I’m reviewing some literature while working on a proposal and ran across a paper by Lisa Richardson-Calfee, Roger Harris and Jody Fanelli at Virginia Tech on the effects planting date on sugar maple trees. It’s not actually the topic of the proposal I’m working on but the paper caught my eye because spring versus fall planting is one of those questions that just never seems to go away. In this particular study, balled-in-burlap trees planted at spring budbreak had more new root growth than trees planted in the fall. … Continue reading this article “Spring vs. Fall planting: Where you stand depends on where you sit”
Tag: spring
Spring fever: Conifer style
We finally got a reprieve from our wet, cold weather. Just in time for the annual inspection of the conifer troops at the Harper Collection of Dwarf and Unusual Conifers at MSU’s Hidden Lake Gardens. One of the interesting things about making repeated trips to a conifer collection like this is that different conifers stand out each time. Whether due to lighting, background foliage, your mood, whatever; it seems like there are different stars each time.… Continue reading this article “Spring fever: Conifer style”
It’s raining, it’s pouring, it’s a good time for a site assessment…
April is turning out to be a soggy month for most of Michigan and our surrounding states. While most homeowners are inclined to hunker down indoors and keep an eye on their sump pumps on these dark, dreary days; our current run of wet weather is a good opportunity to take a stroll around your property and make some notes. In particular, note any areas where water is accumulating.
Poor drainage is one of the most common sites factors that limit landscape tree and shrub survival and growth. … Continue reading this article “It’s raining, it’s pouring, it’s a good time for a site assessment…”
These are a few of my (least) favorite things…
Spring clean-up came in earnest this weekend at Daisy Hill farm. Everything will be downhill from here as my least favorite yard chore; cutting back our ornamental grasses, is done for the year. I know, I know, there are all kinds of shortcuts and tricks for this job including lassoing grasses for the last round-up (see Holly’s March 8 post), duct-taping them, and cutting them down with hedge-trimmers or a chainsaw. Unfortunately, between our winter snow beating them down and our dogs using them as their own personal jungle playground, standing the grasses up neatly to await a trim just isn’t an option. … Continue reading this article “These are a few of my (least) favorite things…”
What to do when it’s still raining?
It’s almost May…and it’s still raining. Even for our normally wet spring climate, this has been an unusually soggy year. I’m also blaming the weather on my 3rd or 4th cold so far this year, which has knocked me flat for the last 6 days (which was why I had no Friday puzzle posted). So in between blowing my nose, hacking my lungs out, and generally feeling sorry for myself, I started looking over 10 years’ worth of photos of our home landscape.… Continue reading this article “What to do when it’s still raining?”
Pause for effect…
Spring (in either hemisphere) is an incredibly busy time for anyone even remotely associated
with horticulture – a frenzy of growing, selling, buying, planting, and
information-disbursing. If gardening were this wildly popular year-round, there might even be some money to be made. For us Hort faculty, spring means field trips, student plant sales, cramming even more plants
onto an identification test (heh), tons of consumer questions, research projects coming and going, and many many speaking engagements.… Continue reading this article “Pause for effect…”
There’s no flowers like snowflowers…
A short post from our ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ file. This what we work up to today at Daisy Hill farm 
If anyone has seen Spring, please e-mail it some MapQuest directions to Michigan ASAP!
It’s Spring-o’clock Somewhere…
We’re supposed to get an inch or two of snow tomorrow. It was 75 degrees last week. Typical schizophrenic spring weather. But spring was already in full bloom a few weeks ago in Dallas, Texas. Our group of Virginia Tech floriculture faculty and grad students visited for the National Floriculture Forum, a meeting of researchers and educators. It was organized by Texas A&M and hosted by the Dallas Arboretum, home of uber-horticulturist Jimmy Turner.
The Arb was right in the middle of their “Dallas Blooms” festival – they plant half a million spring bulbs each year for the most amazing show this side of Keukenhof. … Continue reading this article “It’s Spring-o’clock Somewhere…”