Why I Oughta...

The small, volunteer Northern Catalpa tree that is growing up on one corner of our patio had a three-leader situation going on in June.  Catalpas are whirl'd - which means they show growth out of three points, so having three leaders isn't surprising.  About three weeks ago, I made the decision to cut-off two of them and then forgot about it.  It didn't take long, but the small tree reacted VERY STRONGLY to the leader situation being sorted and has shot up about a foot in the past two weeks.  Here, below, is a look at the tree as it sits currently: I'll note that the peak is right above the tips of the Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grasses.  Looking back at September 2023 - late last Summer - this same tree was coming in a foot-or-so below the grass tips and I measured it at 41" tall. What is it now - after this growth spurt?  65" tall to the top of the foliage.  24" growth since September of 2023 - and most of it (I think) in the past couple of weeks.

We have a few large, mature Northern Catalpa trees in our yard that I've really grown to appreciate over the years.  They're native trees that have H U G E leaves, put out a really nice set of interesting, white flower blooms on the trees in early Summer , and have a little Fall-show in them with a turn to golden yellow before dropping their large leaves.  They leave behind long, lean seed pods that I've tried to grow into seedlings , but I don't think that I've ever successfully sowed a Northern Catalpa tree on my own. But...they also produce quite a few volunteer trees.   In the Fall of 2022, I dug up and transplanted one of those volunteer seedlings and moved it into the little, corner bed of our back patio; tucked in between the Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grasses.  I watered it to get it established and then left it alone.  Two years later, what does that little volunteer (transplanted) tree look like?  See below for the current state of the tree....

We might have a problem in the garden.  Or, we might have something else totally.  I'm talking about the volunteer Silver Maple tree that popped up last season and one that I have left alone all this year.  Has it grown?  Yeah.  It.has.grown.  A LOT. I last posted about this tree in mid-July (about 50 days ago) and it has not slowed down since then.  I mentioned in that post that I was guessing it had put on 3' of new growth this year.  Now?  I'd say it is more like five feet of new growth.  It is every bit as tall as the Exclamation London Planetrees that sit by the fence .  Below, is a look at the current state of this (questionable-in-value) tree that is in our south beds: I didn't plan for this tree.  And...I've read all about the merits of Silver Maples.   Naturalist Donald Peattie wrote an length about the Silver Maple and called it a paradox . Both the pros - fast-growing, beautiful crowns and ability to gro...

Last year, I let this Maple tree volunteer seedling just go .  It grew up and up and I ended up protecting it via a chicken wire ring during the Winter.    It came back this year and has put on a ton of new growth on the leader.  SO....I figured it was time to try to figure out what variety of Maple/Acer I was dealing with in the garden.  I went out and looked the foliage and then started to look around - and it was a quick Web stroll to figure out that I'm dealing with a Silver Maple.    Below are two photos of the top and bottom of the leaf - and there are two tells here.    At least...I'm about 75% confident that this is, indeed, a Silver Maple. The Chicago Botanic Garden has this listing up for Silver maple (Acer saccharinum) that details those two tells that are visible in the photos above: The silver maple is a North American native and best known for providing us with maple syrup. The leaves have the classic maple leaf shape and becom...

I have had various volunteer trees take off in different parts of our garden over the years.  The American Elm pops up EVERYWHERE .  The Chicago Blues Black Locust does, too .  I've talked about how I have Catalpa seedlings (or what I think are Catalpa seedlings) in different spots of the front and backyard.  For the most part, I rub or rip out the little seedlings before they can become anything of signficance.   However, there have been a couple of tiny seedlings in the southside backyard bed that I've been watching for the past few months, wondering what they'd become and if they were worth nurturing.  Before we went into Fall, I wanted to document here in the [tree diary] both of these trees as they are currently standing. First up is a Maple tree.  This Maple (unknown cultivar) is growing up right behind the Fanal Astilbes on the southside.  It is about 24" tall, has a strong central leader and is throwing off a LOT of healthy, green fo...

I was doing some weeding in one of our backyard beds, and came across this small tree seedling that you can see in the photo below.  It is about 10" tall and has oval, pinnate leaves.  Looking around at my neighbor's yard, I know they have locust trees.  A bunch of them.  They flower in Spring and have lots of leaves on them.  But, I'm not sure if they're Black or Honey locusts.   Both are native to Illinois, but the Black Locust - sometimes called "Chicago Blues" is now considered invasive ( The Morton Arboretum has it listed as "not recommended" ).   One other key trait of the Black Locust trees are they they carry thorns - especially when young.  Right now, this little seedling has no thorns, so I'm going to leave it alone.  If I see thorns develop, I'll lop this one off and remove it.