Why I Oughta...

Some of our conifers are putting on a two-toned needle show right now.  The new growth on both our Weeping White Spruce and Weeping Norway Spruce emerge in a neon-green color that contrasts with the older, darker-green needles on the main part of the trees.  The new growth brightens up the garden and makes the trees standout a little bit. Below are a couple of photos - first one of the Weeping Norway Spruce that is planted IB2DWs.  There are two of these that went in last Fall, but the one in the photo is the tree that is planted closer to the house than the sidewalk .    And, the second photo is the Weeping White Spruce that lost its leader a number of years ago and has NOT grown up at all.    Here's a post from early June 2023 that shows this same Weeping White Spruce tree with big, blue-ish swollen tips of new needles after the flush grew out.   I mentioned that this tree lost its leader and it hasn't grown at all height-wise for a few ye...

Last Summer, I added eleven Green Velvet Boxwoods (1# size) at the feet of the horizontal cordon espalier Green spire Linden trees in our backyard - up against the fence.  I bought them small, due to the cost of adding so many of them in one spot and they didn't take up much space.  You can see what they looked like last June in this post .  Spring is when my boxwoods put on growth, so I thought it was interesting to see how much they had grown in a little less than a year.  These were put in at the end of June - with a biosolids and topsoil mix - and I'm thinking put down roots all of 2023.  This Spring - 2024 - the tips of the shrubs have leapt up and out, adding light green tips to the (still) small evergreen shrubs.   Below is what they look like currently - in the middle of the Spring flush of new growth: There are seven in the back row and four in the front.  They may NOT look like much (on their own, in this photo), but here (below) is an ...

Last Spring, I planted four small (1#) Green Velvet Boxwoods in our front porch bed in a spot that was created when I took the Norway Maple tree down and opened up the bed.  My goal was to plant some evergreen shrubs here that extend the hedge of existing Green Velvet Boxwoods that are planted closer to our stoop.  These were late-Spring 50% sale plants and I planted them with a mix of compost and biosolids.  They seemed to handle the heat of the Summer just fine and have survived this past Winter.  Have a look below to see the little bit of new, Spring growth that all four have put on in recent weeks:  At the top of the photo, you can see the trunk of the Triumph Elm tree and a few other things hanging around - including some left-over Tulips that survived the stump grinding , a Summer Beauty Allium in front and a Matcha Ball Spirea over on the left of the photo.  Further back, there are a couple Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grasses and some of the Vanilla...

Our hedge of Frans Fontaine Columnar Hornbeam trees is waking up for Spring and has begun to leaf-out all over the trees.  The last time that I looked at these trees was earlier this (late) Winter, when all of the trees were still clinging to some of their previous-season's leaves (something called foliar marcescence).   The screening that comes from planting these Frans Fontaine Hornbeams along the property line is starting to come into focus this growing season as the small leaves are opening from their buds.  Below, is a photo showing the current (mid/late April) state in our yard in Northern Illinois (Zone 5b).  And, here below, is a look at the leaf from the Frans Fontaine European Hornbeam (Fastigata).  They are curled and ribbed with a hob-like flower/fruit on the trees It won't be long until they fill-in for the year - check this post to see what these trees look like mid-Summer (July 2022) where they're screening our neighbor's yard. These trees ...

Every year, we go on a little vacation to Wisconsin or somewhere else where we find ourselves away from our house for a number of weeks in a row.  Each year, I try to set up an irrigation system that provides enough water to allow for the plants, shrubs and trees - as well as the grass - to simply survive.  In most years, we usually get a LITTLE lucky and get a rain event once or twice while we're gone and most everything survives.   Last year, we went on vacation in the middle of the Summer and weren't lucky enough to have that rain event.  Couple that with a REALLY dry Spring (Drought) and my sprinkler setup not covering EVERYTHING and we have things die out.   One of the specimens who suffered last year was the Weeping White Spruce columnar tree that is planted on the southside of our beds, near the Lindens that are espalier'd.  By mid-July last year, it was showing a bunch of needle drop - when we came back from vacation .  And by Septemb...

Back in early March, I transplanted our original Disneyland Rose from our backyard to our sideyard where it joined the pair of other Disneyland Roses which are thriving in a sunny spot along the house.  I had never moved a rose before, so I read up on when/how to make the move and tried to follow the best practices:  pre-dug the destination hole, timed it before the bush came out of dormancy and waited to prune it back until a few weeks AFTER the transplant.   This week, I went over to check on all of the Disneyland Roses (and to confirm the potential location for a pair of espalier'd trees along the house there ) and wanted to see the difference between the three floribunda roses.   The pair of Disneyland Roses that were there pre-transplant were put in the ground in Fall 2018 .  And, I mostly neglected them.  Despite the lack of attention, they thrived and flowered.  And this past Winter, I tried to protect and overwinter them with a ring ...

 Last year, I planted (in two sets) twelve Summer Beauty Ornamental Onion (Allium) on the south side of our backyard in two different spots.  First, I put in four underneath one of the Espalier'd Lindens , then seven more further down (and one more by the Lindens) all in a cluster that will, hopefully, grow up and out into a nice drift of alliums.  This is my first Spring with them and I'm happy to see that they're showing a lot of nice, new green growth coming out of the ground and seem to be one of the first movers of the season.   My count shows that all twelve are (right now) showing signs of life, so I'm thinking they all are coming back.   I threw down some wood chips on top of these to shelter them from the cold last Fall and I'm thinking these might have helped in some way.  But, they sure take on a messy look once Spring comes, don't they?  Have a look at three of these Allium covered with Fall wood chips below.  These need a n...

After seeing some Winter damage (and rabbit damage ) on some of our Hicks Upright yews that I planted last year, I was happy to see that the shrubs are showing off some growth this Spring.  All twelve (12) of these small yews have new, fresh Spring growth on the tips.  I planted these in mid-Summer of 2019 and baby'd them with a soaker hose. I stuck some of the Jobe's fertilizer spikes in near the northern-most shrubs in an attempt to see if they work.  If you recall, my goal is a wavy shrub like the one this post. I posted some photos of these yews in my garden walk-around earlier this Spring and gave them a heavy mulch.

Yesterday, I showed off some new growth on our Yews in the rear yard and today, I'm happy to show one of our tiny Canadian Hemlocks showing some new light-green growth.  This is back in the 'rabbit damage' area that I posted about in March of this year .  You can see one of the Ostrich Ferns on the right side of this photo and - in terms of documenting this location - this is the furthest right (north) of the three that I initially planted. This one was the least damaged by rabbits, but I now need to get round to protecting it with some chickenwire/poultry wire to keep the critters from munching on it. The other ones have a little bit of growth, but not like this one.  I'll post some photos of the other set later this Summer. 

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 ...