I love trees for so many reasons – but sheer beauty has got to be near the top. That’s obvious in warmer months, when bright green leaves surround us a tangible, palpable display of life and light at work. But even when it’s winter we can find plenty of gorgeous, life-affirming details on our arboreal friends. From far away, we see their delicate silhouettes. Up close, you can see the teeniest, tiniest starts of buds, the intricate patterns on bark.
Thankfully, I’ve got a great opportunity to witness it all since this year I went a bit nuts and planted dozens of saplings. I’m going to try and chart their journey as the year progresses. This afternoon I was delighted to see so many of them already making themselves at home in my garden, even just a few weeks after planting.
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- The Eastern Redbud has lovely deep maroon, speckled bark.
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- I love Crepe Myrtle bark!
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- The Red Maple living up to its color name already at 2 weeks.
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- The Pussy Willow has only been planted 2 weeks but already has plump, bright-red buds.
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- The Mountain Laurel was planted last Spring. Hoping that the leaf coloration is normal and not something to be worried about!
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- The Weeping Cherry tree has some dark buds emerging. The poor thing was severely damaged by a deer in October, I’m hoping it’s ok in the spring.
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- The Saucer Magnolia has gorgeous gray fuzzy buds like a Pussy Willow.
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- The Dwarf Peach Tree has a profusion of bumpy buds
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- The Live Oak was planted just 2 weeks ago. So far not much change but it’s hanging in there!
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- Damage done to the Weeping Willow sapling by some animal. Argh!
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- The Lavender has a holey sort of beauty.
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- I love how the Sycamore grows with some leaves in the middle. Here’s an old leaf and a dark bud emerging.
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- One of the two Hazelnut trees showing some buds. Apparently you need to two eventually get nuts.
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- This Giant Sequoia isn’t quite giant yet! It’s only about 8 inches tall. It is a bit brown along the edges, I’m hoping that it is just settling in.
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- The White Dogwood has simply gorgeous red shoots coming out of its branches with a bud at each end.
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- The Shagbark Hickory has brownish/gray/green nodes. I hear it takes a long time to grow, so it might be small for awhile!
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- This 2 week old Forsythia seems happy to budding happily along.
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- The bark of the Sycamore is showing its distinctive “torn” look.
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- The Catalpa sapling doesn’t show much change yet at 2 weeks, but the bark is nicely variegated
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- The Crepe Myrtle’s berries have dried.
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- River Birch bark starting out purplish and dark. It should eventually strip off and form the distinctive birch look.
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- The Japanese Maples have a deep, bright red color with red buds on the sides.
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- The first of the two Paw Paw trees planted over the summer. Each has slivers of buds coming out of the sides.
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- The Grey Dogwood bush has red accents in its buds.
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- I have a hard time with Weeping Willows! This one was damaged by an animal but has a few nice little triangular buds.
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- The Apple tree has delicately spotted bark and fuzzy, scaly buds.
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- River birch buds are small and dark.
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- This Dawn Redwood is related to the Sequoia but looks quite different. It has small buds at the top.
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- The Red Dogwood is little but fierce – with one bold red bud.
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- The Oak Leaf Hydrangea’s leaves turned dark and now brown folds are emerging.
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- The Tulip Poplar had some mildew problems in the Fall but has some gallant, sword-like buds
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- A small shoot coming out of the Eastern Redbud.
Thoughts...?!