Pam, and anyone else interested in these golden weeping willows: I would not think too much about what label any nursery puts on their weeping willows. If it has yellow or a strong yellow tint to their twigs--any shade of yellow--buy it. There may be several clones out there, but I have no idea which is which or what the differences are. If I learn anything I will let you folks know. Bboy has given us a start, but without any descriptions of what the differences may be. If you see more than one being sold and one of those is the Salix x sepulcralis 'Chrysocoma' that bboy references I guess I would get that first. But I, personally, would buy anything I find. As for the Salix babylonica and other possible non-golden twiged willows: I am being a little unfair, perhaps, in my judgment of these. I have done some web searching on the "babylonica" and find contradictory information about its hardiness. I think the hardiness of these willows may be partly dependent on the kind of soil they are growing in, and the ones I have seen with winter damage/dieback may have been in a poor soil. I got a green twiged willow out of the same dump where I found my golden willow. It is growing much more slowly, but it may produce a nice tree in time. There is a weeping willow that I think is a babylonica on the banks of the Potomac River in Potomac park in Washington, DC. This tree is just north of the 14 Street Bridge. It has absolutely wonderful form--a little like a vase shaped elm and a real strong weep. But, let me emphasize again, that the color of the golden willows is a feature that I especially love and which makes these trees stand out in the landscape, especially in winter. But just for the weeping habit, I think the babylonica variety will be just fine, and maybe even a bit better than some of the golden willows. But I think the quality of the weeping habit of these willows is partially dependent on the quality of the soil they are growing in and their growth rate--the faster the growth the more weep. --Spruce

My granny has taken a piece of a willow branch and rooted it in a potato, somehow the potato causes the branch to root and it did grow in my yard. Now since reading this I'm scared because I planted my willow away from my septic, but it is close to a drainage ditch that is filled with rock that I have going around my house (it keeps my house from getting flooded). Also curious I had several different trees, a holly, then an arborvitae that died, first the leaves dropped from the holly then the ends of the limbs turned black and it eventually died. My granny didn't know what it was, thought it was a disease of some sort? Then the arborvitae did the same thing, the ends of turned black, so I watered it excessively and it died too. Does anyone know what causes this blackening of the limbs on trees and plants?

Hi Rhoni Ann, Lots of people are painting red/orangey-red brick homes nowadays. If you're a fan of the Fixer-Upper TV show on HGTV, you've probably noticed that Chip and Joanna Gaines have totally transformed the exterior of many brick homes by painting that red/red-orange brick in all sorts of lovely shades of gray, creamy white or beige. After they add new trim and sometimes shutters and window boxes (depending on the style of the home and the look they're going for), along with new landscaping, those homes look just as transformed on the exterior as they are on the interior. Keep in mind that once you paint your brick, assuming you are going with a lighter color, it will reflect heat and light, but I have found there are lots of plants which grow well on the hotter west and south sides of homes that what a person might expect. First of all, if you will amend your clay with compost or some other organic material before you plant, then your plants will do so much better that it will blow your mind and you won't have to water nearly as much. We have dense, thick red clay (the kind you could use to make clay pots) that had zero organic matter when I tested it when we moved here in 1999. When they dug the holes for our percolation test for our septic system when we built our house, most all of the water remained in the holes after 24-hours, which explains why we have a lagoon instead of leach lines. Along our south and west facing walls, cannas have done really well in only lightly amended clay. If you plant the tall ones that get 4-7' tall, they will form their own mini-wall along the bring wall, and they don't really mind the heat as long as you water them occasionally in summer. They die back in winter, but you can cut off the ugly dead foliage at the ground so you don't have to look at it all winter long. Cannas are very strong, resilient plants, fitting into my favorite category of plants that I describe in this manner: they won't die and you can't kill them. In front of those taller cannas, you could the short, compact evergreen shrubs of your choice so you'd have something green there year-round. Some of the shorter varieties of hollies would work, and hollies come with many different leaf shapes from the very small leaves of yaupon hollies to the larger leaves of other forms of holly. If you don't want evergreen shrubs on the west side of the house, you could plant daylilies, lantana, gomprena (aka globe amaranth), zinnias, cosmos and some perennial members of the salvia family. All of these do well in well-amended, well-draining soil and only need moderate amounts of water in summer as long as they are well mulched. Or, you could plant ground cover type plants that thrive in full sun. Purple wintercreeper is a lovely greenish groundcover that is low maintenance. We just cut ours back to the ground with the string trimmer once or twice a year. It turns purplish-green in the cold season. Its flowers are not very obvious but then they give you lovely little berries. Hollies, by the way, are one of my favorite plants for clay soil because once they are established many of them are really drought-tolerant as well as heat-tolerant. If you like crape myrtles they are very heat-tolerant and come in all sorts of sizes, from more tree-like forms that can attain 20-40' Crape Myrtle Trails--Varietiesin height to weeping forms only a couple of feet tall. Be sure to purchase named crape myrtles varieties so you can Google those varieties before you buy to ensure you're getting the right size for your area. Sometimes the ones sold at places like Wal-Mart don't give a variety name on the tag, so you have no idea what you're getting. There's nothing worse than planting a big variety of crape myrtle in an area that is only appropriate for a small to medium sized one because you'll spend tons of time trying to prune back the big one to keep it small enough. Depending on the color you ultimately choose to paint your brick, you might like some of the Black Diamond series of crape myrtles with their purplish-black foliage. They would look striking against a lighter colored wall and they don't get too large. To give you an idea of the many kinds of crape myrtles available, I'm going to link the page of the Crape Myrtle Trails of McKinney, TX, which is my favorite website for Crape Myrtle information. I haven't tried Rose of Sharon on the west side of the house, but it probably would be alright. I have several kinds of hardy hibiscus in the border around our large veggie garden and they are both heat tolerant and drought tolerant. They are growing in heavily amended clay in raised beds, but there's a couple of smaller ones at the lower north end of our heavily sloping garden and they are equally heat and drought tolerant, growing at grade level in soil only lightly amended. Another perennial flower (often considered a reseeding annual, but perennial in my garden) that doesn't mind the west side of a building is tall verbena, Verbena bonariensis. It is one of the most heat-tolerant and drought-tolerant plants I've ever grown and is a real butterfly magnet. I use lots of autumn sage (Salvia greggii) plants as they tolerate heat and plentiful sunshine. They are perennials and are semi-evergreen. Sometimes they bloom on and off throughout the winter here in zone 7b. I just shear them back pretty hard right before new growth begins in early Spring to keep them more compact and more manageable. There's tons of options for the west side of a house. Just avoid things like hydrangeas that must have afternoon shade in our climate and avoid plants that need perfect drainage. Good luck, and if you have more questions, I hope you'll ask them. Also, watch for the Master Gardener's plant sale in your county, which has a very active MG group that puts on a great plant sale in the Spring. This year's plant sale is May 11th. More info about it can be found on the website linked below. Pottawatomie County Extension Service Webpage The Master Gardeners have a display garden at the ag extension building and you might visit it to get some ideas. Dawn

I have been reading the info about aspen trees. My wife's uncle brought back 5 sampling from the mountains around Boulder, Co. Over 45 years ago, we live in Southeast Missouri about 120 miles south of St.Louis. We live on a 300 acre farm. Those 5 original Aspen's are alive and doing great. They are over 50 feet tall. We have transplanted many samplings to different areas of our farm. Our 5 trees surround the edge of our lawn to the main house. We are always complimented on the beauty of our Aspen' s especially the sound there leaves make in a breeze. So I think some of you need to get out of Colorado and see that the Aspen s can thrive outside of the mountains. We have never experienced any disease on any of our trees. We have probably over 20 large mature trees in and around our lawn of our main house and a couple doing just fine near a cabin we have in a wooded area . So I have to contradict the fact that Aspen's can not survive at lower altitudes. We are at 700 ft. Altitude and our trees are going on 50 years old. So I say hogwash to most of the statements in this conversation. We have even transplanted saplings in mid summer were temperatures are in high 90's with heat indexes of 110 degrees. So I say if you want a beautiful aspen in your yard , then do it. Our lawn is immaculate so we have no problem with there root systems, the saplings come up in our cow pastures I guess our constant mowing of our lawn prevents any coming up in our lawn. We have alot of rain in our area so I assume that is why they thrive. Bill Davis Jackson,