The main drag through our neighborhood is lined with Bradford pear trees and it's beautiful when in flower. Stinky, like dead fish, but pretty if you can get past the odor. Unfortunately, they are our neighborhood's harbingers of Spring. The trees were planted approximately 18 years ago and I'm guessing were bought for a song by the developer. They're common and it's always concerned me. Even more so now that my neighbor's gorgeous pear trees in her front garden have succumbed to fire blight and will have to be removed. Their invasive nature has landed them on the Illinois Invasive Plant List. In other words, choose something other than a pear. Ironically, the callery pear (Pyrus calleryana), from which the Bradford originates, was brought over from China in an attempt to thwart fire ...
Search Results for: redbud tree
Verticillium Wilt: The Soilborne Disease Claiming Victim(s)
For nearly 17 years, my garden flew under the radar of disease until last year when it was obvious something was wrong with my redbud tree (Cercis canadensis). One of the main branches didn't flower or leaf out. While I remained hopeful, the reality was that I sort of knew what was happening but didn't want to admit it to myself. It was kind of like saying Beetlejuice! three times. Only this was even harder, this was real and attacking my favorite tree. I sawed out the affected branch and waited for another spring, hoping it might bounce back but it didn't. It got worse. Verticillium wilt has consumed two-thirds of the tree and right now, only the branch closest to the gate has flowers. The rest is dead. So I'm enjoying that last branch while at the same time lamenting the loss of the ...
I Finally Transplanted My Peony
Nothing like waiting until the eleventh hour. But in the case of my Scarlet O'Hara peony, that's exactly what I did. I received a bare root peony tuber as a door prize at a garden event about ten years ago. The planting spot I chose was visible from the house and rather close to a redbud tree that, at the time, didn't cast much shade. With plenty of morning and early afternoon sun, the peony thrived. Fast forward to a much bigger redbud and a peony that surprisingly still flowers despite receiving less than two hours of direct sun. Four to six hours is recommended. It's hard to imagine that a three-foot stick of a tree will, if all goes well, eventually create a beautiful green umbrella over the plants below. But that's exactly what the redbud's done and I'm tasked with finding a new ...
No Planting Yet, Get a Soil Test First!
I have a confession to make. My garden hasn't had a soil test in 10 years. There are plenty of things in the garden, like the chlorosis on the little lime hydrangea and the groundcovers that never seem to cover any ground, that have been telling me now's the time. I'm finally prepared to listen and only wish I'd done it a whole lot sooner. But with the new side yard bed I told you about last week, I'm determined to do things right. And while I'm at it, I'm going to sample the bed that used to contain my beautiful redbud. It bit the dust last year and nothing in that area, aside from the hosta and solomon seal which could probably survive Chernobyl, is thriving. So I'm double dipping, so to speak. Most states have a university extension office that you can call or look up online for ...
Virginia Creeper, the Native Vine I’ll NEVER Plant Again
Here's the thing about Virginia Creeper, it gets you in trouble with your neighbors. My garden is the epicenter of the neighborhood plantdemic. How can I deny its origin when a portion of my fence is covered with it? It's like saying you never took the cookie when your mouth is covered with crumbs. My neighbor and sarcastic gardening friend, Jim, approached me earlier this year with a leaf in hand and a smirk on his face. The conversation went like this... Jim: Recognize this? (As he rolls the stem between his fingers, spinning the leaf in my face.) Me: Go home Jim. Jim: Yeah, I thought so. He lives across the street from me and discovered several vines growing in his backyard garden which is about 60 yards away from the point of origin, also known as my garden. I ...
Espalier DIY: A Small Space Garden Solution
In 2012, I was scouting magazine locations and came across a garden along Chicago's North Shore unlike any I had ever seen. What stood out was the tree positioned in a narrow planting bed on a north-facing wall and I was instantly intrigued. So much so that I knew I had to figure out how to put something like that in my small garden. The homeowner, Kim Visokey (a self-proclaimed Garden Freak), had planted an espaliered Kieffer pear tree that produced plenty of edible fruit. Espalier is a pruning technique developed by a French monk, Father Legendre, in the mid 1600s, who stumbled upon the idea purely by happenstance. Food production can be a challenge, especially when you're faced with the task of feeding a monastery. As the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention. Fruit buds ...
