Why I Oughta...

Last month, I posted a couple of photos and details of our new Skylands Spruce tree ( ) in our front yard island bed .  This is a tree that I've looked at for years and finally found one (a small one) that I put in our garden.   I've noted tree buds forming (and setting) on various trees in the Fall/Winter over the years, but the past few years, I've begun to observe conifers a little more closely.   Here's one that is in the middle - the Dawn Redwood - which is a deciduous conifer tree - a conifer that drops its needles.    This post looks at the buds of the Dawn Redwood .   This past August, I posted a photo of the 'buds' being set on the Weeping Norway Spruces that I planted last Fall IB2DWs and how I observed them last season turn into new sets of needles.   I'm learning more and more about the health of conifers and the types of signals they send throughout the growing season - and during dormancy.  This post from the Co...

Planted in Spring of 2021 , our Weeping Nootka Falsecypress tree is now closing out its fourth full growing season in our backyard.  This was one of the larger 'nursery pot' trees that we've put in, so judging the growth and maturation isn't as easy as it is on some other smaller trees. Has this grown?  Certainly.  Is it 'plain to the eye'?  That's a little harder to confirm.   The answer is 'yes'.  And when I go back and look at the planting post here and then flip back to this photo, I can see it.  This has not only grown taller.  The limbs have lengthened and the whole thing has put on...well...girth.   Below is a photo showing the current size and shape of this conifer tree.  I still love this tree as much as I did when we planted it.  But, this post isn't just about documenting the size and growth of the tree.  It is also to document what is happening on the 'tips' of the falsecypress tree branches:  buds b...

The neglected rhododendrons (they're only neglected because they have - imho - failed to live up to their promise) are back with buds that were set in Fall and (hopefully) have made it through the thick of winter temperatures.   The pair of Rhododendons were planted on either side of our back stoop and sort of just were blah.  They started to get thin and decline.  Could be because of chipmunks eating away at their roots.  Or, could be they were were in the wrong spot.  I ended up digging them up and replacing them with a pair of handsome dwarf Spring Grove Ginkgos and I've been VERY happy about that move.   Without much thought, I stuck them in around the small (immature) Dawn Redwood tree in the backyard.  That area is a sort-of no-man's land with nothing there on purpose, rather just the result of having 'available space' and plants that 'need a home'.   They get a mix of shade and sun back there and since I water (with a sprink...

Earlier this year, in one of their ordinary monthly email broadcasts, the Morton Arboretum turned me on to something wild.  At least...wild to me.  Who am I?  A tree bud enthusiast.  Turns out, there are lots of us.  And some really special ones.   The newsletter referenced a former Arboretum employee with the title of 'naturalist' named May Theilgaard Watts .  And,  these incredible, illustrated vintage posters in the Arboretum collection that May T. Watts created.  First...a look at the posters below.   All of these are sourced from ACORN - Sterling Morton's Library that includes online images.   Some May T Watts archives in ACORN can be found here .   Fascinating stuff in there.  I've only scratched the VERY thin surface.  Have a look at these beauties.  Source ...again... from ACORN .  The ACORN listing here states these were created in the 1940's.   Hard to believe that I'...

A couple of weeks ago, we had a 3.5" caliper Triumph Elm - Ulmus Morton Glossy - to our front porch beds.  At the time the tree arrived it has *some* leaves on it with some branches already bare having dropped their leaves.  Today - just two-or-so-weeks after planting, the tree has dropped ALL of its leaves and has a set of roundish, brown buds all over the limbs.  Below, is a look at the buds that have set on our new Triumph Elm tree: Over the years, I've documented in the [garden diary] a look at some of the tree buds in our yard - including these Exclamation London Planetree that I planted during the pandemic .  I'll go out and try to capture some photos of this year's tree buds in the Fall/Winter garden in the coming weeks.  

At the beginning of the month, I posted a couple of photos showing off the pair of VERY SMALL Ginkgo trees that we planted this Fall .  The reason we planted TWO of these trees was because the first one that was delivered 1 was damaged and basically cracked in half.   In that post, I talked about how the damaged tree was aging different from the replacement tree that I planted in front .  The one in front (which wasn't damaged) had leaves that were turning yellow (like Ginkos are known to do), while the damaged tree in back was drooping and had more brownish leaves.   My belief then - and still today - is that the damaged tree in back is unlikely to make it and leaf-out next Spring.  But....but...but...what do I see on the tree this week?  It appears that this tiny, thin Ginkgo tree has set some buds as it headed to dormancy.  See below for a peek at one of the buds that is near the top of the small tree. These are kind of interesting shaped...

The leaves have come off of our Oak trees.  The large ones have just a few clinging on, but this tiny one that I planted this year is naked.  This was planted back in May of 2020 and seemed to do just fine back in this location.   The larger trees looked like this all the way into December - thanks to foliar marcescence.  That now has me thinking that I should get a post up in the [garden diary] showing the leaves being off the Oaks by late November this year.  But, back to this small Northern Red Oak tree - and the buds in has set in particular.  Like the other trees in this [tree buds] series, these ones are unique ( thanks Rutherford Platt !) and have some unique characteristics.  First, the color - is what I'd call caramel.  Reminds me of the newish high-end vehicle interiors that you are seeing.  Kind of like a brand new, unused football.  They're also pointy.  In the image below, you can see how there are three of them ...

We had a storm come through last week that dropped all the remaining leaves - and I mean ALL - in the yard.  With the leaves off the limbs, I've started to investigate the structure of some of the trees and noticing that most of them have set buds before they head into dormancy.  The first tree that I looked at was our new (this year) London Plane Tree.  The brief history of the tree is that I bought this with some birthday money from Nat's Grampy in early Spring , planted in May and it was immediately stressed , it seemed to recover and full leaf out this Summer, only to return to a stressed-state during the late Summer heat .   Below is a look at one of the limbs of this tree that shows off what are quite pointy buds: The London Planetree buds you see above are almost thorn-like at this point, but based on what I see online, they'll continue to grow out and get a little bit 'bent' in the appearance of their tips .    It also says that the Plane Tree ...

A couple of days ago, I posted a couple of photos of our Flowering Japanese Kwanzan Cherry Tree that had suffered a little bit of winter damage here on the blog.  Today, I'm documenting a few of our front yard trees and their buds (or lack thereof).  I wanted to capture a few of the trees and how their buds were coming along in the heart of Winter.  If you're looking for a layout of our front yard trees that is a companion of this post, you can view it here on this 'tree dreaming' post from a week ago. First up, is our small Bald Cypress.  Last I covered it here on the blog was back at the end of August of this Summer (2019) when it was showing nicely with green, lacy needles.  Today, you can see it (below) clinging to a lot of brown/orange needles on the trees small frame.   Here (below) is a closer look at one of the branches that have some thorn-like (but not thorns!) raised bark, but not what I'd consider normal 'buds'.  However,...

Just like the pair of rhododendrons on either side of our back stoop , our small (but growing!) Saucer Magnolia multi-step tree in our front yard is preparing itself for hibernation by setting buds this early Fall.  This Saucer Magnolia tree didn't flower this Spring - which was a disappointment - but grew (according to my tree height inventory) by almost two feet in height .   I documented the first year of flowers - in Spring of 2018 - here .   This year, the tree leaves stayed green and didn't get any Sooty Mold like it has had in previous years .   I'll try to document the buds after all of the leaves fall off this Fall/Winter to provide a comparison against what the naked tree looked like in February of 2018 here .