Showing posts with label Saucer Magnolia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Saucer Magnolia. Show all posts

Friday, March 24, 2023

Spring Blooms, Part 3

Catching up to yesterday...

The Saucer Magnolia tree flowers were fully opened.  But there was a hard freeze 25F lat night.  This will be the end of the flowers.  But no reason not to show them on their last day...



The Daffodils don't mind the freeze.  Someone should splice the Daffodil "antifreeze" into Saucer Magnolias!

But even Daffodils (and other Spring Bulbs) don't last forever, so I walked around the yard taking pictures.  It is always tricky as how to show them off best.  I planted most randomly over several years, so even I am surprised at what comes up and blooms.  This is just a part of the backyard.

I planted 100s of Hyacinths 25 years ago.  The voles love them!  One spot of 20 has 3 left.  I appreciate them.

This Fall, I will make wire cages to keep voles out and replant Hyacinths.  The fragrance is wonderful, so it is worth the effort.

Meanwhile, the Daffodils thrive.  So I took pictures...




 I love the various white/yellow/orange colors.  They really get me out into the yard (as do the cats, but both together is great)... 

Some Tulips will come later.  I see the leaves emerging.

Thursday, March 23, 2023

Spring Blooms, Part 2

 A week ago (still going with the recently found pics).  The Daff were still blooming well.  It is a joy to see them from the deck.


And the backyard Saucer Magnolia is still in full flower.  We had non-freezing nights for a week.

The frontyard one gets less sunlight, so it is also behind the other by about a week.  But it is looking good.  I sometimes notice neighborhood walkers stop and look at it carefully.  Well, it is pink, but it obviously isn't a cherry tree.  

The front Daffodil bed is in full bloom.  They last a couple of weeks in bloom.  But they seem to live forever.  These have been growing there happily for 30 years.  I do need to dig up the wild blackberries that are growing in there, though or they will take over.

There are an early and a late variety mixed there.  It extends the blooming season.  But the latter one actually has some fragrance (which is not common for Daffodils).  It is nice to smell flowers in Mid-Spring.

In May, the Hostas will emerge and show all Summer to Fall.  The Daffodils and Hostas get along together just fine.  I've also ordered some plants that are "deer-resistent" to deter them.

The deer won't eat the Daffodils, but they love Hostas.  Even then, though, they love some Hostas less than others (because of fuzzier leaves).  So those are in among the Daffodils now.  And I plan to place dark green vinyl cages around those Hostas (they are invisible from the street).

Wednesday, March 22, 2023

Spring Blooms, Part 1

I found the pictures I thought I had lost.  Turned out I messed up my filing system.  I keep my processed (smaller) pics by subject (cats/yard/house/family/other), then by year and subfolders for each by month and day.  So the columns of folders (today) look like CATS - 2023 - 2303 -230321, with a dozen or so pics in the "23030321" last folder.  Well, it's the only way I can find stuff anyway...  I don't give pics names.

So, I managed to accidentally save my recent YARD processed pics to the wrong subfolder.  I found them today while processing the newest ones, LOL!  At least they were still "somewhere".

So the next few days are not "today" pics...  Couple weeks ago at first, but I will catch up quickly.

The earliest Daffodils were blooming nicely.  I planted them by blooming date, so the blooms rotate left.  If I had a "do-over" I would have mixed them all together so that there was some color all over the bed.  I mixed 2 in the front bed and I like that better.  But the back bed does make a nice slideshow as things change.

The earliest views from the deck...




The backyard Saucer Magnolia tree bloomed beautifully this year.  Some years a last frost kill the flowers early, sometimes they last a week.  

A closeup of the flowers.  

I became fascinated with Saucer Magnolias when I worked in central Washington DC.   There was a small park next to us.  The National Park Service had done a lot of limb-shaping work, so the trees were open but heavily-flowered.  I used to eat lunch out there in early Spring.

What I didn't know at the time was how much effort it takes to guide the direction of branches for that "open look" and how long it takes for them to mature to that "graceful old look"!

I planted my 2 about 25-30 years ago, and they are still barely mature and the "graceful old look" is at least another 25 years away.  I will never see it.  But I still love them (I think of them as in their "teenage years"; they are a promise to the future.  

Saturday, April 16, 2022

Flowerbeds Part 2

I love my 2 Saucer Magnolia tress.  The early Spring flowers are gorgeous.  But they walk a dangerous line with the weather.  One cold night, and all the emerging flowers die!  If I had it to do again, I would have planted Star Magnolias.  They open their flowers a week later.  So, they bloom more reliably.  

They are lesser in showy flowers but more reliable.  But I chose the Saucer Magnolia because there was a small park across the street from my office and I was awed by their beauty.  And the trees have pleasingly twisted branchs and nice green leaves the rest of the year. But they were in the center of Washington DC and city-centers are warmer.  

This year seemed promising.  Lots of buds, and the weather forecast was for wees of above-freeze temperatures.  Alas, a 22F night snuck in and killed are the blooms.


I was lucky to get this one, starting to open just before the freeze.

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose and sometimes you get frozen blooms!  At least the cold temps don't kill the tree.  And I have some backups for the future.  2 years ago, I planted 2 korean dogwoods and 2 Sourwoods in the far backyard.  The Dogwoods will bloom a couple weeks later in Spring and the Sourwoods don't exactly bloom, but the leaves turn bright red in Fall.

It has actually been a hard couple of years for trees here.  The drought 2 years ago was harsh.  A Beech tree in the front yard died outright.  I have 2 Golden Rain trees at the street on either side of my driveway.  I died and the other is barely alive (just several small branches with leaves emerging).  I may try to clip some small shoots and root them.  

A huge Sweetgum tree has been falling apart slowly for years.  I don't really mind that (it shades the garden).  But the trunk is going to fall on my fence eventually.  And it has shady siblings.  I hope they die too (I can use the light).  I can't have them cut down because they are actually (barely) on the neighbor's property and they don't care about my garden.  But I can hope they die natural deaths like the falling one.

When I moved here, the backyard was filled with junky trees.  I cut down some and a couple fell over on their own.  Wild blackberries and English Ivy took over.  They are hard to remove.  My hope is that the 4 new specimen trees (2 Dogwoods and 2 Sourwoods) will shade them out between chainsaw and brush-cutting efforts, but it will take a few years.  

I'll get the backyard cleaned of problem-plants eventually (and as the new trees grow).  Then I can try to remake the 10' pond and get the place looking as good as it did 10 years ago!


Tuesday, July 28, 2020

Tree Pictures

OK, sometimes I don't post as many pictures here as I do at Mark's Mews.  Cats are more photogenic.  And sometimes trees are just "trees".   But pictures do liven up mere words, and when I mention particular trees, I should show them. 

Part of it is that I don't always have the camera with me outside when I SUDDENLY get it into my mind to do something.  And sometimes I am mostly done with a project and think "why didn't I take pictures?" and then it is too late.  And, given how badly I type (I do a LOT of editing), I should take advantage of the fact that you can't misspell a picture...  LOL!

So here are some tree pictures...

First "Helen's Holly".  It was hard to find an angle where the holly stood out any from the background trees.  This was the best.  The lowest leaves are 6' above ground, so it looks to be about 15" high now and about 20 years transplanted here from 3'.
This is a row of prunings from the holly and a few other trees.  I gather the prunings in  piles I can pick up easily later to load onto the trailer.  The trailer is full of one set of prunings, and there are more in the back yard.  Easily 3 trailer-loads.
This is the front yard Saucer Magnolia showing (as best I can) the twisted branches I am trying to establish.
Hope this helps...

Saturday, July 18, 2020

Pruning Trees

After I finished the backyard Saucer Magnolia last week as high as I could reach with a stepladder, I decided to tackle the front yard Saucer Magnolia.  It needed it as it was more internally clutterred.  Well, I spend more time in the back and I don't landscape to impress the neighbors, so the front yard always comes last.

There were downward branches, crossing branches, and upright watershoots (sideshoots that grow straight up and produce few leaves - basically parasitic growth).  Took 3 hours of pruning.  First, I took out all the watershoots (I have NO idea why they are called that).  That part was easy because I knew I didn't want ANY of them.

Second were down-branches.  They had gotten so bad, I was brushing them aside just mowing the lawn.  No need for them either. 

The third group (cross-branches) was trickier and I had to choose among the competing branches.  I should mention that I planted the 2 Saucer Magnolias because I saw them in a small park next to where I worked once.  They had awesome Spring flowers.  But even more impressive was the way the City Arborists had pruned and shaped the trees into very open shapes with very twisty branches.  I've been trying to replicate that for years.

To try for that look, I clear out most of the internal growth, and prune the branches to take advantage of changes in direction.  The trees don't do that naturally.  Rather, Saucer Mangolias seem accepting of cutting off a growing tip of a branch and encouraging a side shoot to grow at a 90 degree angle for a few feet and then doing that again after a few years of growth. 

The trees I admired in the park are about a century old.  Obviously, I won't live long enough to manage that look.  But it is interesting to do what I can and I can hope that the person/people who move in when I am gone will have some idea about continuing that .  I plan on leaving a history of the house and landscaping, updated until I am too demented to continue.

Some thoughts about trees:

1.  An optimist is an elderly person who plants a sapling.
2.  The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.  The second-best time is today.
3.  If I had had the money when I bought this house, I would have had the lot cleared of all trees and scraped clean.  I would have magnificent specimen trees today (sourwoods, dogwoods, and golden rain trees), shading out all the invasive vines (english ivy, wild grape, poison ivy, wild blackberry, etc that I struggle with today.
4.  Planting trees is the batchelor's version of fathering children.

Pictures of twisty Saucer Magnolias are hard to find.  This is the best of what SEEMS to be some.  The one on the front left hints at the branch angles.
I have spent nearly 20 years at

And this is not a Saucer Magnolia, but shows what the idea of deliberately angled branches looks like.
Trees

And that wasn't the end of the pruning.  I have 2 holly trees (they seem to grow wild in my neighborhood).  But more about that next time.  This is about Saucer Magnolias...

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

Pruning And Shaping

In 1984, I got a job at a new location.  Across the street was a very small park.  It had a reflecting pool and a statue.  And was surrounded by old Saucer Magnolia trees that bloomed in early Spring.  I fell in love with those trees.
magnolia trees — Family, Baby and Wedding Photography Washington ...
The trees themselves were pruned nearly skeletory with the branches forced at odd angles.  So even when not in bloom, they were "unusual".  I immediately bought 2 saplings and planted 1 in the front yard and 1 in the back.  I have enjoyed their blooms for 3 decades.

But they don't naturally grow into the odd branch angles I also loved.  It takes an arborist's skill to do that.  And I am no arborist.

But I try to shape mine as best I can.  Every couple of years, I go at them with saw and loppers to remove the excess growth, clearing out deadwood and internal branches that "clog up the appearance".

I spent most of yesterday doing that on the backyard tree.  Here is the BEFORE pic...
Some branches were drooping so low, I couldn't walk under them.  Other branches were crossing each other or being shaded by others.  So I decided to make some major changes.  Loppers and an electric chain saw can do wonders!

I didn't do it fast.  Shaping a tree takes consideration.  Some branches were easy to decide to remove as they were all droopy and there were uprights that had no value.  I removed those first and then stood back and considered the tree from all sides.

After that, things went slower.  There was one branch in a low position that was in the right place, but had a cavity I knew would fail as the branch grew.  I used the chain saw on it below first and from the top after.  THUMP!  Clean branch collar cut!

After that, I started small, trimming upshoots and crossed branches, always removing the lowest ones.

The AFTER pics...
It looks better already, and I have a few new branches growing out at odd angles that will at least suggest the masterpieces at Rawlin's Park.  The lawn is covered in tree cuttings...

There is more to do higher up in the tree, but it was enough for the day.  It was hot out and close to dinnertime.  After all the gardening and some seed scatterring and raking around the newly-tilled meadow bed, I was soaked in sweat from hair tips to toenails.  It has been a week of 90+F with high humidity and another week of it forecast.  So (not to be indelicate but utterly practical), I stripped and stood in a hot shower to wash off all the sweat and salts.  I felt great after THAT!

And then fed the cats, made a nice dinner for myself (deboned chicken thigh cubed with whole mushrooms, shallots, and garlic over angel hair spaghetti with soy sauce and toasted sesame oil.  With a side of beans, beets, and a large tossed salad.  Then watched some MSNBC news commentary.  Good way to finish a day.

Next, I'll do the same on the front yard Saucer Magnolia. 


Friday, May 5, 2017

Flower Pictures

After the Spring Bulbs are gone, I'm offerring a cascade of pictures of them.  Just to share and remember.




















Looking Up

 While I was outside with The Mews, I laid back and looked up.  I thought the tree branches and the clouds were kind of nice. Nothing import...