Honeysuckle

Day 237: Fond childhood memories of slurping nectar from honeysuckle blossoms meant that it was on my list of "must-have" plants for my yard. You have to understand that when I moved in here, the only "landscaping" was Big Doug (already over 100 feet tall and firmly established), the yew hedge out front, a weedy lilac and the Whatzit Tree, a flowering somethingoranother, identification of which even eluded the Master Gardener I went to for help in figuring out what it was. That was it. I immediately set about creating habitat for birds and pollinators, each year adding as many new plants as my limited budget would allow. Of course, the contorted filbert was one of the first things on the list, and the tree which is now 12 feet tall and about 15 feet wide began its life here as a single twig a foot and a half long. The Japanese maple now towering 20 feet above my driveway arrived in a one-gallon pot. You'd never recognize the yard now from what it was 35 years ago, now shadier and cooler and full of little chirpy birds, a happy haven for butterflies and bees. The hummers love the honeysuckle, so I leave it for them, although I have to admit that sometimes I'm tempted to nectar at its bright orange flowers myself.

Golden Chain

Day 247: The Golden Chain Tree is in bloom. This was one of the items on my priority list when I bought my home over thirty years ago, but I had trouble finding one I felt I could afford. Most of what was available came in huge pots, so large that I knew I couldn't get one into my car or, more importantly, get it back out again and to the spot where I wanted to plant it. Then one day as I was nosing around in one of my favourite garden stores, I came across a weeping variety at a reasonable price. Big pot or not, the tree just fit in the back of my car with the branches filling the passenger seat and only slightly bent down against the front windshield. It was something of a challenge to heft the pot out the rear hatch and roll it into place. My father had insisted that if you bought a $5 tree, you should put it in a "$50 hole" to ensure its survival, so I set to digging and filling, using store-bought garden soil to bed it in. Daddy's wisdom paid off. It's still not very tall, but it blooms reliably, and the weeping habit enhances the effect of the golden chains of pea-shaped flowers which give this Laburnum its common name.

Obligatory Rhododendron

Day 247: When you are a homeowner in western Washington, it is almost obligatory that you plant a rhododendron in your yard. After all, the shrub is our state flower. The large-flowered native variety R. macrophyllum carries masses of pinkish-white blooms resembling those of the commercial cultivars, but most people are unaware that there are species with smaller white or cream flowers, and even one known as "False Huckleberry" which has small bell-shaped blossoms. In all, there are six native Rhododendrons, only one of which looks like the ones you see in peoples' yards. That said, the commercial plants do very well here, growing quickly into large bushes, at least in areas where the deer and elk don't keep them pruned back. This is the first year since I planted mine that Bambi has allowed it to bloom.

Golden Chain

Day 244: A Golden Chain tree (Laburnum) was high on the list of plants I wanted to add when I purchased my property over thirty years ago. At the time, the only "landscaping" (a term I use quite loosely here) consisted of a yew hedge, a sickly lilac and a flowering tree I could not identify to save my soul. I went so far as to take a sprig of the Whatzit Tree to a master gardener who was likewise baffled, but that's another story. My quest for a Laburnum was stymied by prices well out of my budget, and little by little, the yard filled in with other more affordable shrubs and plants. Still, I kept dreaming of a Golden Chain, and while wandering around a nursery six years ago, I spotted a weeping version among the closeout items. With the nurseryman's strong-armed help, we managed to wrestle the pot into the back seat of my car, and painstakingly bent the branches to fit against the back window without breaking any of them. When I got home, I dug the proverbial $50 hole for my newest acquisition. It's not much taller than it was that day, but it produces cascades of beautiful, fragrant golden chains to brighten my walk out to the mailbox.

Horse Chestnut Raid

Day 262: Once I've got it in my craw to act, everybody better just get the hell out of my way. After I had to take the Whatzit Tree out because it was diseased, I started looking for something to replace it. I decided I wanted a tree which would mature to have a broad crown, i.e., a "shade tree." I had a couple of things in mind.

The "last resort" option was a big-leaf maple, not one of my favourite trees. They're too prone to breaking in the wind. Other choices included a black walnut, horse chestnut or a catalpa. The latter two grow fairly rapidly.

There was one other stipulation to the Quest: shoestring budget. "Cheap" was okay. "Free" was better.

I checked a couple of open spaces where I'd seen black walnuts growing. Nope, no seedlings. Then I paid a visit to a park with catalpas. I brought home several pods and planted the seeds. They're currently chilling in the fridge. I'm also experimenting with a hardwood cutting.

All of this aside, I struck gold yesterday. I was on my way home from kayaking at Lake St. Clair and spotted dozens of little baby horse chestnuts growing on the road verge beneath a parent tree which was on private property. If the county mowed, the seedlings would be doomed. I had to act promptly, and thus I let a plant raid dictate my other activities today.

About 9 AM when traffic was fairly light, I parked nearby and crossed the road, trowel and plastic bags in hand. Ten minutes later, I returned to the car with half a dozen horse chesnut trees which I immediately put in a bucket of soil brought expressly for that purpose and dumped a quart of water on them. Then I went bicycling because the trailhead was only a mile or so away. Several hours later, I got back to the car. It was like an oven inside, but the horse chestnuts were happy and showing no signs of wilt. I potted them up in gallons as soon as I got home.