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3 Little Lime Hydrangeas Planted + Azalea Transplanting - June 2022

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At the beginning of June, I showed off the three 2# Little Lime Hydrangeas that I brought home as part of our backyard landscape plan .  I wanted them to fill in right in front of the apple tree Belgian Fence espalier on the north side of the yard - under the Tree Swing Northern Red Oak tree. In order to get these three in the ground, I first has to dig up and transplant an existing shrub: An Azelea .  This flowering shrub has been in the ground for a number of years and, in reality, was in a terrible spot.  It flowers (barely), but is leggy and not happy here.  I started by digging up the azalea while trying to keep the rootball totally intact and surrounded by soil.  See below for the spade I used to dig this azalea up - right in front of the Belgian Fence espalier: I decided to move this one out further west to a more-sunny spot in the backyard.   With these being #13, #14 and #15 shrubs planted, I thought I'd revisit my initial list : 5 Oakleaf Hydrangeas.   Planted and done. 

Kwanzan Cherry Tree Blossoms - May 2022

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The Cherry Blossoms are in bloom.  At least in our backyard.  The photos below show our Kwanzan Flowering Cherry Tree in bloom with pink flowers and red-to-maroon foliage.  Those leaves turn out ordinary - green-colored - as the Spring and Summer wears on.   This tree was bought in Mid-May in 2017 as we were still building our new house.  We planted this ahead of our occupancy and had to baby it as the heat of Summer arrived .   For the full tale of the tape, here's the history of this tree below.  It has bloomed five of six years with 2019 being the only year we saw no flowers.   2017: Bloomed (when purchased) in mid-May . 2018: Bloomed that first Spring after being planted in mid-May . 2019: No blooms. Looked like it wanted to in mid-May . 2020: Bloomed (during the pandemic) in early May . 2021: Bloomed in late April (photos in this post were taken on April 28, 2021) 2022:  Bloomed in mid-May. (photos taken on May 11). 2021 was the earliest (late April), but the other four

Ruby Slippers Oakleaf Hydrangeas - Planted in Back - May 2022

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Yesterday, I posted a couple of photos showing the location of the Little Honey Oakleaf Hydrangeas that we bought at the Morton Arboretum and planted in the backyard (southside bed, understory of the secondary Northern Red Oak tree).   I also bought two MORE Oakleaf Hydrangeas from the sale - Ruby Slippers Oakleaf Hydrangeas - that are also planted (now) in our backyard.  This time, however, they are in the northside bed.  These Ruby Slippers Oakleaf Hydrangas  (Hydrangea Quercifolia) are MUCH darker green than the Little Honey variety, but like the Little Honey, these maintain a compact form of under five feet tall .   Last year, when I moved the Alice Oakleaf Hydrangeas out from the fence, I moved ONE of them over to the south bed - in between the Harry Lauder Walking Stick tree and the Weeping Nootka Falsecypress tree .   The plan calls for three flowering shrubs planted in a cluster here and that's why I brought home two Ruby Slippers shrubs from the Morton Arboretum Sale.  

Little Honey Oakleaf Hydrangeas Planted - May 2022

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A week ago, I started posting a series of photos of the plant material that we brought home from the annual Morton Arboretum Arbor Day Plant Sale.  The first of those posts were these three Little Honey Oakleaf Hydrangeas that are bright chartreuse in color and are dwarf (under 5' tall) in stature.  The plan called for three Little Lime Hydrangeas, but because this spot is deeper into the shade than it used to be (when the plan was built/drafted), I decided to call the audible and move to an Oakleaf variety.   I tucked these three into the area just to the West of where I dug out the Lilacs.  They get four feet tall and four feet wide, so when mature, they'll (hopefully) fill in the current spacing.  You can see the three Little Honey Oakleaf Hydrangeas standing OUT in the landscape below: Here, below, is an annotated version of that same photo showing where these are located - understory of the flowering Kwanzan Cherry tree and bordered by the Everillo Sedges and one (of th

Prairie Dropseed from Morton Arboretum - May 2022

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When I did the series of posts showing off the various plant materials that I brought home from the annual Morton Arboretum Arbor Day Plant Sale, I forgot to include a couple of plants that I bought.  I showed the Little Honey Hydrangeas , Ruby Slippers Oakleaf Hydrangeas and the three Ivory Prince Hellebores .  But, I also brought home two grasses:  Prairie dropseed - Sporobolus heterolepis.  Here (below) is a look at the two grasses: And, here below, is the sign from the Morton Arboretum Plant Sale where they describe Prairie Dropseed - Sporobolus heterolepis as "Prairie native grasss that is extremely tough. Makes a great natural addition to the home landscape with beautiful, dense and arching clumps of fine textured leaves.  Flowers have a unique fragrance." The University of Wisconsin Horticulture Extension Office has a page on Prairie Dropseed that provides a few more details : It was was named a Plant of Merit by the Missouri Botanical Garden in 2005 and was selected

All Gold Japanese Forest Grasses In Spring - May 2022

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This Spring, the backyard bed (under the tree swing) is showing eight All Gold Japanese Forest Grasses that have emerged from the mulch.  These are notorious slow-starters (for me), so I'm happy to see that all eight (from last Fall) have come back.  Here's last year's Fall look .   That's down one from Spring when I had nine in this bed.    You can see this area in the photo below with the grasses near the border of the curve in the bed: There's a lot going on in that photo.  Tulips glowing up in the background and more.  So....Below is an annotated version of the same photo showing the eight All Gold Japanese Forest Grasses.  In the back (in the blue circles) are three Miscanthus sinesis 'Adagio' that I planted last Fall .  In the orange circle is the lone  Green Mountain Boxwood from 2021  that is a pyramidal form.  For some of these, this will be the third growing season, while for others this will be the second - which I'm hoping means they're

Front Yard Ornamental Grasses Divided and Transplanted - May 2022

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I've posted a series of times about the Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grasses that we have in our landscape and how I've been digging them up, dividing them and transplanting them to various spots of our beds to provide that notion of a cohesive design with repeating patterns of specific plants.  I started doing this last Fall and then did even more this Spring after realizing that the ones I divided last Fall were just fine.   Last week, I showed how I made eight new divisions in the backyard and planted them in various places in the backyard.  The final Karl Foerster grass that I needed to dig up and divide was this large one in between our driveway and front walk stoop.  It was left there as a hedge - but is suffering from some center rot.  It needed to be divided.  See below for the 'before'.  The two further back were divisions from last Fall and are showing some new green tips this Spring: After digging that one out and dividing it up, I put one of the segments back