The ume, Prunus mume, is a wonderfully vigorous variety. Shoots on a medium sized tree can easily run two or three feet in a single season – which is good and bad. Good in that careful and well-timed wiring can lead to branches that set and develop quickly. Bad, because a neglected tree can quickly […]
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Recent Posts
Bay Area Satsuki Aikokai 15th Annual Exhibit
Last weekend the Bay Area Satsuki Aikokai (BASA) held their 15th annual exhibit (congratulations!). It’s nice to see that the organization has done well over the years. The exhibit and demonstrations were well attended and the trees looked great. Satsuki azalea BASA’s exhibit is held at the Lakeside Garden Center in Oakland, CA. While a […]
Visitation rights
I recently had the opportunity to visit a few of the pines I started 15 years ago that are no longer in my collection. I was happy to see that they are doing very well. It’s exciting to give a tree its start and then see how others develop and refine it. The result is […]
Utah juniper
Utah juniper, Juniperous osteosperma, is a desert tree or shrub found throughout the southwest. The Utah can survive extreme heat with very little water and live for hundreds of years. In particularly dry years they sacrifice branches to conserve moisture. When further stressed by wind or inhospitable soil, Utah junipers twist and bend as they […]
Singleleaf ash
While hiking around Moab looking for Utah junipers, Konnor and I came across a number of neat deciduous trees I was not familiar with. My favorite was the singleleaf ash, Fraxinus anomala. The species, a member of the olive family, is an anomoly among ash because it has a single rather than a compound leaf. […]