Why I Oughta...

At the bottom of my 2025 to-do list post , someone posted this comment - asking to see the latest with our Frans Fontaine European Hornbeam trees: The last update I showed on this row of eight columnar trees was in November of 2024 when they were still holding onto their Fall leaves all the way to November 30th .  I wrote a post in 2022 that showed the full history of these Frans Fontaine Columnar Hornbeams (to that date) including their planting in 2018.    That makes 2025 their eight growing season ('18, '19, '20, '21, '22, '23, '24 and now '25).  They've grown from (in 2018) two-inch (2") caliper trees that barely peeked over the top of our six-foot-tall fence .  To today - where they're providing the full screening we've always wanted.   Today, they're not doing that much screening, though.   They're getting ready to break bud and leaf out.  But, right now, they're mostly bare.  Below are a few photos - showing the trees...

Speaking of 'holding leaves' (yesterday...I posted a photo showing the espalier'd Lindens holding their leaves), the row of Frans Fontaine European Columnar Hornbeams that we have planted along the south property line are doing what they always do in Fall:  hold their leaves late.   The term for trees that hold their leaves DEEP into Winter (when they're all brown and dry, but still clinging to the branches) is named foliar Marcescence.  These aren't quite to that state, but based on previous seasons, we'll see these trees brown-out soon.  Then, one or two of them MAY drop their leaves immediately, while others may hold onto them until Spring.   You see this with Oak trees - quite a bit.  They'll hold some of their leaves all Winter .   Here's a post showing what the trees looked like in February of 2023 - still holding small, crinkled, curled-up leaves that late into the Winter .   And here's a post from one-year-and-one-...