Why I Oughta...

A few weeks back (this post is going live on July 1st, but these photos are from mid/late June), a stretch of our backyard was covered in white flowers.  On the lawn.  On top of shrubs.  On our little, hidden picnic table.  A carpet of white flower heads.  It looks like this: That means it is Northern Catalpa season.  We have two mature Catalpa trees - native trees.  (We have a small one growing near our patio, but it is still a twig.). They both bloomed this year in a prolific manner.  In mid-to-late June these trees put on a show.  The flowers stay on the trees for a while, then fall.  The week the trees were in bloom, we experienced a couple of days of heavy rain.  I'm thinking that caused the blooms to fall-off faster than normal. I posted about these flowers in a similar way in June of 2023 .  In that post, I also included a shot of the tree.  Here's the current state of this large Catalpa tree in our yard: In looking...

Just like yesterday's post showing our Indiana Street Iris in bloom, this post uses photos that are about a month old.  Below are some shots showing the Pagoda Dogwood tree (a native dogwood) in bloom.  These are from late May of this year and it was in peak-bloom around May 25, 2025.  We planted this as a tiny tree back in 2021 .  It has grown up and out since then and is now about head-high in terms of height.  It was covered in white blooms this Spring: The past two seasons, I've lightly pruned this tree - to help shorten some of the lower limbs and to help push it taller into more of a tree-form shape.  I'm planning on doing that again this year now that the blooms have passed.  

I seem to have failed to post photos and details of the dormant pruning that I did earlier this year on the pair of SugarTyme Crabapple trees that are trained into horizontal cordon espalier on the south side of our house.  The last time I posted about these was in September 2024 when the trees were going ham with new growth and tons of foliage .  At that time, I talked about the need to prune back both of these this Winter and noted how the tree on the right was growing faster/stronger/bigger than the one on the right. I pruned both of them while the trees were dormant, but I seem to have only take a photo when I had pruned back *just* the tree on the left and before I started with the one on the right.  That photo is below: I ended up pruning both back, of course.  And, they're now breaking bud with early foliage.  Below is a photo from this week (mid-April) showing the first sets of leaves emerging on both trees.   The photo above shows a few detail...

The multi-trunk Saucer Magnolia tree is getting ready to put on its annual Spring flower show.  And, after the harsh (at times) Winter, we're seeing a great sign:  pink flower buds have emerged from their fuzzy shells and are putting on size ahead of their full bloom. Below is a photo of one of the pink flower buds on the Saucer Magnolia tree tips.   This is three-and-a-half weeks later than the same pink buds emerged in 2024 - just over a year ago .   That was earlier than normal.  And this year - mid-April - is more in line with historical timing for this flowering tree.   2025 - Flower buds emerged in mid-April.   2024 - Flowers emerged in mid-March.  Peaked first week of April. 2023 - Mid-April peak-Magnolia bloom 2022 - Late-April 2022: Peak-Magnolia at end of month 2021 - Mid-April 2021 : In bloom by mid-month (April). 2020 - Early April 2020 : Blooms began the first week of April. 2019 - The tree did NOT bloom at all. 2...

It is (barely) Mid-March and I'm ALREADY seeing our Saucer Magnolia tree (multi-trunk) in our front yard dotted with signs of pink petals that have begun to emerge from their wooly shells after a long Winter's nap.   What is MOST striking about this is the timing:  a full month ahead of 2023.  Here's a post from April 12, 2023 that shows the pink flowers at the same state they're currently in - photos below. 2023's bloom-time of mid-April was (mostly) in-line with historicals.  2022 saw the tree in peak-bloom in late April .   2024 - (so far) flowers emerged in mid-March 2023 - Mid-April peak-Magnolia bloom 2022 - Late-April 2022:  Peak-Magnolia at end of month 2021 - Mid-April 2021 : In bloom by mid-month (April). 2020 - Early April 2020 : Blooms began the first week of April. 2019 - The tree did NOT bloom at all. 2018 - Early May 2018 : Didn't bloom until early/mid May 2018. This tree was planted in 2017 , so this make it the eighth growing se...

Add two trees.  Take one away.  That's what has happened recently with the addition of the pair of Kousa Dogwood trees along the garage wall (pre-espalier) .  And now...the documenting of losing one of the original trees that I planted when we bought our lot:  a Kwanzan Flowering Cherry Tree.   Before we moved in, we planted five trees:  a dawn redwood (Died and replaced), a Chanticleer Pear Flowering Tree (in the back, between the tree swing tree and the Hornbeams.  Still alive).  A pair of Greenspire Linden trees that I've espaliered.  Still alive.  And this Japanese Flowering Cherry tree.  Now dead).    After we moved in, I planted a Corkscrew Willow (dead) and a Crimson King Maple (also dead).   That first year, our landscaper planted two trees:  a Saucer Magnolia and a Flowering Pear Tree.  The first of which died, but was replaced.   All-up, that means that first year (2017), we pla...

The multi-trunk Saucer Magnolia Tree that we have planted in our Northern Illinois, Zone 5B suburban front yard put on a spectacular pink show this Spring with the most productive flower bloom we've had since the tree went in back in Summer of 2017.  As I've done in previous years, I've treated this with a systemic insecticide to help protect it against scale that seems to creep in/on in most growing seasons.   The tree has a nice dark color to the foliage and seems to have handled the early Summer drought just fine in our area.   See below for a current view of the tree and the full, dark foliage in mid-Summer 2023: On a recent morning when I was setting up the sprinkler to handle the lawn in front, I noticed some spots of pink high up in the canopy of the Magnolia tree.  See below for a look at those pink tufts near the tips of the tallest limbs:  A closer look (below) shows one of the blooms: What do we have going on here?  Seems like a small...

Back in Fall of 2021, I bought a small Pagoda Dogwood tree from a local non-profit (Conservation Foundation) and planted it in the back by the firepit and the row of Hicks Yews.   And I just left it alone.  It has come back each Spring ( here's the first one ) and it grew out as much as it grew up.   At some point last year, I talked about maybe transplanting this tree - because of the horizontal - fat-boy - branching.  Ultimately...I've decided to leave it in place; transplanting a couple-year-old tree is dicey.   But, as a result of NOT transplanting it, I've decided to do something that I've leaned pretty hard AGAINST:  pruning a young tree.  Over the years, I've learned that you just leave trees alone.  Forget limb'ing them up, forget pruning.  Except (maybe) for when there's no clear apical meristem or leader, I just don't touch trees for a number of years after I plant them.   This Pagoda Dogwood has a bunch o...

There are big portions of our back lawn that currently look like this photo below - littered in white, tropical-looking blooms that are falling from a pair of mature Northern Catalpa trees that we inherited in our Zone 5B, Northern Illinois backyard: Below is a look at the mid-yard Northern Catalpa tree that is fully-leaf'd out and full of white blooms: Both Nat and I have grown to really like the Catalpa trees - and their large leaves, white blooms and layered limbs.   I've posted about the Catalpas before - here's one from Fall 2021 .  And from 2019 when I posted about it for the first time .  And, I've been growing some seedlings in containers , too.  More on these in a future post.  

Planted in the early Fall of 2021 , this pair of Sugar Tyme Crabapple trees are starting to show a bit of espalier training form with four levels on very young trees.  One year ago ( post here ), all four layers weren't really quite established.  Today?  All of them are *started*, with the inside, bottom layer the smallest.   See below for a photo showing these flowering crabapple trees in mid-May 2023. My plan is to turn the tips up by pruning them off and driving new growth.  The 2nd-for-lowest limbs are probably the closest to being ready for that hard prune.  I recently pruned off the apical meristem in an attempt to drive new, thicker growth down the tree.  I've also left on a trunk-thickener branch at the bottom that I don't intend to train, but am using to thicken-up the trunk. 

The best 'show' yet has taken place this past weekend on our Saucer Magnolia tree with pink and white blooms all over the tree that was planted in 2017.  It was REALLY SHOWY this year and it doesn't appear that we lost hardly any flower buds at all this Winter - which....was super mild cold-wise.   The tree - in the photo below - really put on some mass the past few growing seasons and now stands out in the front yard and even obscures some of the house from the sidewalk as you walk by in Spring.  This will leaf-out soon, but for a few days (from April 13 --> April 17), this thing was P E A K.  Also...that dark green lawn looks pretty great this time of year, too.  

Last year, I bought and planted a small, native Pagoda Dogwood tree in our backyard close-to/near our firepit area.   It was tucked in right on the curve that transitions from our Hicks Yew hedge (in formation) and the firepit border and I thought (at the time) that it would provide a nice little focal point there - and grow up/over the Hicks Yew hedge to both provide screening and a little sense of placemaking by the firepit.    The small tree managed through the Winter (I protected it from the dang rabbits with a Chicken Wire hoop) and leaf'd out this year.  The leaves are quite nice and interesting .   It has put on growth - a little up, but plenty out.  That means that - for now - it is crowding out the Hicks Yews and the hosta that are planted close to it.   Here, below, is a look at the situation.  Pagoda Dogwood in the middle.  Hosta of some unknown variety on the left.  Small (but growing) Hicks upright Yews on th...

Earlier this Spring, I received a few comments on a post from last year where I talked about after some hemming-and-hawing, I brought home and planted a special tree: a Japanese White Pine - Pinus Parviflora 'Glauca Nana' .  Below are a couple of them - that are similar:   "I saw this tree and I'm intrigued.  How is your's doing?" I replied back in the comments with my thoughts (more on that below), but I thought this might deserve a full post.  First....about the tree.  It has a siren call.  You can't NOT notice it amongst the pallets upon pallets of Arborvitae and Boxwoods.  And, I have to admit...I saw the exact same thing that the two commentors had - at the Big Box Orange nursery this Spring.  Here's the beauty that was calling me to bring it home from back in May: So, I won't waste time.  My tree didn't make it.  My Japanese White Pine - Glauca Nana - went brown in Winter and got worse as time went on.  When Spring came, ...