I'm not sure what elevation you are at, but assuming the Marina will do ok at your elevation, this looks like a good spot for it. It needs open areas, will take part shade as long is its bright and open, so this looks like it would fit that bill well. I wouldn't hesitate trying the native Madrone there myself, if the soil is well drained. I would NOT add a Japanese maple next to it. They will grow quickly enough to compete for both light and water with the Marina, and though it likes it dry, an active fast growing tree like a Jap maple does not seem like a good fit to me for getting it established. I am intrigued by the thought of the Marina with the Stewartia, honestly. They are both known for their bark, which I think would make for an interesting pairing. The stump may work well for one of your hemlocks too, if you were interested in using it for that. Be aware though, Mountain Hemlock in my experience needs a fair amount of water to get it going, and really prefers more even moisture as it is growing than the Marina may like. Keep the two separated if you plan on supplementing the water for the hemlock. Once established though (which I find takes longer with this alpine than it would for most native conifers, especially if we have dry summers during the establishment phase), they should be fine with the drought, especially if they are growing on or near a "nurse log" which will help with that immensely. Maybe its just my love affair with the native dogwood... but I always like seeing dogwoods up against evergreens, lol. It would probably like the conditions you have their, and would be lovely with the white flowers against the colorful bark and dark green leaves, but I'd be a little worried initially about it overpowering the Marina, especially if you want it to be the star of the bed. Once the Marina gets its head up above the dogwood, it may be less appealing than when its a smaller tree with the combination of the leaves and flowers more apparent. I'm not at all familiar with the Oxydendron, so can't say much of anything about that. Seems to me similar enough in flower shape that if they bloom anywhere close to the same time period, I'd rather see them in separate beds, but close enough to where the flowers can echo each other without looking like you are trying to match them up. But it looks lovely, especially in fall color. On a side note... especially with the woods around you, I kinda get a red neck kick out of the "stump farm" look... I'd be awfully tempted to leave the stumps the way you have them, plug them with different kinds of (edible?) mushrooms, and garden around them for a while. Maybe bowl out the tops of the bigger ones enough to plant some ferns and maybe some ground dogwood in them or something... have fun with them rather than remove them. But then, I like the way these stumps look in the woods as they are decomposing. I kind of think of it as the cycle showing all its splendor right there in front of your eyes, lol. I've had good luck planting red huckleberries, spiny wood fern (Drypopteris expansa), licorice fern and a few others in these stump pots. I think with the new trees and the returning salal etc, you could have a really beautiful bed that way. One trick with this- use something really organic like peat moss or coir to plant these, or if you have it, composted bark. It mimics the decomposing wood, and the roots will be able to adapt easily to the wood as the potting "soil" and stump become one. Most of the usual suspects that grow on nurse logs in the woods will like this kind of organic soil too.

Hello, ItÂs me againÂÂI know so little about growing tress and I appreciate everyoneÂs help. I planted 2 Strawberry Trees in April. One was a younger tree probably 1 - 2 years old and the other a more mature tree probably 4+ years old. both we in 24 inch boxes from the nursery. The larger tree is planted at the west side of my yard and the smaller at the east side. My home faces south so they are on the north side of the house. The younger one has done phenomenally and the older one has had some struggles. I attributed the struggles that larger tree has endured were transplanting related and it did seem to be doing OK. But IÂve seen some changes in the larger tree in recent days. The leaves are drooping and some have some browning. The browning is not pervasive, but it is concerning. I would appreciate any suggestions to remedy this condition. Please note, itÂs the hottest season in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles. The temperature currently is 96 Degrees cooling to 65 degrees overnight. Also, on the larger tree, should I be pruning off the longer branches that have lost their leaves between the truck and tippy top of the limb or will they fill in at a later date. Those leaves were lost just after planning the tree in April. I assumed it was transplant trauma. Photos can be seen at http://s129.photobucket.com/albums/p237/run_around/GardenWeb%20Photos/ Thank you, Sue

Final tip about these...why let this thread stop at 35 or wherever we are now haha! Ericaceous plants are not hungry hungry hippos. Although they may tolerate and even appear to grow faster with regular feeding, my personal belief is it can be skirting disaster. Not going to go find an article connecting over-fertilization to root rot but I bet I could find >> 1. This genus, especially, really wants 'benign neglect'. Sure it would be different if you were growing, say, blueberries on sandy soil. In fact I just fertilized one of my blueberries that seemed to be lagging with a bit of ammonium sulfate, we will see if it perks up this year. Anecdotes and opinions are what they are but, the 2nd set of pics at the NCSU link above are of a hybrid strawberry tree in London. They are a feature of gardens there. In 2010 I saw a stunning one in Rye, a solid zone 9 town on the south coast of the UK, but later read at a gardening forum that it had died. I succinctly remember it had been underplanted with a lush assembly of shade perennials that SCREAMED 'we're being heavily fertilized'. The Cyclamen coum were already blooming and so big they looked like houseplants! So, house changes owners, new owner wants beautiful plants under their strawberry tree, fertilizes them and...bam...the water moulds loved the fertilizer, too! And took out the tree! So we can't be sure that's what happened, but something to be aware of. In almost 15 years I've fertilized mine no more than 2-3 times with scant amounts of Miracle Gro (no need for Miracid here, already incredibly acidic soil!) and it's done just fine. I've repeated it ad naseum, but the case of the Camellia 'Aida' in my garden and one very close by, grown by a PhD horticulturalist at Longwood...pretty conclusively proves to me the already known connection between too much nitrogen and a failure to harden for winter. First PV winter, mine had a tiny bit of scorching on the leaf edges, the one he was heavily fertilizing so he could size it up for breeding purposes died so dead it couldn't even come back from the roots! UPDATE: was reading an excellent page about the hybrid - I didn't know it seldom fruited but that makes sense. So it's a big trade off to lose the fruits I think! https://www.architecturalplants.com/product/arbutus-x-andrachnoides/

A few comments - Arbutus 'Marina' was pretty damn-near bullet-proof until we started seeing evidence of Botryosphaeria fungus. If you keep your trees healthy this should not be too big an issue but be aware of it. The San Marcos site that I link to has a good (albeit quick) discussion. I have many of these trees and I would just water them generously this summer, especially if it's hot, turn off the irrigation in winter, and next year water deeply once a week or so. The next summer you can back off a bit. and water deeply once every one-two weeks. I have some that get drip twice a week and some that get overhead every 10-15 days or so, they all seem fine. I've lost 1-2 over the years and that may well have been due to Phytophthera not Botryosphaeria. The microsprayers that you are using are, as noted, kinda wimpy. You can get very similar form-factor sprinklers that have a continuous stream, not invidual holes, and they put out a lot more water. Yes, pull them back so that they are watering the root ball and not the trunk. I use in-line tubing (Rainbird makes the best in my experience) and I wrap a coil around the base of the tree, which I can move out farther away from the trunk as the roots grow. I have never fertilized Arbutus as I have clay soil that has its issues but it is not lacking in nutrients. If I were to fertilize them I suspect that I would use alfalfa pellets, which is basically just organic nitrogen. Makes the rabbits happy, too. Arbutus 'Marina' at San Marcos Growers