Why I Oughta...

Earlier this Summer, we had a storm that dropped a couple of good-sized limbs from a few of our trees.  A big one from one of our Oaks.  And a few medium-sized limbs from one of the Black Walnut trees.   On that Black Walnut limb were ten-to-twelve green-covered walnuts that weighed the limb down - and likely caused it to snap due to the weight.  With a semi-wooded lot with some mature trees, that happens from time-to-time.   Normally...the limbs drop the ground harmlessly. But not this time.   This time, it came down DIRECTLY on top of our small Waterfall Japanese Maple tree *right* at one of the tree's joints.  That limb SNAPPED off one of the major limbs on the Japanese Maple.  See below for a few photos showing the damage on the Waterfall Japanese Maple tree : And, here, below, is the limb in question.  I fished it out of the bed and threw it on the lawn.   This was back in June.  Fast-forward three months to...

I planted the third Emperor 1 Acer palmatum via the Morton Arboretum plant sale this Spring.  I brought it home in a small one-gallon container - and like the other ones - netted it with tulle to protect it from cicada damage .   The tree suffered a little dieback, but otherwise has been just trying to survive the summer heat.  Unlike the Emperor 1 I posted about two days ago , this one is in full shade all the time.    Now that we're back from summer vacations, I'll try to baby this one with a little bit more water than it has been getting and hope to put on some new limbs before dormancy arrives this Fall.

It is finally time to call a couple of dead trees:  Three Japanese Maples didn't come back this Spring.  They tried - leaf'd out from the graft - but now...they are foliage-free.  Two of them are from Mr. Maple - the upright Seiryu Japanese Maple and First Ghost - back by the firepit.  Both...are now on the LOST TREES list.  The Seiryu is one that I really was keen to see grow as I planted it in the shadow of the dying Flowering Cherry Tree.  That tree died last year, and now the JM is gone, too.  That leaves a big empty opportunity for a shade-tolerant tree.    The last one was the Inaba Shadire high-grafted tree.  Below are a couple of photos showing the skeletons of these Japanese Maples.  First the Seiryu followed by First Ghost.   Sadly...these are the fourth Japanese Maples that didn't make it just this year - with the unknown laceleaf tree from the orange big box store was pulled and replaced by an Emperor 1 earl...

Over the years, I've come across Korean Maples that are hybrids with Japanese Maples.  Famously, the folks at Iseli Nursery have introduced a collection of "Jack Frost Maples" that are hybrids of Acer palmatums and Acer pseudosieboldaianum - Japanese and Korean Maples - that have been 'evaluated and selected to tolerate the dramatic weather shifts of the upper Midwest of North America.' The upper midwest?  That's us.   So, when I was at The Growing Place and came across an affordable ($174.00) Northern Glow Korean Maple, I figured it was time to come home and go into our garden.  Below is the sign from TGP that calls it a cold-hardy tree that mostly resembles the Japanese Maple parent. And, here below, is a look at the tree that is currently stashed in the island bed by our driveway.   What do people say about the Northern Glow Maple?  iTrees has this listing : Northern Glow® Maple combines the character of a Japanese Maple and the cold hardiness...

Last year (2023), I bought three one-gallon Japanese Maples from Mr. Maple and planted them in mostly-shade spots in our backyard .  Of the three, two of them died back almost all the way to the graft.  One of them had a lot of die-back at the top, but re-emerged this Spring with enough foliage to consider it 'alive'.  That one - that survived the best - is the Firefly Japanese Maple.  Acer plamatum 'Firefly' .   Firefly has what is known as 'reticulated variegation' and that's showing this Spring. See below for a couple of photos: In that second photo, you can see the dead stems that rise above the foliage.  I'd say that more than HALF of the tree died-back, but based on the foliage, this CERTAINLY is NOT the grafted rootstock producing leaves.  This *is* Firefly.   I can't say the same thing for the Seriyu and First Ghost Japanese Maples from Mr. Maple dot com .  Despite giving them 'Five dollar holes', baby'ing them with water a...

This post deposits two things into the [garden diary]:   the loss of a Japanese Maple and the planting of a different one.  First, the loss.  Last Summer, I planted a 2-gallon Japanese Maple that was mis-marked.  It was labeled as an Emperor 1, but was had dissectum or laceleaf foliage .  I marked it as an 'unknown' Japanese Maple - likely a Takukeyama.  That tree was purchased on May 12, 2023, so I had a decision to make.  By May 11th (this past weekend), the tree was not leaf'ing out.  The scratch test showed that the trunk was still alive, but no buds had opened up.  With the one-year warranty running out, I opted to yank it out and get the store credit.   This marks the second loss of trees this year - the first being the Silver Maple that I removed earlier this Spring .  Two trees lost, zero planted.  But, that is about to change thanks to the Morton Arboretum Plant Sale.  A few days ago, I posted about the ...

With all the #FallPlanting posts running here for a few weeks, I wanted to sneak in a post showing some of the things that are happening in the garden, yard and even on our block as the trees turn from green to yellows, oranges, reds and...well...even browns.  Dormancy is just about here and the garden is putting itself to bed.   Below are a number of photos that I took in late October (25, 26), but this post is going up more than a week later.  Since then, we've had a couple of HARD FROSTS.  Bringing the growing season to a close.   Here's a look around: I'm not sure what to think is going on with all of the Japanese Maples.  Some of them appear to be "just fine".  While others...they...well...could be dying?  And others have been picked at by the (dang!) rabbits.  Starting with the First Ghost Acer palmatum planted back by the firepit.  This one has received the least attention, but seems to be doing fine moisture and sun-exp...