Why I Oughta...

The photo in this post is featuring the leaf bud of a small Harry Lauder contorted Walking Stick tree that we bought back in 2020 and was DIRECTLY inspired by our trip to Disneyland Paris and the landscaping around their Haunted Mansion called Phantom Manor .  I planted it in the backyard in the Summer of 2020 and have had it wired up with some bamboo poles ever since.  Early this Spring, I moved around the poles and wires because the growth was causing a little damage due to the pole locations .   Most every Winter, I try to include some updates and photos of the various leaf buds from some of the trees that I've planted, but in looking back through the [buds] archives , I don't seem to have included this particular tree and bud in the catalog.  The most recent buds that I posted a photo of were the damaged Ginko tree from this Fall .   Here, below, is a look at a couple of the Harry Lauder Walkingstick tree buds: Buds of our trees that get set in Fall and persist over Winter

Last year, we added a Harry Lauder Walking Stick tree to our backyard after seeing it a drive-thru buying experience at the Growing Place in Aurora.  We first saw - and fell in love - with this curving, interesting tree at Disneyland Paris outside of their Haunted Mansion (called Phantom Manor ) and knew then that we should buy one of these contorted trees.  Where we planted it ended up being close to the 'focal point' we were trying to design along with the apex of the 'nook' that will (eventually) hid the fire pit area.  The tree came with a bamboo pole that the tree was growing around and I pretty much just left it as is after planting.   But on a garden walk around recently, I noticed that the tree had begun to really grow AROUND that bamboo pole - especially down near the bottom.  So, I went ahead and tried to remove the pole, but it turned out harder than I expected.  After some sawing, cracking and twisting, I was able to remove the central bamboo pole.  But, no

Yesterday, I mentioned that we had an arborist come over to our house to assess and help us build a plan for a couple of our trees.  While he was there, I asked him about a couple of trees that we have growing in our yard that I was uncertain of the cultivar.  I have had a few trees that I was trying to figure out before, but I've mostly sorted the Walnut/Tree of Heaven/Sumac situation .  But, I had two *other* trees that I didn't seem to fall into any of those categories, but were growing in weird ways. I've left them up for the past few years, but not because I liked the trees, but because I just couldn't figure out what they were. I asked the arborist if he could identify them and it took a second for him to tell me:  they are Kentucky Coffeetrees (or Kentucky Coffee Trees, if you'd like).  Turns out, I have (at least) three of them in our yard.  They're all small, but in spots that they can live and grow without much thought. In the photo at the t

I was out watering some things and noticed that the Horstmann's Recursive Contorted Larch Tree that I bought and planted earlier this year is now gone.  It is now just the tiny trunk.  Seems someone yanked at it and pulled the limb(s) right off as I found it laying next to it.  Bummer.  My fault for not putting up a barrier around the tree to protect it.  (Note to self:  protect things from rabbits AND kids going forward.) It was a TINY tree, but now it is in the LOST column.  I posted about the Lombardy Poplar that I lost last month here .  Two in a row - not good. This Horstmann's Recursive was the 51st tree planted.  51 trees across four planting seasons. (For now...) 43 of those trees still alive.   But there are signs of trouble on a number of other trees (including some of our apple espalier trees, two of our Chanticleer Pears, the Red Valley Sun Maple and the Crimson King Maple).  That would knock us under 30 trees on hand and more than ten trees lost.  More

Back in the Spring, I bought this tiny Horstmann's Recursive Contorted Larch Tree from an online nursery and planted it in the front/sideyard.  I watered it in and have been trying to baby it during the heat.  Today, posting this in the [garden diary] so I know what it looks like in the Summer of season one.  It has added some length to the tree, but due to it's weeping habit, it is hard to tell how much.  I'll add some measurements to this as I do a season-ending caliper reading later this Summer/early Fall. I also didn't get around to adding this tree to the 'inventory', so I'm correcting that now. This is tree #51 that I've planted and BY FAR the smallest one. The previous one was last week when we planted the other contorted tree -the Harry Lauder's Walking Stick  - which I mentioned was the "last tree" we had this year, but I stand corrected. 51 trees across four planting seasons. (For now...) 45 of those trees still ali

The story of our contorted tree starts with a trip to Phantom Manor in Disneyland Paris back in the Summer of 2019 .  Nat and I spent a day there during our visit and we were both struck by the trees and foliage that the Imagineers planted and nurtured around their Haunted Mansion.  The queue is outdoor like at WDW, but it winds through a garden full of weeping and contorted trees and shrubs.  It gives off quite a look - one of decay, dying and ill-looking horticulture.  Based on that trip, I included the idea of buying a 'contorted tree' on my 2020 to-do list .  #13 on the list was to buy a weeping or contorted tree .  I suppose that I could have crossed that off my list when I bought the tiniest of tiny contorted trees online this Spring with my small Cortorted Hortsmann Recursive Larch .  But, I couldn't stop at one contorted tree.  So, when we were doing a "drive through" nursery run to the Growing Place during the early stages of Covid quarantine and s

Back in February, I posted about a tree that I came across that had a lot of the features that I desired in a tree: the Diana Weeping Japanese Larch .  It is a narrow tree (columnar), is contorted, has a weeping habit and is a deciduous conifer.  I have yet to see a  Diana Weeping Larch, but I did come across a similar tree from an online nursery named Kigi Nursery called: The Horstmann's Recurved Contorted Larch Tree . I read the description and thought this was a good fit for our yard: LARIX DECIDUA 'HORSTMANN'S RECURVED' CONTORTED LARCH IS AN UPRIGHT DECIDUOUS CONIFER WITH TWISTING, TURNING BRANCHLETS. NEEDLES ARE GREEN IN SUMMER AND GOLDEN IN AUTUMN BEFORE FALLING. PREFERS ORGANIC RICH WELL DRAINED SOIL. Sounds perfect, right?  I went on the site and they were offering only a 0-1 year old tree for $40 .  I don't know what I thought it was going to look like when it arrived, but when I opened the package, I felt surprised.  Here's a look at the tree

Last Summer, we visited Disneyland Paris and one of the things that both Natalie and I were struck by was the landscaping outside of Phantom Manor .  They had these trees that were all curly and the foliage looked like it was dying and twisted.  A little bit of digging when we got home turned up that the trees that we were seeing were most likely Harry Lauder's Walkingstick .  It was then that I started to think about contorted trees as a thing - and (potentially) a thing for our own yard.  I mentioned in this post about a contorted Larch tree that I thought it was interesting to consider adding to our yard.  I've been giving a lot of thought to the types of trees we should be adding - and have posted about most of them.  Getting a contorted tree was tops on my list for this season.  Well...on a recent Sunday, we took a drive out to The Growing Place in Aurora where they had their nursery set up as a 'drive through'.  You stay in your car and drive through the

Two days ago was the latest in the run of [ tree dreaming ] posts featuring this columnar Japanese Larch called "Paper Lanterns" that throws off these beautiful - and delicate - paper-y cones .  In that post, I mentioned that I while I haven't covered Larch trees before, in looking at columnar Larches, I came across a tree that checks a couple of really desirable boxes for my tastes in trees. Is there a tree that is: a deciduous conifer.   Puts on a 'Fall show'. Is Japanese-inspired. Grows in a narrow, columnar form. Displays a weeping branching structure. And...is considered contorted.   Turns out, there's a tree that checks all six of those boxes.  It is called the Diana Weeping Larch .  I found it when I was looking around at columnar larches and found this story on FineGardening about trees in tight spaces .  They showed this photo (below) of the Diana Weeping Japanese Larch.  This is a special tree, isn't it: This is not my photo.  Fo