, vertical, fast(ish) and unique.  At the time, I also said that it could withstand snow loads, but a

Weeping White Spruce - Stabilized in Fall - October 2021

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Yesterday, I shared a couple of photos of the very young Japanese White Pine tree that has a ton of brown and orange needles .  The tree is either in severe decline and will be dead soon.  Or, it is going through a normal process of needle drop to get ready for some new Spring growth.  I have no idea.  I *do* know that the tree was stressed before I planted it and the cones were already present at the top - indicating that (I think) the tree was concerned for its own wellbeing, so it threw out a good crop of cones based on the size of the tree.  In that post, I mentioned that the small (and adjacent) Weeping White Spruce appears to have stabilized after suffering some heavy drought damage this Summer.  It seems like the needle loss has stopped and the remaining sections are green and well-connected.  I shared a mid-Summer update on this tree where you can see the needle loss, but when you compare the photos from September to now , it is clear that even more needles were dropped in the

Juniper in a Wooden Tree Box - DIY Project Idea

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I have an idea for a garden-related project that has been knocking around my head for a number of years.  Well...there are tons of those kind of projects, frankly.  But, for this post, I'm talking about one of them specifically.  This one...involves trees.  And...I haven't moved on it - for a variety of reasons including shifting priorities, lack of need, the right nursery stock and the opportunity.   It starts with this post about Hollywood Junipers in 2018 where I posted a photo of a tree in a wooden box for a container .  And, was likely rekindled during one of my trips to Tokyo where I saw all sorts of container'd conifers.  Like this one from House of Bonsai below: Via House of Bonsai . This is not my photo. And, even more recently, I came across a couple of striking conifer trees by the bus stops down at Disney Springs.  They were relatively new (newly planted) and still had their tags on them. Here's a shot of them below: And, below, is a look at the tag reveali

Drought Impact - Weeping White Spruce - September 2021

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We have had an interesting growing season in terms of precipitation in our zone - USDA growing Zone 5b - in Northern Illinois.  I say 'interesting' because the Illinois State Climatologist has posted over the Summer on their blog and talk about a dry Spring/early Summer followed by a really wet period.  A few callouts from that post:     The first two-thirds of June was very dry across Illinois (Figure 5). In fact, the period between June 1 and 20 was the sixth and seventh driest on record in the northwest and northeast Illinois climate divisions, respectively. But... Due to the very wet last 7 to 10 days of the month, June ended wetter than average in all but the northwest and southwest climate divisions, and it was the sixth wettest on record in the east-central division. That 'really wet' period was great.  But, it was followed by another very dry period.  If you look at the US Drought Monitor from late August , you can see that our county (DuPage County) is in the

Spring and Summer Drought Impact on Trees in Zone 5b - Weeping White Spruce

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For the better part of the Spring and beginning of Summer, our area was in a drought.  We had very little rain.  Then, starting about three or four weeks ago, we had TONS of rain.  The problem is that the drought we experienced was hard on a lot of our garden and yard.  I kept up on watering as best that I could, but since we don't have built-in irrigation, I was bound to miss some things.   One of the trees that has suffered from the lack of water this year is our little Weeping White Spruce.  Here, below, is a photo showing how it has dropped a bunch of needles and has a lot of brown on it.  I'm very concerned about it not being able to recover and is on the way towards browning out completely.   I noticed it browning out when we came back from a week in Wisconsin and since then, I've tried to baby it with water - every few days a direct watering from the hose. This story from the University of Minnesota Extension office talks about the drought and watering of trees  and