Viewing comments posted by Sequoiadendron4

This plant was installed as a companion to a 'Brandywine' 4 years ago. The leaves are shiny and smooth textured. The plant does not berry nearly as well as the 'Brandywine'. This year it has experienced its heaviest berry crop and it was still less than its pollination partner. I do have a volunteer nudum growing close by, so hopefully that will help when it's old enough. Fall color on this one is gorgeous, as you can see in my photo. It's a very beautiful and carefree shrub.

Stunning color in the morning, but blooms fade by the time I come home from work around 4:30. Get your pictures before the sun beats them to death.

If someone told me five years ago how bad of an idea it'd be to plant a pyracantha hedge, I wouldn't have planted it. The plants are beautiful and berry heavy. They are strong growers too. The only downside is scab. Scab is a fungal affliction that produces black sooty spots on the leaves and berries. On the leaves it's not really detrimental. Affected leaves fall off but are replaced at a faster pace so it's not noticeable. The berries get totally trashed by scab, which stinks because that's the main reason to grow the shrub. Birds don't eat the scabbed berries. To prevent this, one must spray the entire plant every 7-10 days with fungicide from the time of leaf emergence until the flowers are spent. That's a tall order for 60' of shrubs that are 8-10' tall. So in conclusion, this is a nice plant for a specimen or two but probably not the best hedge.

We've been growing two of these since the spring of '10. They were tiny when we planted them at around 3' tall. Now both are about 14' tall and around 4-6' wide. They are gorgeous trees and look really nice on the each corner of our house. One of ours is exposed to NW winds on the SW corner of our home. This one tends to brown some in the winter. Winter of '13-'14 I sprayed this one with Wiltpruf and had great success doing so despite a terrible winter. Both produce seeds via globe-shaped cones. I have had a single volunteer so far and successfully transplanted that one at my in-laws' house. That tree volunteered summer of '12 and overwintered. The next spring I dug it, potted it, and let it grow all summer, then transplanted it to my in-laws. It's now 42" tall. Great trees to have, but you'll want to have them where they are not getting the full force of winter's wind. I'm pretty sure our 6b winter is on the northern edge of their hardiness. They do load up in a snow storm but usually bounce back soon after the snow falls off. Very pleased with this plant. I just wish I didn't plant them so close to the house.

The Giant Sequoia is a beautiful and magnificent tree in the west, and in the east it is just as nice. I planted mine in the spring of '10 and it grew about 25-30" a year at my house. It should definitely be watered during times of drought, though, and if not, it does tend to brown out. It does take cold and heavy snow loads well. I have only seen 2 other trees in our area, one in York and one in Lancaster PA, and both have quite a large trunk. I like this about the trees, though, that they have a much wider trunk than you'd think for the height. Very beautiful and a nice "exotic" to have. Unfortunately, though, my Sequoia had to be cut down due to Cercospora sequoiae needle blight. Apparently, it is common to the GS in the east. I could have sprayed it, but from what I read, I'd have to do it very frequently during the growing season and likely each year.

A very beautiful tree that provides shelter and food for wildlife and a nice accent for the landscape. The negative for this is that it is very susceptible to limb loss in storms, especially heavy snow. If considering planting, don't plant it near anything you care about, ie. gardens, houses, cars, etc. I grew one for a few growing seasons and it grew 44' in that time. We cut it down a couple years ago because of all the damage we saw in the area the prior winter. It was too close to the house and I had planted a bunch of shrubs in the future drop zone of its limbs. In the fall they have a heavy drop of needles, which I think makes for great mulch and/or compost. I regularly collect them from neighbors to lay over my gardens for the winter.

While this plant is useful as a screen, it provides very few other benefits to the garden. That being said, birds do use it for perching and nesting. It is way too overplanted and will split under heavy snow or ice loads if above 10-12' tall. My rear neighbor lined his property with these when he moved in about 35 years ago. They're still around, but they look pretty haggard. If properly trimmed and maintained every couple years, a hedge of this plant can look nice without becoming an eyesore.

This is a pretty solid evergreen tree. I've seen it take strong wind gusts, heavy/wet snow loads, a foot of rain in 48 hours, and drought with no problem. Ours is well established and is approximately 35-40 years old and it's about as tall as it is old. When we moved into this house I limbed it up about 15' and it looks real great. In the winter it does shed a bunch of dead sticks but I guess that's how it keeps itself healthy. The cones aren't very vigorous I have a single volunteer. It's 2 years old and about 4" high. Also, the roots are pretty shallow but you can garden underneath if careful. I have a ground cover geranium under it as well as a few lavender "bushes." The only thing I don't like about it is that the leader splits into two about halfway up, and now at the top there is a handful of leaders. Just minor aesthetics, though.

This is one of my favorite trees in our yard. I planted it spring of 2010 and it was about 6" tall. I got it from Arborday. Last fall I estimated its height as 26 feet!! Its first year had 48" growth, second was about the same, third year had 7' of growth. This tree is an amazing grower. I'm excited every year to see how much it will grow. It definitely needs to be on its own, though. I've seen others in the area where it is planted near other trees, and they don't do so well. It's not a very good competitor. I've had no problems with it so far. It's pretty deep rooted as I have a garden underneath it. I dig in the soil frequently to plant things and I don't usually hit roots bigger than 1/8" or so. In the fall it turns a nice bronze color and the leaves are good compost for the garden soil below. It does drop sticks frequently, but it really hasn't been a problem so far, and even if it is, it's still worth it for this beautiful tree. Ours is sort of close to our house, but I'm not worried because none of the branches will get very large like other trees, so damage to the house is of no worry to me from this one. The only pests that like it are Japanese Beetles in the summer. They only like the freshest of leaves, though.

Beautiful yellow flowers beginning in mid February in warm years and mid March in cold years. Blooms last about a month or so. One of the best smelling blooms in our yard. I love the smell and frequently put my nose up to the flowers to take a whiff. Grows at a moderate pace and I'm expecting this shrub to become quite large. Leaves turn a magnificent yellow in the fall. Our specimen gets part sun and it seems happy. Late last month there were a couple of spotty blooms on our large plant. I just couldn't resist sniffing them.

Excellent shade ground cover. It is a polite spreader and spreads by runners that travel over the soil surface and then put in roots at the leaf nodes. This is a plant that you don't mind weaving about the garden. The foliage is pretty, with some burgundy in the middle, surrounded by green outside. In the winter the foliage remains but takes on a color that makes it blend in with the surrounding soil so you can hardly notice it. The flowers in the spring are gorgeous, like little candles that stick out of a sea of green. The flowers persist for several weeks and are frequented by pollinators.

I love this plant! It spreads about in a carefree manner. This plant is a biennial. They bloom quite profusely mid-late spring and put on a nice show. They never seem to need water or any particular care. I planted a quart sized original plant several years ago and now I have 10 times that many. They are planted where they get morning sun and mostly shade or dappled shade in the afternoon.

Hardy little Rhodi for sure. We had temps down to -5 this winter with wind, and its site is somewhat exposed. No burnt out blooms and no brown leaves. It's blooming now and looks great. As the blooms age, it does lose some of that pink edging. New leaves are covered with white fuzz underneath, which fades to tan as they age. Very compact and only grows a couple of inches a year.