Weeping Norway Maple - Annual Growth and "Buds" - Late August 2024

Last Fall, I planted a couple of small end-of-season conifer sale Weeping Norway Spruces IB2DWs.  The first one was planted in the legacy bed - closer to the house - and the other one was further down closer to the sidewalk.  Fall Planting seemed to be right for these as they have given me *KNOCK ON WOOD* very little trouble this season.   They came out of the gate with some tiny pink cones this Spring.  And, by late May, they had put on some new growth that required me to 'wire-up' a leader.  

One of the things that I noted on these trees was that late Fall - after I had planted them - they started to put on little 'knobs' of growth.  What looked like tightly-clustered, stubby limb-starting-points.   When I watched them put on new growth this Spring, it mostly came from these little knobs.  So, I've begun to learn a little bit about the 'buds' of conifers like this Weeping Norway Maple.  They set buds (kind-of) like their deciduous brethren, it seems.  

And, right now, this first Weeping Norway Spruce is doing that - setting those brown 'knobs' along the trunk.  See below for a photo of the top of these tree:

Because this tree is tucked into a bed, it isn't easy to determine what kind of growth it has had year-over-year.  But, I think it *has* grown.  Both in height and by adding some length to the existing limbs.  Below, you can see the current state of the tree with the leader REALLY reaching up, up, up.  It currently extends about six inches above the top of the support post.  Compare that with just back in May when the leader was trained to *just below* the height of the support post.