Why I Oughta...

Conifers should come first.  That's advice that I've (now) adopted.  But, I'm seven-years down the gardening path and it is too late.  But...looking around, I *did* get it right - somewhat.  I planted some tiny Canadian Hemlocks, some creeping Junipers and a tiny Mugo Pine in the 'understory bed' over the years.   Below are a few photos that show how they're doing.  First, is a Youngstown Juniper amongst some hostas and a look at the bottom of one of the Hemlocks.  The juniper was planted in Fall 2019. These Hemlocks started out as 12" tall trees.  Now they're six-feet tall and growing.  Pretty great to see: Below is another creeping Juniper - that's smaller than the first.   And here, below, is the Mugo Pine.  Planted as a tiny one-gallon evergreen shrub in the Fall of 2021 .  It was ravaged by the dang rabbits, but has since rebounded - thanks to some wintertime chicken wire.  This is its third growing season ...

Last week, I posted some photos of the (dang!) rabbit damage on our Oakleaf Hydrangeas that occured over the past few months .  I attempted to protect some things in the garden from the rabbits using Chicken Wire cages, but I must not have done enough this year.  The hydrangeas only bloom on 'old wood', so that means that 2024 will be the year of fewer Oakleaf Hydrangea blooms.   But, the rabbits also went ham on other things in the garden.  And in particular...devoured the Gold Cone Junipers.   Some of the earliest shrubs that I installed, the three Gold Cone Junipers have seen highs and lows since 2019 .    They've experienced some stress (at times), but also put on a spectacular show come Spring .   By the Fall of 2021, the bottoms of these upright shrubs had emptied out.  Between rabbit pressure and natural decline, the bottom third was (mostly) bare .  But, they were still distinctly 'multi-stemmed' at the time....

Planted all the way back in 2019, we have a Juniper shrub planted in a large yellow, upright container on our patio.  It has been there for five (19, 20, 21, 22, 23) growing seasons and is something that just sort-of exists on the patio.  At least...that's the way I think about it - meaning...that I do virtually NOTHING to it all year long. Here's what it looked like in the Fall of 2020 - when it was green and the tips of the juniper were emerging around the edge of the container, but not by much.  All Summer and Fall, it is a nice green color.   But, come Winter...something happens to this shrub that (at first...) I thought was decline.  It turns an almost rusty-red color.  The first time that happened - in 2020 - I figured the shrub was done .  But, come Spring...it green'd right up. In every subsequent Winter, it has done the same.  Green in Summer and Fall.  Rusty-red in Winter.   Here's what it looked like a little over a...

More dwarf conifers.  That's the story for today (and maybe tomorrow) as I've planted a pair of Blue Star Junipers - Juniperus squamata 'Blue Star' to two different parts of our garden.  The first is pictured above and is in the north-side back stoop bed along with a Spring Grove Ginko, that big flush of Angelina Sedum and a Geranium. My thought here is that by adding some blue - I'd get a nice view of the garden color trinity of green (ginkgo), blue (Blue Star Juniper) and chartreuse (Angelina Sedum) working together.  And...that this Blue Star Juniper might fight back against the sedum and they'd play nice together. What is a Blue Star Juniper?  From NC State : 'Blue Star' Singleseed Juniper is a cultivar that is a dwarf conifer, an evergreen, and slow-growing shrub that may reach from 1 to 3 feet tall and 1 to 4 feet wide. The shrub forms a compact, dense mound. The leaves are blue-gray, awl-shaped needles with a white band that overlap and are densel...

A few seasons ago, I planted a juniper shrub in the nursery pot IN the ground in an attempt to begin to grow some 'pre-bonsai' material .  I planted one that way and one directly in the ground.  Turns out, the one in the ground has grown quite a bit while the one in the nursery container has suffered.   Earlier this Spring, I decided to abanondon that pre-bonsai idea and just DIRECTLY plant the evergreen shrubs in the beds - that includes this Bird's Nest Spruce that I need to do the same way .   While I was out planting the Green Giant Thujas, I decided to deal with the juniper -which...at the time I didn't know the species. I dug up the can and found this label that reads: Juniper Pfitzeriana Aurea . Here (below) is a look at the one that I left in the ground and the hole from this juniper shrub: And, here (below) is where I transplanted it:  next to the urn in the northside bed - which moved it a bit closer to the front/middle of the bed where it ...

We have a trio of Gold Cone Junipers that I planted a few seasons ago in our backyard bed.  I put them in the ground in Spring 2019 and three growing seasons later, they're turning into something very different that I was thinking:  they're turning into a lollipop-like conifer.  These Gold Cone Junipers are notorious for splaying when snow piles on them, so that first season, I wired them up to help prevent that winter damage .  By that first Fall, they were showing some signs of stress .  Then, after their first Winter, they browned out ...but came back in Summer. These also are more sun-loving than most things in our yard, so having them planted in the shade of a Walnut tree isn't ideal.  Not to mention....I planted these without consulting the plan, so they're sort-of orphaned here.  I don't necessarily WANT them here - nor does the plan call for them - but why rip them out now when I don't have anything else to plant there.  So, over the past...

 Back in October of 2020, I posted some photos showing a juniper cultivar that I have kept in a large patio container for the past few seasons and talked about how I had wrapped some wire around some of the limbs as I began to learn how to bonsai the past few seasons.  I overwintered this container both inside the screened porch and then, due to A LOT of fungus gnats, ended up moving it back outside. This is the same juniper that I posted snow-covered back in February that really got my brain going on bonsai for 2021, so when the snow melted, I immediately went and looked at the state of the tree.  And, it turns out, the wire that I wrapped on the tree (either in 2020 or 2019) was on far too long and too tight.  Because there's quite a bit of wire damage.  You can see it below, but it was on their so long that it was difficult to remove as the tree began to grow AROUND the wire. This is a tree that I'll move work pretty hard this year ( it is #2 on my 2021 Bons...

Back in October of this year, I posted a photo of the new growth on this unknown conifer that is in a large container on our patio and remarked at how good it was doing this growing season .  I had overwintered this in our screened porch last year - which was OPEN to the elements, but it was protected from some of the harsher aspects of Winter including a little bit of the wind being cut down and a roof over the top of it.   I mentioned that I was going to bring this one in this season , too.  But, I was just outside and saw that I had forgotten to bring this one in and it now looks like this:  almost maroon-ish in color.   What is going on?  Drying out?  Sun scald?  Winter damage?  Seems a little early, doesn't it?   I'm going to bring this in to the porch TODAY and give it a little water to see how it responds.  

The last time I posted about a trio of Gold Cone Junipers in our yard was earlier this year when I wasn't sure if these things were totally dying or if they were just simply struggling to recover .  I was being proactive last year and wired them up to protect from snow damage and I believe now that I caused the damage myself with the bottom 1/2 or so browning out pretty hard . I was out in the backyard this week and it turns out that these Junipers are showing some signs of growth with their yellow (or...um....GOLD) tips growing out.  Last Summer, these things were beautifully bright, so I'm hopeful that they'll come back in some way and overcome the brown dead parts.    Right now, the signs are pointing up for new growth, but I'm not sure if I should be thinning out the dead stuff by hand to try to stimulate some new growth on the dead sections?

With the whole 'social distancing' policy being enforced in our household, I had some time to putter around the yard this weekend.  One of the things that drew my attention was the sad state of these Gold Cone Junipers.  You can see one of them in the photo at the top of this post.  I bought three of these from Menards on April 6, 2019.  I have the receipt in my little file that shows the purchase date AND the 1 Year guarantee tag on them that you can see in the two photos below.  One note that might be useful for you:  Everytime I buy a tree or a shrub that has a 1 year guarantee, I do 2 things:  I staple one of the plant tags to the receipt and file it away in an envelope.  I also then add it to my Google calendar - one week short of a year.  That means...I bought this on April 6, 2019, I put an entry for these Gold Cone Junipers on March 30th, 2020. According to the garden diary, I had them on hand by April 22nd and ended up ...

Earlier this year, I bought a couple of small (less than $10) junipers at the Home Depot and began to prune them a little bit to make them into a shape that would be more bonsai-like.  This year, I just started my bonsai-journey with a small Cypress - and overpruned it.  It ended up dying.  I think it was a combination of OVER-pruning and putting it into a bonsai pot prematurely so it dried out.  I decided to learn my lesson with these two other junipers:  A Youngstown Juniper .  And a Chinese Juniper .  With both of those, I cleaned up some of the limbs and established a clear leader.  I didn't do any wiring or cleaning up of the roots.  But, instead left them in their nursery containers.  We live in Zone 5B - in Northern Illinois - so we have a couple of choices with Winter coming: 1. Overwinter bonsai in climate controlled environment. Ideally in a place that keeps the temperature right at 34 degrees. Greenhouse or quons...

At the beginning of the season this year, I planted three small Gold Cone Juniper shrubs .  And they took off with the wet Spring and put on a great show .  After reading all about these particular juniper shrubs, I decided to 'wire them up' to ensure that they don't suffer from splaying based on snow fall in the Winter.  By June, I had wired them up and they looked great .  Then, we hit the hot part of Summer with July and August.  And the shrubs are showing signs of stress.  I'm posting this photo in the [ garden diary ] here on the blog to show the emerging brown spots on some of the shrub.  It is on the 'backside' mostly, so I'm wondering if it is both water/drought-related, but perhaps also sun-related?  The backside gets less sun than the front.  I also wonder if the 'wiring up' caused some of the stress?    I've done this dance before in the Fall - are the trees/shrubs that are showing signs of stress going to make it ...

One of the items on  my 2019 gardening to-do list (addendum)  was to make sure I got around to wiring up the new Gold Cone Junipers that I planted this Spring.   When  I picked them up , I was drawn to the promise of their bright needles and how they filled a big part of my desire to add conifers to our landscape.  In  that original post , I referenced how a pro-gardener recommended that these particular junipers get wired up to avoid any sort of Winter/snow damage.  That's what this post is for:  documenting that I actually wired them.  The top photo shows one of the Gold Cone Junipers all wired up with a green coated metal garden wire.  Compare that photo above with the photo of the same shrub  in this photo .  I tucked in all the leggy new growth and bound it to the core of the plant.  Here's a closer look at the wire:  The shrub in the foreground is wired up.  The one in the background is not...

Look at this Gold Cone Juniper being all showy with it's new gold foliage.  Compare this photo to what this shrub looked like when I bought and planted it in early May of this year.   Remarkable difference in the color.  Also note that the new growth is, indeed, kind of *loose* in terms of opening up the shrub a bit.  What I learned when I first bought these is that they need to be wired or twine'd up ahead of Winter .  Reminder to self:  wire up the Junipers this Fall.

Back at the beginning of May, I posted a photo that showed three of the six Canadian Hemlock tiny trees that I bought with a credit from an online nursery .  These things are tiny.   The official name is Tsuga canadensis . Sometimes they're called Canadian Hemlocks. Sometimes Eastern Hemlocks. Maybe 16" tall.  I mentioned in the post that I put the first three in the far back reaches of our yard and that I was planning on putting the other three on the northside. These aren't the first Hemlocks that I've planted, unfortunately.  I bought a tiny one just like these at Menards on a whim and put it in the ground last Summer.  By September, it was gone .  Done.  Not sure what happened to it, but I also lost our little Fraser Fir at the same time .  Guessing it was neglect via limited water? The three trees that are in this post (circled in green in the photo above) are the same trees that are specified in the landscape plan portion that...

A couple of weeks ago, I brought home a three Gold Cone Junipers from Menards and shared photos and details from them here .  I ended up getting two of them in the ground this week and have the third still in the cast iron urn in our front yard.  Above you'll see one in the ground and the other one is kind of staggered behind it. These are generally in the vicinity of where I planted the small Hemlock last year (that died!) and should serve as a nice multi-layered look of conifers once I get the Hemlocks in the ground.    This is an area that gets plenty of morning sun and since it is on the northside of the property, it gets some decent oblique sun throughout most of the day until about 2 or 3 pm in the afternoon. The Gold Cone Juniper is a columnar conifer that is billed - per the tag - to only be four to five feet tall, but there are a few photos on the Web that show something more on the order of eight to ten feet tall?  I'll be happy with cute littl...