I have two trees from the same nursery, bought at same year. One receives sun 12-14 hours a day, zero shade, and insects love its' leafs, so I watered it with 1g of Bayer's insecticide (mixed in 5 gallon water) a month ago and it helped. This tree has smaller leafs. Second one, in 6-8 hours per day of sun, has twice larger leafs, and much less insect damage. No idea why. Both grow differently. "full-sun" tree has slightly weeping habit, and since I started training it and constant watering, it already grew 1.5' new branches this year which considered very fast. This picture was made 4 weeks ago; "full-sun"; top branches now started straightening up; and after 1st Spring growth strike I have new strikes at almost all branches (thanks to constant water dripping). I trimmed 2/3 of side branches this year and attached bamboo stick and just this already made it looking few feet taller. "part-sun" tree has much bigger leafs and deeper colour, not weeping at all, and grows much slower. Yes, as each beech tree it can reach 40'-60' in about 40-60 years, considering tri-color was discovered recently... in 1873, France... then should find huge trees in France? Tri-Color Beech is cultivar, mostly grafted on standard beech, so it all depends on graft quality and rootstock. SOme rootstock may grow faster; some may push tree higher.

i will restate my position ... do you care what your tulips look like in august ... do you care what your mock orange looks like in late summer... etc.. etc ... every plant has its prime season, and just collect enough plants.. that you have something new coming into its prime every other week or so ... so you have something fresh to look at .. and so you can forget about that which is past its prime for that season ... at the link are a few of this years pix finally ... go to a good nursery .. not BIGBOXSTORE... and ask the manager to order one in for you.. on his next shipment ... this plant is worth the premium ... or contact whass and find out who he mail ordered his from ... just as there are bigboxstore... there are the mail order equivalent .... you need some experiences with QUALITY mail order ... and i hate to say it.. but if you dont pay at lest $100 ... you will most likely not be pleased .... i understand budget matters to many of us... but if you have to skip $4 coffees for a month or two.. which will pay off in the long run .. i have a million justifications for buying a quality.. to die for.. plant ... ken i had to spray.. to get rid of the dwarf ... Here is a link that might be useful: link

Another MG here....at least I completed the course but I was unable to do the volunteer work due to a medical problem. I did mine in Thomas Co., Ga. and here they require 50 hrs. of volunteer the first yr. and 25 hrs. every year after that to retain your "certificate". I don't need a "certificate". As for the class....way too much about turf grass! But the reason for that is that many varities of turf grass has been developed at the UofGa. satelite campus in Tifton, Ga....especially that nasty bermuda grass! I wish they had it all back, that stuff is horrible for people who have gardens & flower beds...it gets into everything. I was raised on a farm in central Ill. and have gardened most of my life. So I ended up teaching many things to my class...they were not things the UofGa. would promote cause I tend to use very little to no chemicals! Monsanto gives grant monies to UofGa. so they promote using chemicals for anything & everything! The class was interesting and I did get one very helpful item from it....no matter where you live or what you plan to do with your land...GET A SOIL TEST BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE! See what your soils actually need before you start putting things down that won't help or could make it worse. I found that my soils are in dire need of lime. Since we have several acres, I got ag. lime...it is loose (sorta powder form) so it won't go through regular lawn applicators, I've applied it by hand where I needed it. The thing is, it only cost $20 for one ton, but we did have to haul it ourselves. The cost of one ton of pellet lime in bags would be way beyond my budget. The ag lime also tends to last longer in the soils than the pellet. Most of the MGs in Thomas Co. are also wealthy women and a few men. And since I don't live in Thomas Co. I had another strike against me. My county doesn't give the MG class...it is geared more to field crops, both commidity crops (peanuts/cotton) and field veggie crops. I've learned more from being on several different gardening boards and asking questions than I learned in MG class. I've also taught a few folks things I already knew. So don't limit yourself to just one source of information...gather it from every place you go and then weigh it for how it will work in your area. No one has the same exact conditions as anyone else...even the neighbor next door or across the street/road. We all have to learn what works best for our own!

I can't grow Freesias outside in my climate but I have seen them growing happily out of stone walls in Italy. My reservation about this idea would be that they need entirely different conditions from most vegetables. As socalgal said, they don't want much water and I suspect they don't want rich soil. In your picture is it possible that the Freesias are actually planted in the gravel edge rather than in the beds themselves? Maybe you could grow them in pots and place them around the garden? Perhaps you could contact the guy who does the blog where you found the picture and ask how he does it?