Why I Oughta...

At the Morton Arboretum Arbor Day Plant Sale this year, I came across this sign (photo below) describing a Japanese Maple variety that was new (to me):  Inaba shidare.  It was listed as an Acer palmatum and the photo had red laceleaf foliage.  The sign describes it as "The best of the weeping red laceleaf maples for its leaf color retention in Summer, its scorch resistance, vigor and hardiness.  The lace-like foliage emerges deep purple in Spring, matures to purple-red by Summer and finally turns bright red in Fall."   I mean...what's not to love about that, right?  I had previously purchased a Japanese Maple from the Morton Sale - an Emperor 1 in 2021 - and have been REALLY happy with it in our garden.  So, when I saw this sign for the Inaba shidare, I wanted one.  The only problem?   They were gone.  Sold out.  Or...at least...sold out during *my* visit. Felt a little bit like a 'one that got away' sort-of-deal. So, imagine my delight when I was picking up some

Starting with this post from early March and carried through as #1 on my 2022 priority list was the discussion of shrubs and how I needed to focus on adding them to add depth, structure and the notion of layering to our garden.  Then last week, over the course of a few 'shrub exploration' posts, I tried to organize my thinking via some specific garden bed sections - including the lilac area , a north-side mixed shrub section by the trampoline , the fire pit area and the spot that *could* be the home of a fire pit-area path extension . Across all of those garden bed 'slices', I was able to create a shrub list that included nine upright evergreens in three different colonies of three each.  Three in the north-side mixed area that would front the transplanted lilas, three in the (current) lilac area that would serve as back layer to a trio of Tardiva Hydrangeas and finally three that would either back three Little Lime Hydrangeas (or perhaps three + 1 to frame the event

Back at the end of April, I went on an early morning socially-distant Home Depot run and bought a tree with some birthday money that reminded me of Paris .  Yeah..Paris.  Despite it being named the London Plane Tree.  It was a tall tree on a 50% off deal that I jumped at.   This post shows the label for the tree that includes the name Platanus x acerfifolia .  I stared at this tree for a week as it sat on our patio before we finally planted it around mid-May.  It went in the ground a day or two BEFORE the super-late HARD frost that arrived and shocked everything ( including our ferns ).   This London Plane tree had some tender leaves that were emerging from the buds on the tree when that frost arrived.  And...I think it got hit.  Or...some combination of the hard frost AND the transplant shock hit the tree hard.  All of the little leaves went brown and turned pretty limp.  They didn't dry out and were still pliable, but something was certainly wrong.  Here's what thos

A couple of weeks ago, we had a tree arrive on our front porch from an online nursery that had what appeared to be a challenging trip via FedEx and when I opened the box, it looked like this: Snapped in half.  Womp Womp. It was a Lavender Twist Weeping Redbud - which Monrovia describes as : Rosy lavender-pink flowers completely cover bare, slightly contorted, weeping branches in early spring. This truly unique selection can develop a beautiful umbrella of cascading branches covered in heart-shaped leaves if trained when young. A captivating small specimen tree for a focal point in a shrub border or entryway. Deciduous. Back in Elmhurst, our neighbors to the north had a big, beautiful Redbud that put on quite a late Spring show with the purple flowers.  And I remember planting one of own - a small one - in our old backyard, but I don't think I posted about it.   One of the kids wanted to get a RedBud as one of their Earth Day trees, but due to the whole COVD-19 thin

On Monday, I shared a Washington Irving quote about planting Oak Trees .  From the preamble of that same book about Wisconsin trees comes this John Muir quote.  Both of them moved me a bit and reinforced why I've been so fascinated with trees and getting a variety of them added to our landscape over the past two seasons. I haven't posted about John Muir here on the blog (a search that returns no results says that's a true statement), but anybody who watch like maybe more than four minutes of Ken Burns "The National Parks: America's Best Idea " series knows who John Muir was and what his impact on our country really is today.  He's someone who's been called a "Secular Saint" for the work he did to not just preserve vast expanses of wilderness but also advocate for our communal understanding of the value that nature brings to all of us as a source of renewal, understanding and connection. There's a lot here that resonates with me -