The first week of March is almost here and I wanted to get prepared for spring and decided to conductive an interview with Lucile Whitman from Whitman Farms. She brings up some very interesting points about how to care for maples. I'd also like to hear what other people are doing to prepare for spring. Have you already placed your order or are you planning a new garden site? http://thegardenyears.blogspot.com/
Steve, I placed a few orders in the fall for spring delivery - mostly stuff that was on a "wait list" status. 'Emmett's Pumpkin', 'Ryu sei', etc. etc. but no new orders yet. After my binge last year I have more cutivars than most dealers!! There's always room for more, of course. :-) The big gig this spring is my grafting project. I'm all ready to go, and will cut my first scions tomorrow. Its supposed to be 70 degrees, so I think I'd better hurry!! You know what happens in Tennessee in the spring - everything comes bustin' out of dormancy, and then WHAM!! An Arctic Blast pushes down from Canada and wipes out half the plants overnight! I plan on grafting some now, and storing a bunch of scions to graft later. I'm going to spread it out to see what kind of timing works best. Then there are the beds - I have MILES of beds to create to hold all the maples (and conifers) I've bought, so that will probably take up the rest of the spring - finding homes for all my little PRECIOUS ONES! I've got Evan out here this week working with the chain saw. Ash, Hickory, Oak and Elm - YOUR DAYS ARE NUMBERED! MAPLES RULE!!!! :D
Totally agree K4 she was a kick. I'm worried about that late arctic blast myself with my new deliveries. Sometimes I almost feel I be safer planting January then March. At least then I know the plants would be guaranteed not to break dormancy to earlier then get hit with a blast of air. Plant too late and then you go from spring to high heat and the humidity of summer.
Steve, Good job on this interview. Lucile has been one of my most reliable JM suppliers for years, her enthusiasm and knowledge for JM enchanted me to visit her nursery last November. Lucky enough, she also showed me some grafting methods she practices including T-budding, Veneer and whip and tongue. Very nice lady. Below is her last fall budded batch (photo snapped mid Nov) K4, What kind of grafting method you plan to use this spring?
Wow - great job with the blog and interview! For those who haven't clicked this is no soundbite, it is a nice in depth piece. I *really* hope you get a chance to continue interviewing some of the maple greats and keep posting. I have purchased one plant from Whitman and ironically enough it was the one that didn't make it to spring. No fault of anyone except the deer that munched to the ground. It was an acer campestre carnivale, and whitman is one the only places I have seen to purchase this beauty. As mentioned before Lucille is enjoyable to speak with by telephone. Next year I might spring for a bit bigger version. My deer seem to love my newer grafts alone, but leave the ones alone that are just a bit better established. I was hoping somebody would start a spring thread. Can't come soon enough! My goal (and lets see how long this lasts) is to really work on the maintenance of the young grafts that I have and try limiting new purchases to replacements of ones that don't survive winter/spring and a few key other spots in the garden. I would like to work on my watering system, work on the companion plants, and replace some of the thick clay. I did get my dream project going (http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=40985&highlight=dream+project) I will post updated pics soon.
Thanks Paxi, I'm hoping that more people in the plant world will be as outgoing and gracious as Lucile was with her time. The more people in the world know about all these great trees the better it will be for all.
1876, I plan to use the Side Veneer method. Grafting tape, grafting wax, and plastic baggies with twist ties. T-budding sounds interesting. I may have to try that on a few..
Here in the midwest, I am praying we don't get too much-too soon. Starting today, highs in the mid-fifties all the way through Wednesday or Thursday. Somebody out there more knowledgeable than myself please tell me my JM's won't break bud in this short period of time. ???? McHoop
McHoop, I think if your night time temps are still in the 30s you'll be OK. We're about to get some warm air that will put us near 70 and night time temps in the high 40s in Tennessee. So, I'm really hoping not to see bud break but I'm thinking we will. Then the 15 day forecast has some very cold weather the last week in February. So this could be a very bad combination.
Today we had the first sunny day in weeks (sunny but cold, < 6°C). I took a detailed tour of the garden and no maples had budded out (not counting my weird 'Nokoribi'). Last year at this time I already had more than a dozen with leaves. The cold weather, with nighttime frosts, is holding them back which is a good thing. Other plants were in flower, so I share with you some nice late winter flowers from my garden. Gomero
Same here, no signs of anything from any maple. Saw the first scatter of yellow crocus in the lawn today, and the witch hazels are going strong still -- they seemed to have really liked the cold. Loads of snowdrops of course, but no daffs yet although the buds are plump, the stems are still short. Often we get the first daffs around mid-Feb. All the hazel catkins have been out for a while. Gomero, whats the H. x intermedia cultivar in the 2nd to last picture? Pretty dark orange. Oddly the cyclamen didn't bloom at all this winter, although the leaves are healthy looking... I moved an unhappy Koehlreuteria (Coral Sun) today, but otherwise didn't make much planting progress as the ground was frozen all morning. More of the same tomorrow. -E
No bud break here is St. louis either (thankfully). BTW, those plant signs are exactly what I am looking for, but I want to wait until my little guys (or is it gals? :) are more established before committing a sign to them. Very curious if all the japanese painted ferns and lady ferns that I planted as companion are going to come back ok.
I was over at Rare Finds in Jackson NJ on Saturday. They were having Hamamelis days. Probably 25 or 30 cultivars were blooming and available. They had a witch hazel guru give an informative presentation. Also had some sought after maples like 'Mary Catherine' and 'Orion'. I grabbed a very sturdy 'Shigitatsu sawa' and a 5ft. Enkianthus campanulatus 'Sikokianus'. I'm not positive but I believe the coral flowered plant in the photo is 'Antoine Kort'.
