Why I Oughta...

In the Fall of 2023, I planted a pair of Matcha Ball Ash Leaf Spirea shrubs - one in the front yard and one in the backyard.  The one in front didn't come back this year, but the one in back leaf'd out and is now on its second full growing season and doing well.   I was drawn to these during my Japanese Maple phase and when I saw another one at the Big Box nursery recently, I decided to bring it home to add a new, different color and texture to the front yard Island bed. These are dwarf-like shrubs that has lace-leaf or fern-like foliage.  Here's what First Editions says about the Matcha Ball shrub : Forming a perfect round ball fern-like leaves cover Matcha Ball® in a fresh shade of green, much like Matcha tea. When the leaves first emerge in very early spring, the leaves and petioles have hints of red and orange-peach that ultimately mature to green in the summer and yellow in the fall. The photo at the top shows off those orange-peach color.  Here, below, is...

In the Fall of 2023, I planted a pair of fern-like shrubs called Matcha Ball Ash Leaf Spirea.  One in the front porch bed and one in the backyard - in the kitchen-curved bed .    The one if front appears to have been lost, but the one in back has ALREADY leaf'd out.  In a funny way.  The tips are full of leaves.  And the base is full of leaves.  But, the stems are a little bare.  See below for the current shape of this small shrub: This shrub behaved oddly last year - with a bud-burst in November .  Yes...November.  Late in the year, when the temps were dropping.   And, I documented some (dang!) rabbit damage on this thing this past Winter.   I'm pretty sure *that* is the reason for the odd growth pattern this year. 

I planted a pair of Matcha Ball Ash Leaf Spireas in my burst of [Fall Planting] last October.  One in the front yard and the other by the Fanal Astilbes along the southside of the backyard border.    I was out puttering around in the back and noticed a flash of green on the tips of the shrub.  A closer look showed me that the buds on this shrub were/are opening up.   This is the first Spring for this thing, so I'm glad to see it coming back and (seemingly) survive the winter cold.  Below is a close-up photo of the buds and then a wider photo showing the overall structure:

I posted the details and a photo of planting a Matcha Ball Ash Leaf Spirea shrub in the front porch beds in mid-October .  When I planted that one, I also...planted a second one:  but in back.  I decided to tuck it in the 'kitchen window curved bed', sort-of by where my bird-feeding pole lives.   That bed has some good foliage and good texture contrasts going on - the Amsonia, Oakleaf Hydrangeas and Astilbes create a nice combination.  This small-size (dare I saw dwarf) fern-like shrub adds a pop of color (yellow/chartreuse) and some lightness of foliage to this spot. The shrub is already showing some buds on the limbs - that I presume are set of next year.  But..you never can tell what kind of stress these nursery plants go through that might alter their normal growth cycle.   I planted this in mid-October, but posting it in early November 2023.