I’ve blogged before about the importance of getting tree roots in contact with the landscape soil during transplanting (you can find those posts here, here, here, here, and here). My advice to bareroot woody species upon installation is often ignored in favor of the quick-n-easy methods so often showcased on HGTV (“A complete landscape makeover in a weekend!”). And of course everything looks great…for a while. Let’s see what happens after a few years.… Continue reading this article “Newsflash: trees will die if their roots can’t establish”
Month: November 2010
No point here, really…
Just go back and watch the video that Bert the Incensed posted Monday. I can’t top that.
Hope he’s had a beer and calmed down since. Now I need one.
My first reaction was more like slack-jawed disbelief over the nonsense contained within. A second viewing brought my blood pressure up a notch. For instance, I swear he says “Calcium nitrate” softly and then quickly rephrases it to “vitamins and minerals.” There’s more crap in this video than a dairy retention pond.… Continue reading this article “No point here, really…”
Tricky tricolor leaf
Well, this was a tricky puzzle! Here’s a more complete picture of this interesting plant:
This, believe it or not, is a weigela – specifically, a patented cultivar named Kolmagira. You can see part of a tag in the lower left part of this photo:
As the patent description reads, this shrub possesses “…yellow green and dark green variegated leaves with purple-colored margins…”
Some of you guessed that the leaves might be variegated due to fall senescence, or disease, or drought stress – all very good guesses.… Continue reading this article “Tricky tricolor leaf”
Why do we have a Garden Professor’s blog?
As (relatively) young professors at major universities, Linda, Jeff, Holly and I are busier than the proverbial one-armed paper-hanger. Every week is filled with the endless pandemonium of grant deadlines, students at our door, requests to review papers, committee meetings, speaking engagements that we agreed to 6 months ago and forgot about, calls from media, calls from growers, calls from homeowners, and on and on and on. Then, in the middle of all this tumult and chaos, we decide, like we got nothing better to do, to start posting on a blog every week. … Continue reading this article “Why do we have a Garden Professor’s blog?”