Why I Oughta...

With the weather (suddenly) turning quite warm last week, our Saucer Magnolia in the front yard decided to say hello.  One morning, the flowers just started to shoot up and open.  This tree went in by the landscaper who installed the rest of our landscaping before we moved in and is set in a small, circular bed in between our front porch and the sidewalk.  It gets a ton of sun and as it matures is set to be a focal point.  Back in August, I posted a photo of how I 'limbed up' the tree in an attempt to get it to grow more tree-like and less shrub and I'm happy to say that I didn't kill the thing.  Even more, it appears that the clearing of some of the sucker and low limbs have helped allow the tree to provide energy to it's tips.  Just look at this beauty: I call this "Nat's tree" because it was the one thing that she specifically spec'd with the landscaper.  And when we were planting it, I didn't tell her that it was coming and int

Last we checked in on our Saucer Magnolia in our front yard was back in September before it shed its leaves and went to bed for the winter.  I also talked about it potentially having sooty mold a few days later.    The first time I posted a photo of this particular tree was in August - about 45 days after we moved in - when it was growing and happy after being watered all summer.  I had decided to do some early in the growing cycle, preventive pruning to 'limb up' the tree and remove some suckers in order to allow the tree to put all of its energy into the main trunks.  With some decent weather recently, I went out and looked at a few of our trees.  I'll post some other photos of the other trees in the coming days, but today, let's look at the Saucer Magnolia.  Officially, it was the 9th tree added to our 'arboretum' , but it was actually in before some of the others.  I just didn't get around to posting about it because it is in the front yard.  It

A few days ago, I posted an updated photo of our Saucer Magnolia tree in the front yard and mentioned this blight/mold/black stuff that is on quite a bit of the leaves.  You can see it in the photo above.  After digging around on the Web, I think that it might - or might not be Sooty Mold.  The University of Minnesota Agricultural Extension has a post up that is titled:   Non harmful tree conditions that catch your eye but require no management .  In the section on Sooty Mold, they provide the description and a photo that looks an awful lot like the one above.   Here's a screenshot: But if you look elsewhere on the topic of Sooty Mold, the photos look totally different .  Most of the articles reference insects and/or aphids, which our Magnolia doesn't appear to have inhabiting it right now.  I also found this photo of something called Fungal Leaf Spot in the Science Photo Library , which isn't exactly what I am seeing on our leaves.   I'll keep poking around an

Just over a five weeks ago, I posted the first photo of our new/young Saucer Magnolia tree in the front yard of our #NewOldFarmhouse after I had 'limbed it up' for the first time .  It had grown a bit since being installed in June and the pruning I gave it will hopefully fuel its upward trajectory. Above you'll see a photo I took this past week after I gave it another minor pruning where I continued to 'limb up' the main leaders.  I took off a few suckers and removed leaves and shoots that were coming off low on the main branches.   Flipping back and forth between the early August post and this photo tells me the late summer growth is hard to detect in terms of size, but is noticeable in the buds being created.  The leaves - in some places - have become discolored - which has me worried, but I'll post a closeup of it on the blog and show off the newly emerging buds, too. I have big hopes that this tree will grow up - with our family - and be a meaningful