Why I Oughta...

A couple weeks ago, I posted a "Getting to Know" post about the Arctic Jade Korean Maple tree .  I showed a couple of photos from the inventory at the Growing Place and talked about how this cultivar is part of the "Jack Frost" Collection from Iseli Nursery .  The Arctic Jade is a hybrid maple that is 'more hardy' than a traditional Japanese Maple, but has 'large green, deeply cut leaves reminiscent of A. japonicum ‘Aconitifolium’. There's a lot to love about this tree - and that's why I brought one home. They had two sizes and after hemming-and-hawing, I went with the larger container that had a larger, more-full tree.  Below is the Arctic Jade Korean Maple tree on our driveway:    Here's a closer look at the leaves: There are a couple of items on my 2025 to-do list that are relevant - #5 is to "Get back in the Japanese Maple game" and #13 is to "add some trees".  This Korean Maple checks both of those boxes.   I placed...

For the past year-or-so, I've been thinking about this inspiration photo that shows a combination of blue-green, upright conifer trees flanked by Stachys Hummelo perennials in a mass planting .   I talked about using it in the front yard, but had not come across Wichita Blue Junipers in the wild, so the idea sort-of just hung on the shelf.   That was...until I went to the big box nursery recently and saw these blue-needle upright conifers in the parking lot amongst the big masses of arborvitae.  These looked interesting.  Upon closer inspection...it turns out...these are what I've been thinking about for the past year:  Wichita Blue Juniper trees.   The Missouri Botanical Garden describes Wichita Blue Junipers thusly: ‘Wichita Blue’ is a compact, conical, male form that grows slowly (6-12” per year) to 10-15’ tall, but may eventually reach 15-30’ tall. As the cultivar name suggests, it is noted for its blue or blue-gray foliage that retains ...

Last week, I pulled out a small London Planetree that we had planted in our parkway .  The tree suffered from drought last year and didn't come back this Spring.  No buds set, no green under the bark.   Replacing it was a no-brainer when I came across that Black Tupelo tree that I posted about yesterday .   Just because this Black Tupelo was a $20 tree - sold by a Big Box store, I'm one to follow the advice of Ralph Snodsmith and gave this 50-cent plant tree a $5 hole .  Because I dug up the dead London Planetree, the digging here was easy. I dug a wide and deep hole and then backfilled it in to make sure the rootball was placed not-too low.  These big box store trees always have their root-flare buried.  So, it is easy to plant them too low.  Right now, the root-flare is under some soil.  But....in terms of position the ball, I kept this one up 'high enough' to where - if/when the trunk develops, the rootflare will be 'above' the ...