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Showing posts with the label trees lost

Lost: Columnar Scotch Pine Tree - November 2023

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Planted early this year - with MUCH fanfare - my Columnar Scotch Pine tree is dead.  I yanked it out and returned it for a store credit.   Earlier this Fall, I noticed that it was *really* struggling, so I decided to do something pretty drastic:  transplanting it.   I also decided - as part of the transplant process - to lop-off all the dead parts.  I thought that maybe it wanted more sun, so I put it by the boardwalk.  Here's what it looked like when I transplanted it in September:  some green needles, but not doing well: Six weeks later, it was gone.  Below is what it looked like before I dug it out:  no more green needles. I've talked about how I haven't, historically done enough with conifers.  But, part of the reason for that negligence is because I've had such bad luck with them.  This is another lost conifer in a long-line of them.  Have I made up for things with my new Conifer Garden?  Maybe.  But, might they all end up like this columnar Scotch Pine?  Maybe, t

Belgian Fence Apple Update - One Tree Lost - August 2021

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Back in the dark, stay-at-home days of early COVID, I bought a series of eight tiny, various apple trees and proceeded to plant them 24" apart and lop them off at 18" tall .  Hoping that I'd - one day - have a diamond-pattern Belgian Fence espalier along the northern side of our property (facing south on the fence, though).  By August of that same year (2020), three of the trees had been lost .  And there was VERY little sense of the diamond pattern showing up just yet.   This Spring, I came across two suitable crabapple trees (I needed three!) and planted them.  Suitable in this case means:  on the Honeycrisp pollinator list, cost less than $10 a piece and disease resistant or recommended.  They went into the #1 slot on the left.  And the #6 slot from the left .  Leaving slot #5 open.   I have spent a little time out there pruning up the trees and wiring up the new growth this Summer.  The last time I posted a photo of this set of trees was mid-July when they were *START

Cleaning Up The Tree Planting List - May 2021

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Earlier this month, I posted some photos about our first Japanese Maple tree - a Tamukeyama Maple - and mentioned that it was the 54th tree that I've planted over the five growing/planting seasons we've been in Downers Grove.  I also mentioned that I wasn't sure my math was totally right.  We had have some trees die that I don't think I've posted updates on.  This post is my attempt to get current with the situation we have as of May 2021. First, I CAN say that I've planted 54 trees. 2017: 9 trees 2018: 17 trees 2019: 9 trees 2020: 17 trees 2021: 2 trees I've also documented 12 trees that failed. 3 Planted in 2017: Chanticleer Pear, Dawn Redwood, Corkscrew Willow 3 Planted in 2018: Weeping Cedar, Fraser Fir, Canadian Hemlock 4 Planted in 2019: Three of the six Canadian Hemlocks, Dappled Willow 2 Planted in 2020: Lombardy Popular, Horstman Recursive Larch. That would mean that we have 42 trees alive and well.  But, there are even more that have died t

Contorted Larch Tree - LOST - August 2020

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I was out watering some things and noticed that the Horstmann's Recursive Contorted Larch Tree that I bought and planted earlier this year is now gone.  It is now just the tiny trunk.  Seems someone yanked at it and pulled the limb(s) right off as I found it laying next to it.  Bummer.  My fault for not putting up a barrier around the tree to protect it.  (Note to self:  protect things from rabbits AND kids going forward.) It was a TINY tree, but now it is in the LOST column.  I posted about the Lombardy Poplar that I lost last month here .  Two in a row - not good. This Horstmann's Recursive was the 51st tree planted.  51 trees across four planting seasons. (For now...) 43 of those trees still alive.   But there are signs of trouble on a number of other trees (including some of our apple espalier trees, two of our Chanticleer Pears, the Red Valley Sun Maple and the Crimson King Maple).  That would knock us under 30 trees on hand and more than ten trees lost.  More