Why I Oughta...

Last Spring, while the world was pretty well shut down, The Growing Place nursery got creative and held a 'drive thru' shopping experience.  You couldn't get out of your cars, but you could drive thru the areas with the plants, shout out to the staff who would grab something for you and toss it in your trunk.  We ended up buying a few things that were part of our plan (Summer Beauty Allium) and some that weren't ( Harry Lauder's Walking Stick contorted tree ), but were things we wanted.  One of the other items we bought was our first Lenten Rose (or Hellebores).  We picked a Sally's Shell and planted it in Spring .  It was flowering when we bought it and I was careful to watch it all Summer. Notice, I said "a" Sally's Shell.  Which, upon reflection, is a very common gardening mistake:  buying just one of something .   Our plan has a couple of spots that call for drifts of Hellebores - and one of them is this season's "Priority Area #2&quo

 Back in October of 2020, I posted some photos showing a juniper cultivar that I have kept in a large patio container for the past few seasons and talked about how I had wrapped some wire around some of the limbs as I began to learn how to bonsai the past few seasons.  I overwintered this container both inside the screened porch and then, due to A LOT of fungus gnats, ended up moving it back outside. This is the same juniper that I posted snow-covered back in February that really got my brain going on bonsai for 2021, so when the snow melted, I immediately went and looked at the state of the tree.  And, it turns out, the wire that I wrapped on the tree (either in 2020 or 2019) was on far too long and too tight.  Because there's quite a bit of wire damage.  You can see it below, but it was on their so long that it was difficult to remove as the tree began to grow AROUND the wire. This is a tree that I'll move work pretty hard this year ( it is #2 on my 2021 Bonsai to-do list  a

Earlier this month, the fine folks at Disney Imagineering shared even more details of the newly refreshed entrance to Epcot that includes the original fountain, some cool ribbon lighting and a series of flagpoles that are flying flags featuring the original symbols of Epcot .  Seems like it is a lot of "back to the beginnings" for Epcot in terms of the entrance and I'm here for it.    In our pin trading, we've collected a series of the Epcot pavilion symbol pins, but there's one that we just came across that was new to us.  It is what you see below:  Now, we can certainly have a conversation about *if* this is scrapper (and it might be), but that's not what I'm here to post about.  It is about the fact that, based on THIS pin, I just learned that the World Showcase had/has a symbol that was in harmony with all the other ones that I was familiar with over the years.  What is interesting is that this story on D23 (the official fan club for Disney) doesn'

Last Spring, our neighbors to the north began framing their house and once the window placements were set, I came to the realization that our row of Frans Fontaine Hornbeam trees were doing a pretty great job of screening between our houses.  But, there was an edge spot - closer to the front of the house - that was going to be exposed to one of their new windows.  So, on Earth Day 2020, we decided to plant a columnar flowering pear tree (yeah...I know.  they're not great trees.  But, I needed to put in something that was inexpensive, narrow in habit and, ummm, fast growing.  The Chanticleer Pear tree fit the bill . When I planted it , the tip top of the tree was right at the fence level.  But, by the time Fall came around , it had put on more than 18" to the top.  Have a peek at it in October of last year .   The tree was beginning to do its job.   I've had mixed luck with these trees.  I had a large (3"+ caliper) planted in our front yard in 2017.  It died that firs

 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 new, fresh coat of hardwoo

About a month ago, I decided to take a dwarf umbrella plant that was mostly forgotten about upstairs in our spare bedroom and transplant it to a different container .  The goal was to straighten it out - and get it standing straight up in the air.  But, also to try to compel some new growth through some top pruning.  It wasn't long before that initial care that one or two tiny buds began to pop from the trunk .  But, they didn't take off.  Checking back in this week - about a month from that initial top prune - and you can see (below) that the tree is showing some new top growth right at the point of cutting.  There are a couple of smaller branches growing and the light green, larger branch: As for the trunk buds, they're continuing to exist, but not breaking much in terms of throwing off new branches.  You can see one of them on the left side of the trunk below: That one (and another one) appeared right after I did that initial top prune.  So...you're thinking the same

Just about one month in and (knock wood), our Maidenhair Fern is still green.  And, showing some signs of growth in terms of width and height.  Here is the post showing off this delicate fern that we brought home in late February and have been careful to keep happy. I have a couple of brown tips, but also new growth.  Thus, a mixed bag so far after one month.   If you poke around the Web just a bit, you'll find people talking about how difficult these ferns are to take care of as indoor plants.  And, while I'm certainly no pro, it seems like the key for this fern (SO FAR) is to keep it mostly watered.  For me, that means a couple of times per week.  And a good soaking in terms of watering.  I place the pot in our sink and soak it pretty good - letting the water run out the bottom for a bit before putting it back into the little plastic tray.   Once the warm days of April begin to appear, I'm going to plan on putting some of our containers out for little parts of the day to