This encore blog was originally posted on April 16th of last year.
Do you know why the Japanese stewartia tree is one of my favorites? "Stewart" is my last name after all.
The Japanese stewartia, Stewartia pseudocamellia, is a small, slow-growing, all-season performer that shows off fresh green leaves in spring, white flowers resembling single camellias in summer, and colorful foliage in autumn. It's also well-loved for its attractive exfoliating bark, which peels away in strips of gray, reddish-brown, and orange. Yesterday, my outdoor grounds crew planted a stand of young stewartia trees behind my Gym building in an area not far from my main Greenhouse, my winding pergola, and of course, my stewartia garden.
Here are some photos.
I love stewartia trees and have several different kinds of stewartias growing at my farm. This is a view of my Stewartia garden behind my Tenant House in late spring. The stewartias planted here include Stewartia gemmata, Stewartia x. henryae, Stewartia pseudocamellia ‘Ballet’, Stewartia monadelpha, Stewartia rostrata, and Stewartia henry ‘Skyrocket’.
One of its appealing features is the stewartia’s bark.
And these are the flowers of a Stewartia pseudocamellia – cup-shaped, camellia-like white blossoms up to two-and-a-half inches in diameter with showy orange-yellow anthers.
Over the weekend, I purchased a selection of stewartia trees to plant along the carriage road behind my Gym Building. Here, they will get full to partial shade and be somewhat shielded from any winds.
A crucial step in growing healthy trees is to plant them properly. The hole should be two to three times wider than the diameter of the tree’s rootball and two to three inches less than the height of the rootball.
Chhiring cuts off the wire basket so it can be removed. Wire baskets were designed to support the root ball during loading, shipping, and transplanting. Some cut the cages and leave them in the ground, but I prefer to remove them completely, so there is nothing blocking the growing roots.
He also removes the burlap wrapping that holds the root ball together.
All the wire cages and wrapping are piled up and discarded.
Chhiring rolls the root ball slowly and carefully into the hole and then looks at the tree from all sides to ensure it is perfectly straight and its best side is facing out toward the carriage road.
Chhiring is now sprinkling fertilizer. I always say, “if you eat, your plants should eat.” The soil in the planting hole is also amended with fertilizer.
The biodegradable resin coated shells allow for a slow release of the fertilizer.
We use Miracle-Gro® Shake ‘N Feed Flowering Trees and Shrubs Plant Food, which contains natural ingredients to feed microbes in the soil and provides continuous release feeding for up to three months.
The branches are just beginning to show spring growth. Stewartias have alternate, simple, elliptic, dark green leaves that grow five to nine-centimeters long.
This tree is placed at the right depth – at its flare – the bulge just above the root system where the roots begin to branch away from the trunk. When fully mature, the Stewartia can reach up to 30- to 40-feet tall.
The surrounding tree pit is given a nice edge…
…And then the hole is backfilled completely and tamped down to create good contact between the soil and the root ball..
It’s a good idea to use a tarp to hold any of the removed soil and sod – this will save lots of clean-up time and effort later.
I think the trees look so pretty in this area. And remember, always remove any tags that are on the tree. If left too long, these tags will eventually cut into the bark and potentially cut off the flow of nutrients.
While these trees are slow-growing and only about six-feet tall now, they have ample room here in this location.
They are some of the first flowering trees guests will see when they visit. Across is my long pergola, and on the left, the handsome tall trees are bald cypress, Taxodium distichum. I am looking forward to watching these trees grow and flourish.
Enjoy this encore blog post which originally ran on May 3rd of last year - the planting of six new and interesting trees around my pool.
Adding just one type of tree, bush, or plant can totally transform a space.
I enjoy planting interesting and beautiful specimens that add texture and beauty at different times throughout the year. I also like arranging groups of certain plantings to create borders, allées and appealing displays. Last week, I purchased six Ginkgo biloba Goldspire™ Obelisk trees from Select Horticulture Inc. in nearby Pound Ridge, New York. I knew these narrow upright tower trees would look excellent on both sides of my pool. They were delivered, positioned, and planted right away - and they look just perfect.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
There is always so much happening at my Bedford, New York farm. On this day, six Ginkgo biloba Goldspire™ Obelisk trees arrived. Select Horticulture Inc. secures their trees excellently for transport – they came in perfect condition.
Ginkgo Goldspire™ is a highly ornamental, non-fruiting male tree originating in Italy. It has a very upright, tight fastigiate habit, and the foliage tends to be smaller than other species.
Once the trees are delivered, each one is positioned inside the pool area. Each grows about one to two feet per year and prefers mostly sun and well-drained soil.
New foliage on the Ginkgo Goldspire™ emerges a rich shade of green, fan-shaped, and slightly curled. It keeps its color through summer, then turns buttery shades of yellow and gold in autumn before dropping.
I placed wooden stakes where I wanted the trees to go.
My outdoor grounds crew foreman, Chhiring Sherpa, measures the locations and then uses white landscape paint to mark a circle where each tree will be planted. These specimens should have at least 10-feet of space between them.
Chhiring goes over the circle line with our Classen Pro HSC18 sod cutter. The sod cutter goes over the lines smoothly and deeply.
There are different types of sod cutters, but they all essentially cut grass at the roots so entire sections of sod can be removed to expose the bare ground underneath.
Here is the new cleared out area. This will become the tree pit.
All six circles are done in the same way. It’s important to get these trees into the ground before the grass underneath the waiting trees gets burned – it’s been unseasonably warm this week.
The team begins digging. The holes must be pretty wide – each one should be at least two to five times as wide as the root ball, but no deeper than the root ball. Once in the hole, the top of the root ball should just be slightly higher than the soil surface. The hole sides should also be slanted. Digging a proper hole helps to provide the best opportunity for roots to expand into its new growing environment.
A good fertilizer made especially for new transplanted specimens should always be used. This is Miracle-Gro Shake ‘N Feed Flowering Trees and Shrubs Plant Food. A generous amount of the fertilizer is mixed in with the nutrient-rich soil.
Then each tree is placed into its designated hole. When moving heavy specimens, only hold it by the root ball, the base and trunk of the planting – never by its branches, which could easily break. Once the Ginkgo is in its hole it is turned so it is straight and its best side is facing the pool.
This part of the process is very important. Chhiring stands at a distance to make sure the tree is positioned properly. Always look at the specimen from all sides, especially from where it will be seen most often. And because these trees are specially shaped with straight sides, they must all be turned just right, so the sides match.
All the trees are positioned first before any backfilling is done, so adjustments can be made. These trees are now all in the ground and positioned correctly.
The burlap and metal cage wrappings help to support the root ball during loading, shipping, and transplanting. Some leave them in the ground, but I prefer to remove everything completely, so there is nothing blocking the growing roots.
Finally, the crew backfills the holes until they are properly filled. And remember, don’t plant it too deeply – always leave it “bare to the flare.”
Phurba tidies up the tree pit and makes sure there is good contact between the tree and the surrounding soil.
Here are three of the Ginkgo Goldspire™ Obelisk trees on one side. The term “obelisk” refers to the tall, four-sided, narrow tapering which ends in a pyramid shape at the top.
And here is a view looking south. The trees look so beautiful with the staddle stones at one end. I am looking forward to seeing these Ginkgo biloba Goldspire™ Obelisk trees develop and flourish.
While my blog team is away for a long weekend, enjoy this encore blog originally posted on April 30, 2024.
Ever wonder how asparagus is grown?
Every spring, we harvest bunches of delicious asparagus. Asparagus, Asparagus officinalis, are the edible shoots, commonly called spears, that rise early in the season from underground stems called crowns. These perennial plants require patience and at least a few years to become well-established. I made sure an asparagus crop was planted when I first bought my farm. I also now have a large asparagus bed in my new vegetable garden. And while we're careful not to harvest too much too soon, this patch is already proving to be very productive.
Enjoy these photos.
I’ve been enjoying homegrown asparagus for many years. The asparagus crop in my flower garden is already more than 10-years old and well-established.
When I created my new half-acre vegetable garden last year, I made sure one of the biggest beds was earmarked for asparagus.
These are asparagus crowns from Johnny’s Selected Seeds. Each of these is about a year old. Asparagus crowns usually come in bundles of 10 to 25 bare-root plants.
Asparagus has modified adventitious roots that swell to store food and to support the plants.
Asparagus grows in trenches like these. Depth of planting is critical. If too shallow, the plants will produce a large number of small spears. If planted too deep, the spears will be large, but few in number. These furrows are at least eight-inches deep and a foot wide.
Asparagus roots grow very deep because they can survive very long in the soil.
Here they are lined up in the trench. Last spring, we planted two varieties – ‘Purple Passion’, which produces attractive purple spears with a mild, nutty flavor and are reputedly sweeter than most other asparagus varieties. And ‘Millennium’ – a productive plant that produces high-quality spears that are tender, green, and delicious.
Asparagus needs lots of room to grow. The crown and root system can develop to an enormous size – about five to six feet in diameter and 10 to 15 feet deep. When planting, the roots should be splayed to direct the root growth outward and not downward.
Once all the crowns are positioned, the trenches are covered with several inches of soil. As the weeks progress and growth appears, the rows are backfilled a bit more making sure the tips of the shoots are all but completely covered.
Asparagus beds require consistent soil moisture during the first growing season. Once established, the plants are relatively low-maintenance.
By June, the bed is full of growing young ferns. This fern production is crucial to the success of a developing asparagus patch. The number of spears produced each year and the overall health of the plants, is affected by how many ferns are left to mature.
The bigger the ferns, the more food is created to fuel the following year’s spear production.
First spears can appear within a couple of months after establishing an asparagus patch, depending on soil temperatures and moisture, but they should be left alone, so the plants could start to develop and become more established.
And here is the bed last August. The asparagus ferns are more than four-feet tall. The food produced travels back down to the crown and the roots of the plant in fall as the fern dies back. The carbohydrates are held in the dormant crowns through the winter.
And then earlier this month, the heads of stronger, more robust spears poked out of the soil.
‘Purple Passion’ asparagus is nuttier, sweeter, and more tender than other green varieties because it has about 20-percent more sugar in its stalks. While the stalks are purple on the outside, the inside is the same as a green spear.
‘Millennium’ asparagus is high yielding, long lived, cold hardy, and adaptable. The best time to harvest is when the asparagus spears are about six to eight inches tall. Harvesting can be done by breaking the spears off by hand near the soil level.
This is an earthenware cloche specifically for growing white asparagus. The plants are the same, but the spears of white asparagus are blanched, or kept from light while growing. Crossing fingers they’re white under there.
It’s widely thought that thin asparagus are tastier, based on the notion that slender spears are younger. However, thick spears are already thick when they poke up from the soil. The two are just different varieties. I love both kinds of asparagus, but I do find that fat stalks tend to be a little more succulent.
An asparagus bed should receive a minimum of eight-hours of full sun per day and be well-drained.
With room to grow, and a little patience to start, one can enjoy homegrown, delicious and nutritious asparagus for at least 15-years.
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