A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 planting seedlings

Ok, so I'm completely new at gardening and it's rather exciting to see stuff live and grow and it's mine! But, of course, there's the downside of seeing something fail as well.

I joined the Arbor Day Foundation thru thier website and recieved my 10 free flowering trees (which I don't even have enough yard for that many trees!) and I also purchased some shrubs & a flowering cherry tree & a self pollenating peach tree. Along with my purchases, they sent me free - 2 red maple seedlings, and 4 forsythia seedlings. I planted the cherry tree first.. and I believe it died. When it arrived, it had some green blooms on it, and about 2 weeks ago, it was nothing more than a shriveled stick. *sigh* So, my 2nd shipment finally arrived with my 10 free trees. I took out the cherry tree (very upset, I wanted a cherry tree badly), and replaced it with a redbud. I hope this one lives. At the same time, I planted in the very front of my yard, 2 washington hawthornes. Of course, being all seedlings, I have 3 things that look like sticks sticking up in my yard, surrounded by mulch and rocks. The rocks, believe it or not, came from the ground where I had to dig the holes. Oh my.. as if clay isn't hard enough to dig, I had rocks every time I put my shovel down.

The 4 forsythis all look great!! One even had a yellow blossom on it right after I planted them. It fell off of course.. and what looked like sticks, now has a bunch of green on them, looking a lot less like sticks now!

The peach tree, I hope it lives. It went in the ground, and had a few green leaves on it as well, just like the cherry tree did. I haven't been back to look at it in 2 days, but will be checking it this morning. I only have planted one maple so far, and thinking, I shoulda planted the other one. So far, the maple hasn't done a thing. It looks no different than when it arrived. I have the other one still, ready to go in the ground, but really, no place to fit it. It looks better than the one I planted!!

The shrubs I planted were Arborvitae, and at least 1/2 are looking good, the other half look mostly ok.. but we'll see.

The biggest mistake we made was 1)tilling the front of the house for a flower bed and 2)not realizing there were still some old pumpkin or squash type seeds still sitting there from last halloween. I had a box of pansy border seeds and thought I was getting pansies after about 1 1/2 weeks.. but the dang leaves just kept growing and growing, and look like they've been taken over by aliens they are so huge!!! Only to realize, oooops, these are NOT pansies! *sigh* I want pretty color flowers, not a pumpkin patch!

I have a digital camera, not the best for quality photos, but it works. I'll have to take some pics and post em for ya. I know hotlinking isn't allowed, but is it ok if I post a link to where I'll have the pics on a server space we rent?

Meg

Hi Meg! Welcome to our forum!
You can post your photos on here by using the url of the photo in the "image" instant ubb code. It is not hot linking when they are your pictures, and your web space (i.e. webshots, photobucket, or your own web site)

Meg

On the Arbor Day - - some things do fantastic - some things - welllllll - don't.

Follow the directions (brochure) they sent you on planting.

What I did was to containerize most of the seedlings - provides a better idea of just what is going to make it. (The ones I planted directly in the ground - not good - - but was not sure if it was my own rocky ground - though - with much experience I do make the hole much bigger than I would without the rocks and backfill with top soil.) The Red Maples - - good luck! I really mean that - - out of 4 Red Maples from the Arbor Society - I got exactly 0 living. On the other hand - the flowering trees and forsythes - they are doing well. Lost one or two - but ....

Provide good watering for them - - I found that to be best.

Jon

Thanks Bill, and Jon. I will go ahead and post some photos for ya, to laugh yer heads off at the very inexperienced "gardener".

First of all, where are the pansies in this picture?? Of course, there aren't any, doh!!

I have a seriously weedy yard.


And then I noticed I'm also getting some kind of wild growing ivy this year as well..


Meg

My forsythias make me happiest when I see they didn't die on me..


And then my arborvitae shrubs are mostly doing ok. Here's a nice one..

And I have a few more pics, but I'll make this the last one for now. I dug up all those rocks from that one hole where the stick is planted. It's supposed to be a Washington Hawthorne.


Meg

Meg,
You wrote; To me, that looks like wild morning glory... Is there a picture of the very growing tip, or end of vine??? That can be a hard booger to get rid of, if that's it???

And you have a lovely bunch of weeds, I see ragweed, then golden rod, then some more rag weed... and some dandelions'!!!!

But nice looking squashes you have there, they look very happy!!!

Thanks for all the great pictures!

Weezie

Oy, too many quote and /quote thingys for my brain at 5am!!! I'll just reply here at the bottom..lol.
First- I'll try to get a pic in the daylight today of the ivy. It's popping up all thru my yard, but very noticable near the one shrub that was already planted in my yard when we bought the house, and I liked it well enough to keep it. It had a match on the other corner of my house, but it died.

Second- you forgot to mention CLOVER. I see that more than grass in my yard..lol. Oh, wait, maybe you couldn't see that since I was just taking a pic of the side of my house where some of the weeds have taken over. I have more kinds of weeds and if ya like, I'll take a pic of them too before I start hacking again..lol.

And lastly, glad ya like my squash patch. Er, I mean my pansies? :rolleyes: I was taking such good care of them, weeded that area the best I could, hubby tilled with power tiller, put up that nice wooden border, fresh topsoil, mulch, and watering everyday, diligent about plucking any weeds popping up.. and was so happy to see my pansies sprouting up!! Then, mortified to see how large they were getting, and still no blooms!! Oh, but my girls, were thrilled when I told them what I discovered it was.

Ok, anxiously awaiting daylight to take more pics of weeds for ya.

Meg

Meg,
One thing to keep in mind when planting tree seedlings, especially ones that come in the mail, is that sometimes they will defoliate from the stress, but then will leaf out again later. So don't give up on them right away! You might try putting them in a pot and waiting a month or so before sticking them in the ground.

When planting in the ground, dig a decent-sized hole and pour in a bag of nice top soil, but don't use potting soil, I use "lawn soil" and plant the tree in that. Potting soil is mostly pete and compost and tends to shrivel up and shrink as the material decays leaving a pit.

Eugene,

I actually did dig a pretty decent sized hole. It's kinda hard to tell from the pic, but it's at least 2+ feet around, and I dug down at least a foot, thru rock & hard clay. UGH. That was horrid. And I used top soil, not potting soil, or any of the fancy stuff, as the directions actually said that would possibly be bad for them. And what I didn't know initially, is that while it's important to have a few inches of mulch, you shouldn't have it touching the tree itself. So far, my arborvitae shrubs and forsythias, doing great, but the trees.. enh. I just hope for the best now. I need to get a few pots to put some in, and I'm going to try to see if they will start out better inside.

I did put them in a bucket to soak for awhile. They sent a note, saying they ship them while in a dormant state, and that they need a few weeks to bloom. I really do believe the cherry tree died.. but I didn't pitch it yet. I put it in a bucket, and I'll give it a couple weeks to see if any change occurs.

Meg

My first experience with planting ANYTHING was a couple of years ago with the 10 flowering trees from ADF. I wound up soaking them in buckets for almost a week before I got some pots big enough to plant them in. We weren't sure where we were going to plant them yet, and wanted a way to set them out and see what we thought about the placement. Every one of them survived! We waited till the ground had warmed up quite a bit and we saw new growth before putting them out, so I think that helped some. Red Buds are my absolute FAVORITE tree! They grow so fast, it's amazing! And the flowers are a deep purple-ish color. We had one that kept getting run over from my husband trying to turn a large truck around in the yard, then the dogs barrelled over it, it got cut down with the lawn mower....you name it, it happened to that poor thing. But it kept coming right back. This was in NC and our yard sat on top of a bed of granite, so I feel your pain about the rocky ground! I used the miracle grow garden soil for trees when I planted as well. We have moved to Georgia and the first thing I planted this spring were 2 more Red Buds! They have grown 2 feet since Feb!

Wow Annette, that gives me hope!!

I just got them all in pots yesterday. I have a few in the ground, but if they don't survive, hopefully, the ones I potted will do well, and I can replace them. I wish I had thought to pot them sooner, so maybe they would have all lived.

Now, my only dilemma is this.. do I leave the pots outside on my deck, or bring them in the house? It is summer, I'd think they'd be ok outside. Also, if I'm going to leave them in the pots to see how well they do, when would be the best time to plant them in the ground if any survive? Fall, or next spring?

Meg