This seed swap is closed. per the offering member Mon, Feb 9, 09 at 14:59 Whenever replying to a post, please quickly scan through the replies to see if maybe the original poster has closed the offer. Thank you.

Hi amanda_t, from a fellow Kentuckian. I currently practice here in Scott County and in Louisville. I've lived and gardened in Nicholasville, Versailles, Lexington, and Paris. Which best approximates where you are in KY? You mention you occupy a "large urban lot." Give us an idea of what that means (since in NYC that could be a 1000 square feet): 1/4 acre, 1 acre, 2.5 acres? Lexington has quite a few properties near the middle of town with 5 acre parcels. If you have a 100+ year old ginkgo, do everything you can to preserve/protect that youngster against all potential damage from new work you intend. That is a plant to treasure. All that said, here's what I'd offer based on your initial set of likes: Beeches: There simply is nothing to match the grace and beauty of an American Beech (Fagus grandifolia) in most seasons. While it is not my favorite large shade tree, I can see where it is one to invest in and love for life. Much of my career in Louisville revolves around managing the historic and wondrous landscapes of the old parks that are blessed with fabulous specimens and thick forests of American Beech. Don't "settle" for an import. Maples for fall color: There are many native species (Sugar and Red Maples already mentioned) and myriad introduced species (Acer griseum, Acer triflorum, Acer palmatum, Acer henryi among them) that offer stellar fall color. Decide which category (large, intermediate, or small) that you'd like to invest in. None will be immune to ice damage; that is easy to observe around Lexington and Louisville. Catalpa: I agree with you on this one - it is too seldom used for its bold branch architecture and impressive leaves/flowers. People focus too much on "litter". I defy anyone to identify a tree that doesn't drop something at sometime. Biases indeed... Crabapples with pretty flowers: There are numerous excellent selections in this category. Pretty flowers are a given. Consider only selecting the highly disease resistant forms, and then decide if you want white, pink, or reddish flowers. Forms can be interesting, from the standard big rounded trees to erect, pendulous, weeping, and dwarf. Finally, the best combine all the above choices with small persistent fruit. This provides winter-long interest until spring leaf-out and/or arrival of the hungry robins to strip them. If you are serious about this species, I can provide a separate (long) list for KY. Redbuds and Dogwood: These are never bad choices. There are numerous fine performers for KY. Trees with wide stretching branches or shapely branches: Hmmm. This is hardest to answer, since it is rather open-ended. I'll second the votes for Nyssa sylvatica and Picea orientalis. These are two that there can't be too many of. I'll offer some tree ideas that haven't been mentioned previously above. Cercidiphyllum japonicum, esp. 'Amazing Grace' Gymnocladus dioicus Carya cordiformis Ilex opaca Abies nordmanniana Quercus michauxii Ostrya virginiana Franklinia alatamaha Halesia diptera esp. 'Magniflora' Viburnum rufidulum Asimina triloba Chionanthus virginicus Cladrastis kentukea It is interesting that no one above asked you what the site was like that you garden on. Some of the suggestions are outstanding - provided the growing conditions are good for that plant. Depending where you are in KY, white oak may be a rather poor choice. It doesn't occur often in the inner Bluegrass region, preferring instead the somewhat more acid soils surrounding this area. The favored trees of the Bluegrass landscape include Quercus macrocarpa, Quercus muehlenbergii, Quercus shumardii, Gymnocladus dioicus, and Fraxinus quadrangulata. I do and would continue to plant any/all of these (and spit in the eye of EAB).

Yes I have been short of time lately, but after I just saw your latest questions, I took only a moment to walk over to my row of trees and check thier measurements. The fence behind my trees appears 10 times worse that the one in your photo. My trees are planted on about 9 foot centers and I only did one row of them. The bottom four feet height on then averages spreads across their widths of at average is 5 feet all the way around them. For the distance from the two intercecting fences inside corner to the end of the bad fence my trees are distacting the view from is about 50 feet long. I have 7 GGs planted along this length. the GG's trunk nearest to the inside corner of the intercecting fences has a trunk only 4 feet away from the corner. the 6 other GGS have an 8 feet distance I can measure from trunk to trunk, But the planting holes when first dug were centered at almost 9 feet distances. The lower 4 feet of the trees are the most full and there is still an average of a 2 foot gap between each of the trees that needs to fill in before the trees will make a solid screen along that height of the 6 foot tall fence. Since I stoped giving my trees osmokote even before last year the rest of the trees growth is not as thick or wide, so there is even more view of the top two feet of the ugly fence. This is the reason why I suggested it is best for you to plant two staggered rows. That way you will have a better full screen more quickly than my trees. the neighbor's two story house is no more than 4 feet on the otherside of the ugly fence. The tops of my trees have grown about a foot higher than the bottom of their second story windows. I measured a 4 foot distance from the fence slats to the trunks of my trees, and I could still easily, with out much tree branch displacement, walk behind my trees and the fence when I came up with the 50 foot measurement for the lengh of fence that the lower 4 feet of this line of trees currently cover. One other note is that I planted only 18 inch tall trees to start. They are fairly well protected from the prevailing north/south winds because the 2 story house is directly south of them and there is a large scarlet oak tree directly north of the first 3 from that inside corner I discussed above. I live on a corner lot and my house faces west, but the fence in question is along along the east facing back yard/south side yard, and it stretchs westward to about half the depth of our south facing side yard. So my GGs get plenty of afternoon sun, especially in the summer and before they grew so tall got a lot of morning shade. I only went to all this description to illustrate how protected they are from drying winds. This is so effective for then that my trees have never taken on a bronzy cast that many people report their GGS do in the winter. My trees are also planted on a slight rise where the builders of the two story house so close south of my trees never did a good job cleaning out the builders sand they uses when installing a narrow sidewalk between that house and the privacy fence. The growth I reported with my trees has all been affected by theses issues I have just discussed. GGs which struggle will slow draining soil that stays wet longer will grow only half as fast as mine have until they get well established, which could take up to 4 years. Some of them might even die during sudden dry periods and have to be replaced. Also trees planted at 6 feet tall might take a full 2 years before you see much top growth out out them. That is because they will be using this time to develop a better root system which can support the 5 foot yearly growth these trees do while they are young and once they are established. The trade off you get with this is while they are waiting to develop a larger root system and not growing much in height, they will be doing a better job than mine did concerning the thickening of their trunks and also thickening the density and spread of their branches. My trees did not have to that root size catch up so they started showing nice top growth in the first year they were planted. It took them all this time though to develop an exceptionally good density and branch spread over the lower 4 feet of them. If I had kept spreading Osmokote under them and watering them regularly in dry periods after they got well established, them that exceptionally nice thickness and spread portion of them today might have reached at least 8 feet high. As it is they have a fairly nice appearance from top to bottom, but do not have the type of screening affect that you would want to handle well the issues you have described in your back yard view. Hope that with all this description, it will help you to understand better why I suggested a double staggered row with the front row beeing the Steeplechase trees. If cost is an issue, you might plant 6 foot tall GGS on the back row and either purchase locally or order in if they cannot be found locally the steeplechase sport cultivars of the GGS. If ordered in those Steeplechase cultivar trees would probably on be available no larger than 3 gallon size and will look fairly thin when you get them, but if you provide them good drainage, water them correctly, and feed them with osmokote each spring and fall growing season then it will suprise you a how quickly they catch up in size the the larger GGS you planted in the back row.

Definitely no need to re-order. Order any remaining ones you need to do your job to be delivered anytime april (when you order request the plants be shipped dormant). To address your soil question, if I was in the same exact situation, I'd find soil from other areas of my property that contains some of the smaller of the rocks mixed in and use that as the backfill for a hole (judging from the size of your seedlings...) w' to 2.5' across and 18" deep. If the soil surrounding the hole that you dug is not porous (which from what you wrote will not be the case... as you say 'you won't reach clay') then that should be the ideal/perfect scene - for those new cuttings. Lastly, don't allow the soil to dry out for more than a few days... 2 should be the limit but 3 is "ok". To backfill the holes you dug, to retrieve the soil, bring all the rocks from your planting holes back to those and... cover those with just bagged topsoil - and continue to cover them as needed with more topsoil... until you're satisfied with the job. As "tj" pointed out about the one on the right, he's right, it's 100% a gonner. Anything on your other plants that resembles that... trim that off and right now is as good of a time as any. Doing that takes any 'dead weight' off the rest of the plant... & on all those seedlings - which damn fine to me & where there's green, especially on Thuja's there's... a great chance new shoots will develop. You're good to go buddy. All lights are "green" from me, also go ahead and with your fingernails pinch off the dead "tissue" on the alive cuttings. Sometimes, I use fingernail scissors, for lack of a better-term. Dax