Why I Oughta...

Back in May of 2019, I planted a number of very small, one-gallon Canadian Hemlock trees .  A few of them were destroyed by rabbits.  And a few died from drought.  But, two of them have managed to make it to today.  In terms of growing seasons, that: 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and now...in the middle of their sixth growing season:  2024.   After the rabbits ate these things up, I began to protect them with chicken wire.  The past few seasons, I've just left the chicken wire rings in place.  And the trees have just kept-on-growing.   I heard from someone on the blog about the hemlocks and they wondered how they were doing.   Here's a couple of photos that show them - although...they're *hard to see*.   The first photo shows both of the trees - one on the left and the other on the right - split by that narrow tree trunk in the middle.  The second photo shows a close-up of the chicken wire ring. I'd say that ...

This post deposits two things into the [garden diary]:   the loss of a Japanese Maple and the planting of a different one.  First, the loss.  Last Summer, I planted a 2-gallon Japanese Maple that was mis-marked.  It was labeled as an Emperor 1, but was had dissectum or laceleaf foliage .  I marked it as an 'unknown' Japanese Maple - likely a Takukeyama.  That tree was purchased on May 12, 2023, so I had a decision to make.  By May 11th (this past weekend), the tree was not leaf'ing out.  The scratch test showed that the trunk was still alive, but no buds had opened up.  With the one-year warranty running out, I opted to yank it out and get the store credit.   This marks the second loss of trees this year - the first being the Silver Maple that I removed earlier this Spring .  Two trees lost, zero planted.  But, that is about to change thanks to the Morton Arboretum Plant Sale.  A few days ago, I posted about the ...

This past May (2023), I planted three Spine Tingler Epimedium that I brought home from the Morton Arboretum Arbor Day Plant Sale and stuck them in amongst the other epimedium that have survived - Amber Queen.  These are planted under a large Catalpa tree in the backyard, along the north side bed.   Below is a photo showing the current state of these three (along with one Amber Queen on the far right of the image): My experience with epimedium is that they are VERY slow to get established.  They aren't in a state of growing, but also not so much a state of dying.  More like...just a state of 'being.   I've looked back at the photos of when these went in and I'm not sure they've actually grown.  But, I'm also not sure they've shrunk at all.  I'd love NOTHING MORE than to see these spiny-filled barrenwort/epimedium to naturalize this whole area to make a large colony of groundcover.  

Editor's Note: While this post is going up in mid-July, the first photo showing this blue bloom in our garden are from mid-June.  I wanted to get this into the [garden diary] before I forgot about it.    Last year, we bought and planted a single ground cover plant from Northwind Perennial Farm in Wisconsin that has blue blooms called Campanula Poscharskyana or Blue Waterfall .   I stuck it into the little understory garden behind the River Birch clump and amongst some other Roy Diblik-sold plants.   Northwind calls this Campanula 'vigorous' and after one season, I'd say that's true. Below is a photo showing this groundcover in mid-June 2023 in what I'd consider full-bloom. As you can see, it is spreading out in every direction with blue/purple-lined runners.  And has a cluster of green foliage in the center that is taller than those runners.  We don't have a ton of flowers in our garden, so having this in bloom is nice in this section....

A few days ago, I posted some photos showing off three Japanese Maples that I bought from Mr. Maple and they shipped out .  All three are small one-gallon trees and arrived in good shape.  The first one of these three trees that I planted is Acer palmatum 'Firefly'.  Below are some photos showing off the foliage of Firefly and you can quickly tell that this tree is a beauty.  Of note, the rootball wasn't totally filled out in the small one-gallon nursery container, so when I took it out, the soil and roots sort of 'fell part'.  I quickly packed it back together and stuck it in a five-dollar hole. Here's what Mr. Maple has to say about Firefly Japanese Maple : 'Firefly' is a Japanese maple with superb reticulated variegation. The deep lime green veining, along with a brighter fiery red spring color distinguish this variegated selection by Paul Holden of Harstein Island Nursery. The habit is fairly upright , with less spreading than other ghost type varieg...

Every gardener wants things in their garden that are unique.  Plants that their neighbors don't have.  Plants that you can't find at the big box store.  Epimedium is a plant that fits those three things.  I posted last week about the Orange Queen Epimedium that we brought home from the Morton Arboretum Plant Sale .  And talked about how I bought another variety.  This post is about that *other* variety:  Spine Tingler Barrenwort.   At the sale, this spine-y foliage certainly caught my eye.  I knew these were going to find a home in my garden out back: Back in 2021, I came across Sandy Claws Epimedium at The Growing Place and talked about how I liked it .    This Spine Tingler variety sure looks A LOT like Sandy Claws, doesn't it? I planted the three plants right behind my existing Epimedium - Amber Queen - on the north side in the understory bed.   In the photo below, you can see the three new Spine Tinglers in back ...