Shopping for Japanese Maples
You may recall one of my blogs from last autumn when I took you on a photo tour of my friends, Michael and Judy Steinhardt's, most gorgeous Japanese maple grove. I have always loved Japanese maples and really wanted to plant such a grove at my farm in Bedford. This dream moved a step closer to reality this past summer, when I went shopping for plants on the North Fork of Long Island, New York, with my television gardener, Andrea Mason. One of the wholesale nurseries that we visited in Cutchogue, New York, is called Environmentals, owned by my friend, Connie Cross. Environmentals specializes in rare and unusual plants and when I was there, I noticed an entire hoop house filled with potted Japanese maples. Last week, I sent Shaun, my gardener, to do a little shopping. Shaun went through the entire hoop house and brought back 117 trees, consisting of forty different cultivars. Shaun and his crew got busy with the planting and I'll show you that entire process very soon.
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- Shaun was happy that here was a great deal of variation in color, size, and form.
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- The is the hoop house which was filled with many varieties of Japanese maples.
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- Another beautiful Japanese maple in the garden
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- A cascading Japanese maple at pool’s edge
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- A very cutleaf form
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- The owner of Environmentals is Connie Cross and this is her home nicely situated in the garden.
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- The chicken coop
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- I love the aged worn look of these chairs.
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- The pool and cabana
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- My truck with trailer was parked and ready to be loaded.
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- This trailer is great for transporting furniture, equipment, and plants.
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- As Shaun pulled the trees, Fernando put them into groups of three of a kind.
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- These are some of the bigger trees in 15-gallon pots.
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- Here is a rather large specimen of Pinus aristata.
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- A very beautiful Cedrus deodara thriving in the sandy, well-drained soil of the Northfork
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- Many conifers can be found planted throughout the gardens and nursery areas of Environmentals.
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- The ivy-covered wholesale office at Environmentals
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- A really fun planting in a garden cart – dahlia, sweet potato vine, and lantana
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- This is all that was left in the hoop house after Shaun picked all of the best specimens for Bedford!
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- TJ of Environmentals got busy loading the trees.
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- As did Bidal
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- Baulilio took the lead in loading the trailer.
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- Many were loaded but will all 117 trees fit?
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- This is Bob who oversees the nursery – he is also a poet and passed along two of his poems for Shaun to read.
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- These are the last of the trees to be carefully loaded into the trailer.
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- This is Frank who helped with the sale of the plants and gave a tour of the gardens at the nursery.
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