Red elderberry last week

Red elderberry this week

Maackia new leaves (this week)

This hairy shoot is Japanese Horsechestnut (Aesculus turbinata), it leafs out a bit later than other Aesculus

L Clark, I found this maple article interesting -- explains some things I've wondered about.

https://blogs.reading.ac.uk/whiteknightsbiodiversity/2014/04/06/pollination-by-wind-or-insect/

Fothergilla

tj

Mackia leaves are really neat

L Clark, agreed, the silvery new leaves are cool. They're a little farther along as of yesterday (5/11), but still have an attractive sheen

This is a small Tilia henryana with its distinctive new growth

And remember indianagardengirl's hickory from 16 days ago? Here's the shellbark hickory in my backyard this evening (5/12/23)

Indiana's praying hands goes to arbordave's laying on of hands.

Yellow buckeye today 5/13/23

Quercus Ellipsoidalis:

Syringa Vulgaris:

Gleditsia Triacanthos:

Red Charm peony: Could be a dozen blooms this year.

Ostrya virginiana:

Osmunda Claytoniana:

Larix Laricina:

Iex Verticillata:

Hydrangea Macrophylla:

Cornus Sericea:

Crateagus Chrysocarpa:

Fraxinus Nigra:

Spirea of some sort: ;-)

Acer rubrum:

Acer Psuedoseiboldianum:

Cornus Alternifolia:

Acer saccharum:

Abies balsamea:

Betula papyrifera:

Matteuccia Struthiopteris:

May is Hawthorn season. And the ancient English oaks are just about fully leafed out but still that lovely acidic olive green.

And another one.

Wow, what old gnarly trees. cool

Thanks floral!

How old do you determine those oaks to be?

Volunteer pagoda dogwood w/nascent flower buds.

I don't know but maybe three hundred years? They were at least 5m round. There were lots of them in that area, possibly marking ancient field boundaries.

Beautiful landscapes you have there floral. :-)

I didn't know if these would make it, transplanted 3 times in the last 5 years.

Paeonia Officinalis(?):

Taxus Hicksii:

Tsuga canadensis:

Picea Meyerii:

Pinus cembra: (new addition, just planted).

Pinus Ponderosa 'scopulorum':

Quercus macrocarpa: Not quite the size of a squirrel's ear (old farmers tale).

Picea Glauca: Starting to stretch just lately.

Pinus Resinosa:

Pinus Strobus:

Picea Mariana: Must be still thinking about it. :-)

Juniperus communis: new sprouts are yellow/green.

That's pretty much it for my yard.

It appears everything came through my winter with flying colors.

Forecasted mid 70's to mid 80's this week.

Could use another rain (been a week) but so far so good.

Bill, the repeated freezes during last days of April, just after a warm spell, devastated low areas around here, tho other areas were worse than my yard. Traveling, I could see large, low areas completely browned while areas just above them on the hills were completely green. One can see here my northern catalpa and osage orange still struggling at this late date w/replacement buds. Sycamore will prb'ly be June for leaves.

Boy, that's bad beng.

We had 43f for a short period last night but not anything like that for a few weeks now.

When you look at the temperature map (below), we're as warm as the southern states, even the AZ-CA-NV tri-point.

We are many times not that far behind the people out east because our sandy soil warms up so fast. And many times, we go right from winter to summer in just a period of a couple/few weeks.

Cold soil temps slows everything down.

It's actually warmer than here if you go farther north. But we're still in the same boat as you, things can really grow fast here once it warms and that leaves us vulnerable to those late May freezes, which we haven't had for a few years now. That can also leave us high and dry as the storms seem to begin right over us, then move east as they intensify, leaving us with little or no rain to show for it here.

We used to get soaked in late April early May but not for years now. June is generally a wet month also. Fingers crossed.

We've had years when everything leaf's out and then freezes and has to start all over again but once the ground warms here, everything goes into high gear and recovers quickly (if it rains enough).

Magnolia grandifolia. Old leaves looking a bit rough for we went into winter in a severe drought and I should have watered better. New leaves rough because of strong winds whipping them around.

Floral, last spring I planted an English oak that I grew from seed. It's now about knee high and fully leafed out. Maybe in 300 years I to will have 15ft circumference on it!

Bill Mn, "Old farmers tale" are you referring to the one about Morel mushrooms? Our 1st morels wewere April 10th.

April 10th.

'Plant your corn when the oak leaves are the size of squirrel's ears'.

I always assumed it was white oak bc they come later most years, and you were most likely within a week of last possible frost. Took a week for corn to sprout so by then you were safe.

Ok, around here it's about the mushrooms.

Pawpaw flowers are beginning to mature here

7 yr old Norway spruce is rather resplendent in new growth in poor soil near the road.

Not native but ubiquitous here. Aesculus hippocastanum.

Sourwood about 18 yrs old that seemed forever a shrub. Tending it, I realized it's actually trying now to be more like a tree -- tallest part 10 ft now.

But the trunk is bonsai-like. It's one trunk at ground, but immediately splits into two opposing horizontal trunks. Seems fragile, but they aren't -- I can put weight on either side and they are very firm (I trimmed my nearby Green Giants & used that as cover underneath).

Korean Mountain Ash framed by Pinus cembra and Pinus sylvestris ’Gold Coin’.

ben & maackia, you've mentioned a couple of my favorite trees. I have a small Korean Mountain-ash (4-5' tall) in my backyard that I grew from seed, and I'd love to have a Sourwood in my yard, but it just wouldn't be happy here. First photo below (5/16/23) is one of the few KMA street trees we've planted. They seem to do well here, but have been very slow growers. Second photo is another species that just wouldn't be happy in my yard - Golden Chain tree (5/26/23). This is one of the few older specimens in my area that seems to be doing reasonably well.

arbordave, you can see that my sourwood has grown much faster recently, as pic here shows 8-2020 at 15 yrs old was much smaller.

Dave, my experience with KMA mirrors yours. Quite slow the first 6-7 years, but solid growth the past three. It’s in a spot where root zone stays cool, but canopy is in sun. There’s a lot to like about this tree: nice flowers, clean foliage, beautiful fall color.

Here’s Acer mandschuricum, which grows next to the KMA. It’s another Asian tree that does quite well in the upper Midwest. I can’t understand why it’s not more common.

93 °F hot and droughty here in Maryland. Silky Camellia unfazed by the heat. No honeybees to be found. Only native insects visit flowers of this eastern US native shrub.

Here is my weeping Norway spruce. It almost died three years ago, but has recovered and put out its best growth yet!

My Norway maple above in the thread is not doing so great. Most of the buds that swelled up just had nothing in them. Not flowers or leaves, weird as heck. and many of the branches didn’t end up leafing out. ugh. Oh well. Add another to the long list of trees that don’t work here

buds are beautiful. so are flowers of Cornus kousa ’Satomi’

Is it still Spring? It seems like we’ve had a month of Summer.

Very nice Marie Tulin. Lane, what trees have performed well for you?

This Gymnocladus dioica was planted twelve years ago, which is hard for me to get my head around. There’s not much to complain about with this tree. The flowers are unassuming, but have a subtle beauty about them.

Very nice, Maackia! There are a few of those doing well in my town believe it or not. Wish I had one.

The best performing trees I've plated have been Accolade Elm, betula pendula dalecarlica, Ohio buckeye, Skyline honeylocust, bur oak (slow growing but healthy), Oregon green Austrian pine, weeping white spruce, Spring Snow crab, Prairie Fire crab, other crabs, 'Ure' pear, 'Golden Spice' pear and butternut from seed! Little to no die back on these

Iffy trees have been northern red oak (growing very well, but almost died one year and recovered nicely, but I feel its life is on a knife's edge), Norway maple (same as NRO), bigtooth maple (some good some bad), Sensation boxelder (gets die back some years), weeping norway spruce, Big Tuna mugo, and Prairie stateman Swiss Stone Pine. The pine have not died back, but are just painfully slow. Maybe I gave them a poor site. Honeycrisp apple. oak leaf mountain ash.

Complete duds have been freeman maples. I try not to try anything too crazy, but I've tried three of them and they suck. Northern pin oak.

Coffee trees go between starkly coarse when bare to luxuriantly textured. I see the flowers are terminal, so maybe mine's growing for too long to put out any yet. Coffee trees don't normally sucker, but if you cut one down, it will go to town.

Bristly locusts flowering -- one of their few redeeming qualities. I didn't plant them, but left them because they provide a warm-season screen from the road. They sucker everywhere, as do the planted milkweeds in the foreground (for the monarch butterflies).

Quercus bicolor:

27" new growth on main leader and it isn't even summer yet (calendar-wise).

64" tall. 6-10-23

:-)

Stryrax Japonica magnify for best view

Oregon Green in full candle

Pines rule. Here’s P. cembra, which is a top five plant for me.

^^Your cembra is beautiful ^^. Mine just hasn’t grown well four years into its life. I wish I had yours! Is it ’Algonquin Pillar’?

I have a Tannenbaum mugo pine I was THIS close to ripping out after four crap years, but against all odds it has appeared to turn a corner and has put out growth this year equal to the last four put together. so maybe patience is needed.

L Clark, your Oregon Green (Austrian pine) wouldn't last long here in the east due to pine wilt nematode.

Another fan of the pines….

P. strobus ’John’s Find’

P. strobus ’Cockerton Special’

P. parviflora - seedling of Bergmann, displaying some curly needles

Indianagardengirl, nice pines! You’ve set me on the hunt for ’John’s Find’. That’s an interesting plant.

Not spring any more but did I hear pines mentioned? :-))

We've only received a little over 2" of rain this growing season. The equivalent of the annual rainfall in Death Valley.

For an unknown reason (to me), pines around here have grown remarkably well.

My row of mostly red pines, with no supplemental water have put out over 2ft. of new growth already. The ponderosa, mixed in there is barely keeping up.

Here's a red pine, P. resinosa, I planted a few years ago as a sapling, it's growing so good, I planted a Tsuga c. on the north side of it. Just to see how it grows with some winter shade for change. Over 2 ft. of growth on this pine too.

When they started building the new apartments on the lot adjoining the south side of my lot,

I ran out and dug a couple more trees from out in the country (my sons land) and brought them in to fill the void left by DW's past insistence to leave an area open to the south (long story) but now with the apartments there, she wishes she'd have let me plant more trees back when I did the others (see, sometimes you win if you're patient). :-))

Here's P. resinosa, second season in the ground, one of my 'Gap Fillers' (I laugh every time I think of this). Good growth after growing only a few inches last season.

I was thinking ahead and planted some trees, a few/several years ago, knowing that lot would not stay empty. P. strobus. Woods dug at about a foot tall, so not much resistance when planting it at the time. ;-) Good growth too, it's 8 or 9 ft. today.

Next, new addition this year, P. cembra ' Prairie Statesman®' (Herman). About 4-5" of new growth already since planting 5-10-2023.

Pinus Banksiana 'Notso'. I thought it was a dwarf but now I know it's not so dwarf, or intermediate for that matter.

It may have some unusual branching habits bc it's different from what I know is ordinary, but we'll see as time goes on. It's flushing a second time with the 90d temps that have become the norm around here.

The end result of this is that apartments are slowly disappearing from my view, plus there's another Hemlock hiding out there to the left (surrounded by chicken wire) that hopefully will have shade from all 3 sides, once the pines and other newer trees grow for a couple/few more years.

:-)

One question, L.Clark.

Has your weeping white spruce(s) had any winter/wind burn or browning needles?

Are they planted in a sheltered location?

I've researched this tree but haven't found any info on this aspect.

Hey, Bill

One got established fast and is doing really well, and the other is slow to get established and is not growing well... yet. Hopefully it gets going this year. But, no, no browning. They seem to be perfectly hardy for my area. They've seen at least -20 to -25 each year.

Thanks!

I'm ready to pull the trigger on one of these and am beginning to think about placement.

Zone 2 hardy doesn't always mean zone 2 with full sun and windy location hardy. ;-)

But I suppose I can always surround it for a couple winters, until it develops a good root system.

My species P. glaucas have never burned or had any winter damage for that matter.

Thanks again. :-)

Ther’s one really nice one in my town that is about 30feet and id guess about that old. really nice specimen