kbg

Working hard

2010-06-02T20:17:00.000-07:00

Gotta keep the little guys outta trouble. This doubles my work.

Another golden seedling

2010-05-28T20:46:00.001-07:00

This one is Pinus strobus. The other is dead.

Taylor's Sunburst-ing

2010-05-28T20:43:00.000-07:00

Probably at it's peak for the season.

Pinus parviflora 'Dr. Landis'

2010-05-26T20:50:00.000-07:00

A Japanese white pine cultivar with yellow new growth. This is a graft I made with scion from a friend's plant early in 2009

Acer longipes 'Gold Coin'

2010-05-22T19:48:00.001-07:00

A new maple for me this spring. Another plant from sent from Canada. This one arrived looking pretty sad. Dry and dropping leaves. A cool late spring may have eased it's transition to Iowa because it is pushing out new growth now.

Pinus pumila 'Blue Note'

2010-05-21T21:45:00.000-07:00

A very slow growing pine. Maybe an inch each year.

Perfection

2010-05-19T21:02:00.001-07:00

Shirasawanum 'Aureum' before the ravages of summer. Red in the veins and on the margins. Perfect!

3 Korean Gems

2010-05-17T20:45:00.000-07:00

A, B and C

2 boys and 1 maple

Worth revisiting

2010-05-16T20:01:00.001-07:00

Kasagi Yama in the rain. Worth a second look.

Ubermensch

2010-05-15T19:43:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the boys get a little crazy with the toys. Superman met his kryptonite here tonight.

See I can take a non plant photo.

More cones

2010-05-13T22:26:00.000-07:00

A cluster of cones on Japanese white pine (Pinus parviflora) at the Iowa Arboretum. Summer 2009.

Korean fir cone

2010-05-12T12:15:00.001-07:00

Korean fir coning in the spring. Hand pollinated this year, so maybe some interesting seedlings in the future.

A few new grafts

2010-05-08T19:12:00.000-07:00

I got these small conifers from Whistling Gardens in Canada. My 1st imports! They arrived yesterday.

Pinus strobus 'Horsham' X 'Contorta'

Pinus parviflora 'Linda'

Abies lasiocarpa 'Prickly Pete'

Taxodium distichum 'Pevé Minaret'

2010-05-07T19:38:00.000-07:00

Another bald cypress cultivar. This from early spring 2010. Check back in the summer to see the rest of the show.

Abies koreana 'Kohout's Icebreaker'

2010-05-05T23:49:00.000-07:00

Witches broom from cultivar named 'Hortsmann's Silberlocke' with beautiful, recurved needles. This one should be a very nice silver-green pillow in 3 or 4 years.

Picea pungens 'Hoopsii'

2010-05-04T20:08:00.000-07:00

Hoops blue spruce. One of the finest for color.

Acer palmatum 'Tsukushi gata'

2010-05-03T20:12:00.000-07:00

A great, dark, purple-red. This one is tucked in under my burning bushes and has been in the ground for 4 or 5 years. It suffered from rabbit damage a couple of winters, but has done well with protection the past two years.

Shirasawanum comparison

2010-05-02T21:12:00.000-07:00

Acer shirasawanum doesn't have nearly as many cultivars as Acer palmatum. However it is a bit more cold hardy. Here is a photo of the leaves of a number of my shirasawanums.

Acer palmatum 'Katsura'

2010-04-30T19:34:00.000-07:00

Another maple with stunning spring foliage. Yellow and orange and a hint of red. Mine nearly died and is in recovery mode. Will take a few more years to get the form decent again. This is a close up from this spring.

Shirasawanum 'Moonrise'

2010-04-28T21:10:00.000-07:00

One of the few patented asian maples. The thrill is the red leaves in the spring.

The first 3 or 4 pairs of leaves emerged yellow-green, and then the characteristic red came in.

Landscape

2010-04-27T19:43:00.000-07:00

Seems like I only make progress on expanding the landscaping a few square feet at a time. A bit of free mulch helped to clean up this corner, but I can still see plenty of weeds. Woody plants are Picea orientalis 'Daureus' and Acer palmatum dissectum 'Otto'.

Baby Taylor

2010-04-25T15:27:00.000-07:00

A graft of Taylor's Sunburst from winter 2010. A great plant for spring impact.

Acer platanoides mutant

2010-04-24T18:52:00.000-07:00

A compressed, curly leaf form. Grown from seed.

Dawn Redwood 'Gold Rush'

2010-04-22T20:51:00.000-07:00

Spring 2010

Bleeding hearts

2010-04-22T20:32:00.000-07:00

A short lived display each year

Picea abies 'Chillin Phil'

2010-04-21T14:04:00.000-07:00

This is one of the first of the conifer grafts that I was successful with. Grafted early 2008. Photo from April, 2010. Scion wood was collected from a witches broom in Warsaw, IL.

Hosta 'Remember Me'

2010-04-20T20:18:00.000-07:00

A hosta that I have had for 3 years now. Looking great this spring.

Baker Street Broom

2010-04-20T06:37:00.000-07:00

Graft of Japanese black pine (Pinus thunbergii) witches broom collected in Albuquerque.

Pinus contorta 'Taylor's Sunburst'

2010-04-19T21:15:00.000-07:00

The spring yellow form of the lodgepole pine.

Taxodium distichum 'Pevé Yellow'

2010-04-19T21:06:00.000-07:00

A yellow form of the bald cypress. Early spring is the most intense color.

Spring foliage

2010-04-18T20:07:00.001-07:00

Japanese maples come in a remarkable variety. A few from this spring

Japonicum 'Dissectum'

Beni schishihenge

Karasu gawa

Acer palmatum 'Kasagi yama'

2010-04-16T20:53:00.000-07:00

A reticulated form of Japanese maple. To my mind it is the perfect red when it leafs out in the spring.

Komachi Hime

2010-04-13T16:11:00.000-07:00

I purchased the bulk of my maples last year in the fall. This spring is my first opportunity to see them leaf out. Some have really caught my attention, others are a lot less interesting.

Komachi Hime is a dwarf cultivar that has been outstanding this year.

The golden child

2010-04-02T19:37:00.000-07:00

I always have my eyes out for an unusual plants. Today at the park near my office I found one. Last fall I planted some Acer palmatum seed that my dad collected in Albuquerque. The park has a play area with 18+ inches of wood chip mulch. The perfect seed bed in my opinion. I sow on the edges where there is little traffic.

Today among the little seedlings was a single yellow leafed form. My golden child. Of course he got plucked out and transplanted at home.

Japonicum in the fall

2010-03-16T16:13:00.000-07:00

Acer Japonicum is one of the species of maple that grows in Japan. There are a number of cultivars, and many are known for fantastic fall colors. This is the cultivar 'Dissectum' from fall 2009

Maples by me

2010-02-25T14:16:00.000-08:00

A couple of grafted maples. The first is shirasawanum 'Microphyllum'. Chip bud in summer of 08 picture Feb 10

palmatum 'Villa Taranto' grafted summer 09 picture Feb 10

Late April Photos

2006-04-27T08:33:00.000-07:00

Some photos from April 26th. The hosta is 'Hosta June'. I got it last year in Missouri. It lives in a mostly shady spot and looks greatThe maple was transplanted from my secretary's yard. Dug in fall, overwintered in garage and planted this springThe purple flowers are a cultivar of common lilac called 'Sensation'. They smell nice too.

Mizuho Beni

2006-04-11T11:07:00.000-07:00

This is Acer Palmatum 'Mizuho Beni'. It was my 1st potted maple to leaf out this year and it is at least three weeks ahead of the rest. It is a grafted cultivar that I purchased off ebay in the fall when it was dormant. I don't have any pictures of it from the early spring, but the colors were a fantastic mix of pink, orange and yellow. It got a little frosted last week so a few dark tips on some leaves.

2006-04-10T10:17:00.000-07:00

A few of the daffodils that dad and I planted. They are about 6 inches in height. Photo 9 April 2006