Why I Oughta...

Earlier this Spring, I received a few comments on a post from last year where I talked about after some hemming-and-hawing, I brought home and planted a special tree: a Japanese White Pine - Pinus Parviflora 'Glauca Nana' .  Below are a couple of them - that are similar:   "I saw this tree and I'm intrigued.  How is your's doing?" I replied back in the comments with my thoughts (more on that below), but I thought this might deserve a full post.  First....about the tree.  It has a siren call.  You can't NOT notice it amongst the pallets upon pallets of Arborvitae and Boxwoods.  And, I have to admit...I saw the exact same thing that the two commentors had - at the Big Box Orange nursery this Spring.  Here's the beauty that was calling me to bring it home from back in May: So, I won't waste time.  My tree didn't make it.  My Japanese White Pine - Glauca Nana - went brown in Winter and got worse as time went on.  When Spring came, it was crispy, ha

Back on Earth Day this Spring, the kids and I went over to Benet Academy and picked up a free native tree seedling from their Environmental Club.  The tree was very small - a little trunk - and a lot of roots.  It was a Shagbark Hickory and I planted it in the backyard .  I then, promptly, forgot about the tree.  I figured it was dead.  Or never alive.  There were a couple of buds on the tree seedling, but I wasn't positive it had any life in it to begin with when I planted it in May. The tree has done nothing.  The buds didn't open.  The tree didn't leaf out at all.  Here is a look at the tree in the photo below: The photo isn't great because it is hard to get my phone to focus on the tiny, thin trunk.  Here's an annotated photo (below) with a red line showing the trunk and a few branches up top.  Again...no leaves at all on this tree. It is dead, right?  At least, that's what I assumed.  But, when I did the whole 'fingernail trick' on the trunk of the