Why I Oughta...

What a difference on month makes.  Especially when that month is in late Spring/early Summer.  Below, you'll see what the current state of the pair of Greenspire Linden trees that are pruned into a horizontal cordon espalier form in our backyard.  They've put on a TON of growth in the past four weeks and are in need of a cleanup.  It appears that the lowest tier of the espalier has (now) reached the end of the frame, so I'm thinking that I can take the framework down. However....as you can tell from the photo....the tree is SO thick and lush that you can't *really* see the frame. Here is what they looked like four weeks ago .  Below is a photo from mid-May of this year where you can see ALL FOUR levels of the horizontal cordon espalier:

Starting last Spring, I decided to be a little more proactive in terms of protecting some of our trees from pests.  That started with the Greenspire Lindens that are currently espalaiered into a horizontal cordon.  For the past few years, I noticed that the trees were being swarmed with yellow jackets and/or wasps .  Turns out, they were there feasting on aphids that are drawn to Linden trees.  So, starting last year, I treated both Lindens with five gallons of this tree protect & feed solution .   It seemed to work and there were no wasps around all season.  This season - NOTE: I'm posting this in early June, but I actually did this project in early May, 2022 - I pulled back the mulch around the Lindens and made a little ring for the solution to soak in around the base of the trunk.  I made up five gallons of solution per tree and slowly dumped it on. See below: This year, I also decided to treat the Saucer Magnolia tree out front the same way.  Last year, I noticed it seemed

We're now five full growing seasons in with our pair of Greenspire Linden trees  ( Tilia cordata 'Greenspire' ) that we've espaliered into a four-tier horizontal cordon.  Planted in 2017 , I initially went one way with the layout of the branches (at one time, I had six tiers and was even planning on shaping it into a candelabra form ), but last Spring (2020), I finally had a cogent thought (after looking at these trees for years) and made a call to prune A LOT back and go with a simple, four-tiered horizontal cordon.  In the Summer of 2020, I got busy pruning things back and because I was SCARED to really go for it, I ended up leaving a few little branch 'nubs' 1 with some growth on them just to make sure I wasn't pruning off TOO MUCH of the tree at once.  You can go look at this photo here and you'll see the little orange things that I left (at the time).   With all the leaves dropped from these trees, I can start to look at the form they've crea

Yesterday, I posted photos of the Allium 'Christophii' bulbs that I ordered from Longfield Gardens and planted in the various beds around the backyard.  In that post, I mentioned a few other varieties of allium bulbs that I also included in my Longfield Gardens order.   Here's a look at the two other types of Allium bulbs that I planted.   First, there are 50 Allium Sphaerocephalon Drumsticks .   Now that I think about it, I'm not sure that I actually planted Christophii bulbs near the Fanal Astilbes that I mentioned yesterday.  I'm now pretty sure that I actually planted THESE Drumstick Alliums there. Here's the Astilbe colony that I'm pretty sure has Drumsticks now below: Next up are 15 Allium Bulgaricum that I bought on a whim.   I stuck these in the ground around the pair of espalier'd Linden trees: And in front of some of the Summer Beauty Ornamental Alliums that are right next to the Lindens: In terms of total numbers, I planted 45 Christophii b

It has been a while since I posted a full-frontal photo of our pair of Greenspire Little Leaf Linden trees that have been trained into a four-tier horizonatal cordon espalier in our backyard.  These are planted in Zone 5b and trained with wire alongside a six-foot-tall cedar fence.  You can see the top tier is a foot or more above the top of the fence and the root-flare of the trees is BELOW the bottom of the fence.   Thus, These are eight or nine feet tall.    The last time I showed this shot that you see below, was back in September of 2020 - close to 10 months ago .  When I compare the photos, I see a few things: 1.  Tree on the left: The lowest tier has grown out a bit - mostly the right side. 2.  The trunks have thickened up.  I'll have to grab some caliper measurements soon to confirm. 3.  The two little 'scaredy cat' pieces I left on last year are still there on the tree on the left.  Should prune them off soon. 4.  Tree on the right:  the bottom tier has grown out.

A couple of weeks ago, I took some steps to head off the annual aphid infestation that has been occuring on our Greenspire Linden trees that leads to them being swarmed by Yellow Jackets who are eating the aphids.  Back in mid-May, I applied a Systemic Soil-Application insecticide and - just to be doubly sure - I also sprayed a persistent contact spray to the leaves just to kill whatever might already be on the leave s.   As a reminder, this is what the underside of the leaves looked like when the Linden Aphids were living on them (back in late Summer 2020).  Doing this check-in on the Lindens (which...are currently espalier'd in a horizontal Cordon, btw), I looked at the underside of the leaves.  And, while I don't see any of the aphids like I did last year, I do see some white, hairy spots at the intersection of the leaf veins.  See below for a zoomed-in shot of the leaves: I've done as close of an inspection as I can on these photos and I can't tell what that hai

Last week, I posted a photo of my horizontal cordon espalier Greenspire Lindens as they were about to break bud for the Spring. The trees are starting to really fill out and look like I wanted them to look - now in their fifth growing season.  But, last year something happened.  These trees were swarmed by yellow jackets .  And, after a little bit of research, I discovered that the trees were inhabited by Linden Aphids - which is (apparently) quite common.   Last Fall, I took the first step to trying to treat the Aphid infestation - and figured out that there are two ways to treat trees:  with either persistent contact treatments or systemic treatments . Persistent contact sprays - they kill what they contact.  And they'll last from a few hours on the leaves up to a few days.  They're good for more immediate results, but they have some downsides in that they may harm non-targets (meaning...they will kill not just aphids). That's what I tried to use November .  My thought

 I titled this post April/May because I'm posting it in May, but I took this photo in April of 2021.  April 24th, to be precise.  Those are the beautiful, exciting tree buds of one of our espaliered Greenspire Linden trees that are ready to burst open.  I posted a photo of these very same buds that were setting last Fall .  I planted these trees back in our first Summer here (2017) and set up the wire system that year, too .   I posted a similar photo EXACTLY one year ago today (May 4, 2020) with the buds showing a similar green and pink hue .   Last Summer - in year four of training (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020), I made the decision about the final form and pruned off a bunch of the limbs to leave just a four-tiered horizontal cordon espalier.   Also, last year this tree was infested with Yellow Jackets that were feasting on an aphid infestation .  Before all the leaves fell, I applied in two rounds some insecticide on the limbs in the hopes that I killed off any of the remaining aphi

A week or so ago, I posted about how our pair of espalier Greenspire Linden trees had come down with an infestation of aphids .  I asked the Master Gardener at the University of Illinois and they confirmed they were Linden Aphids and recommended a synthetic insecticide.  They also pointed me to this post from Colorado State University that lays out the two types . Persistent Contact Insecticide Sprays. And Systemic Insecticide Sprays. First the latter:  systemic.  These are ones that 'move through' the tree and can handle aphids that you can't reach with a topical/contact spray.  From CSU: A few types of insecticides have the ability to move into the plant and move systemically. Because of this mobility these systemic insecticides can provide better plant coverage and often provide better control of aphids than do non-systemic insecticides. Systemic insecticides are also able to kill aphids that are protected within a leaf they have curled. Timing of application is also

Back a few weeks ago, I posted some photos showing how Yellow Jackets covering our espalier'd Greenspire Linden trees due to (based on what I found line) what appeared to be aphids infesting the tree.   Recently, we had a couple of nights of frost (overnight) and that has killed away all the yellow jackets.  So, I could finally get close enough to the tree to inspect what is going on.  My assumption was that the frost likely killed off WHATEVER was eating the leaves and causing the Yellow Jackets to feast.   But, I was pleasantly surprised when I grabbed a leaf and turned it over.  The lace-like leaf had a couple of inhabitants on the underside.  Here's what I saw: See them?  Here's a closer look: Two guys that are yellow and black striped and hanging out on the underside of the leaf. But, what are they?  Pretty sure they are Linden Aphids.  The Bug Guide has a photo that sure looks a lot like these things and, ummm, they're on a Linden tree.  But, what do I do next? 

 For the past two years, I've noticed that some sort of bee 1 has been finding a home on our espalier'd Linden trees.  There has been A LOT of them.  Swarming around the tree, climbing on the leaves, etc.  I If you look closely at the photo, you can see some of them.  Each tree has dozens of them. I figured that they had a nest close or something.  But, I wanted to find out more.  First, I wanted to figure out what they were.  This handy chart from Rescue.com shows difference between wasps and yellow jackets .  Based on that, I'm pretty sure these are Yellow Jackets.  They're short and fat.  So, I went out onto the Web to try to figure out why our Lindens are covered in these things.  And, sure enough, there are a series of posts on Extension.org.  Including this one that was answered by Robert Cox from CSU that tells me that the Yellow Jackets aren't there because they love the Linden . They're there because the tree has aphids is what he suspects. Yellowjacke

 The last time I shared a photo of our pair of Cordon Espalier'ed Greenspire Linden trees was back when I gave them a hard prune in July of this year .  Two months later, the trees have shown some new growth and are filling out the levels of the horizontal cordon.  I've decided to go with four levels and you can see those four levels starting to stand out in the updated photo below. After the pruning/shaping that I did earlier this Summer, I'm now seeing some direct response in the form of new light-green growth.  Check out the photo below for a closeup showing some of the new growth: In both trees, the second from the bottom set of horizontal branches are the strongest/most vigorous.  Followed by the top level - which I think is a reaction to pruning off the apical meristem.  The bottom level is the newest to emerge and to be trained.  If you look closely at the espalier wire system behind the trees, you can see that the lowest level isn't the same as the rest.  It is

The last time I checked in on the full look of these Greenspire Linden trees was last Fall - November of 2019 - when they were heading towards dormancy.  At that time, the trees had been pruned for the year and had grown through a full growing season.  I also - at that time - was planning a different style of espalier: a candelabra.  If you go back and look at the photos in this post from November , you'll see how I was adding vertical supporters via bamboo rods AND encouraging more than 4 horizontal branches on the trunks.    The tree on the right - I had five or six horizontal branches.  And the tree on the left, I had five or six branches too.  This past week, I went out to these trees with my bypass pruners (Alas... I don't have a pair of those sexy Niwaki Secateurs ) and gave these trees their annual mid-year prune.  I normally take care of any branching that is pointing downward from the branches - and I did that this year.  But, I also made a call:  Forget the cand

This is the second year in a row that I've posted a photo of these beautiful multi-color buds on our Greenspire Linden trees that have been espalier'd in our backyard.  Here's last year's post showing the same buds .   I think that these are my *favorite* buds on trees that we have.  Each of them are a little different - the Hornbeams are neat, too - but I think these are the largest, most colorful ones that really just SCREAM Spring to me.  Last year, I made the call to think about changing t his set of espalier to candelabra shape , but this Spring, I'm thinking that I'm going to go back to just a formal cordon and remove the tips that bend up.  Once I get around to wiring and pruning this Spring, I'll post some additional photos. 

I took this photo above a week or so ago - with the Greenspire Lindens being entirely green and not having lost a leaf yet this year.  Putting this here in the [garden diary] to note how much the trees hve grown and to document the progress of the Candelabra that I've made this year. I'll take another photo once the leaves fall off to get a sense for the structure, but below you can see the candelabra that is taking shape.  The red indicates the branch structure that exists so far and the yellow show the bamboo supports that are in place. Winter gives me a chance to look at this double candelabra espalier and decide if it is going to be five cordons or six cordons or limbs in the candelabra.  Here - below - in teal - is the six limb version.  It looks tight to me. On the left, this means that I need: a new 2nd from the bottom left limb. a longer bottom limb on the right.  a decision between three and four on both sides. a new fifth left limb cutting the top

Four weeks ago, I posted a series of photos showing how I had pruned both of the Greenspire Linden trees that we have espaliered into a Horizontal Cordon .  We went from four levels down to three and then restrung the wire to support a new fill-in fourth Cordon.  When removing the top Cordon, I cut what is technically called the Apical Meristem in an attempt to redirect some of the growth this season to the existing Cordons with the goal of beefing them up and then thinking about how we might be able to turn the tips up into a Candelabra shape.  (Scroll down in this post to see the different espalier shapes including a Candelabra .) A few things to call out though: First, in the photo above, you can see that we have one misaligned Cordon level.  On the left, the limb is coming out about four or five inches higher than the limb on the right.  I've trained the one on the right *up*, but there is currently this misalignment.  Is it a deal-killer?  I don't think so.  Especia

As the weather started to warm up, I was able to get out into the yard to do some late Winter pruning on a bunch of items around the yard.  I cleaned up the hydrangeas, used a new extension pruner (more on this at some point) to clip off some water spouts on trees way up in the air and even tended to this pair of Linden trees that we've espalier'd into a horizontal cordon.  Here's a post from September of 2017 where I shared photos and description of the wire setup .  The photo at the top of this post shows the state of these two trees before any pruning.  It is hard to really see all of the cordons or arms, so here's an annotated photo showing the position and lengths of the arms/limbs:  The Greenspire Linden on the left has four levels of cordons and the one on the right has what I'll call 4.5 levels.  I decided to try to prune off the top - what I found out is known as the " apical meristem " in an attempt to drive more growth into the existin

Look at those buds!  They're just about ready to burst open and welcome Spring to the espalier system that I've erected along the south fence line - right off of our kitchen window.  As a refresher, I used a couple of young Greenspire Lindens for my selections and p ut up three ten-foot-tall metal posts that I buried in the ground a few feet to carry the guide wire system.  Here's how they looked in September of last year after I had trained three sets of branches on each of the systems.  Today, if you look at that photo above, you'll see a bamboo post that has joined the party and some soft green wire twisted around the branches to the limbs, too.  I added the bamboo posts this Sprint to provide some support and keep the wires from sagging too much.  I think they clean up the look quite a bit and provide a bit more structure for the increasingly heavy branches.  The velcro straps are what I used last year and they've been reliable over the first winter, bu

Just a few days ago, I posted some of the steps on the espalier system that I put in our #newoldbackyard arboretum for a pair of Linden trees .  A slight update here.  I made more progress on both espalier systems.  (or...do you say ' pleached '??)  Here's a look at the Linden on the left in the two photos below.  You'll see that I now have three courses of wire up and you can really get a sense for how much longer the lowest branches/limbs are than the ones that are higher up on the trunk. An overview of the way I'm thinking about this espalier project can be found here on the blog . And a look at how I rigged up my DIY espalier system can be found here . I am planning on one more run of wire across the top and will have a four-level espalier.  You can also get a better look at the turnbuckles that I'm using.  Also, on the right, you can see that I have the first course/level/wire up on the Linden on the right.  These will end up matching.  But won't

Back in May, I b ought two very small/young Greenspire Linden trees with designs on giving the art of espalier a shot with them in our #newoldbackyard.  I initially trimmed/pruned them up to make them two-dimensional and they sat for a more than a month in the driveway in Elmhurst before we moved into Downers.  Then back in July, I posted a few photos that showed these Lindens in their containers awaiting their final position as our new fence went in.   Once the fence was in, I was able to plant them in their final locations, along the south property line, butted right up against the cedar fence - which in this part of the yard is 6'+ tall.   There were additional steps including the installation of the posts for the espalier system back in the beginning of August .  I s unk 3 steel posts in the ground in preparation of the wire system.   And that leads me to this post and an update on the process.  After a few trips to Menards and some thinking/cogitating, I was able