Coffee break 99

I really like the cherry...so delicate....

Rosemary, Davidsans has a Acer griseum x maximowiczianum Sugar Flake listed, but no price or size. Looks like a winner.

I will look at Forestfarm for my white Cercis. Thanks

I did some Japanese maple shopping yesterday, but so far only sent in an order for Topiary Gardens. She has a sale for 5 of a mixed group of either Green or Red, her choice, but named ones for 50.00. I ordered some Green ones to grow out. Sadly, many of her 2 and 3 gallons ones that I wanted were already sold out. I wonder when she posted her list? Wha probably ordered them all. Patti

Thanks for the accolade about 'accolade', Marilyn. Mike Dirr has written this hybrid was one of his favorite cherry trees, and more disease resistant.

Thanks for the suggestion. Patti. I'll email them about it. In my google searches I could not learn about any particular difference among the different trademarked cultivars for this hybrid, just that the Nikko maple (easier for me to remember to spell) is a taller tree than griseum, and that for the hybrid one can expect several more feet of growth in a ten year period compared to griseum.

Happy news--Klehm's songsparrow has Kiki's Broom dwarf magnolia. If the one i just bought is as good as I hope, I am thinking of a small grouping on the hill near the front door, next to the already mature crimson queen JM, two newport boxwoods and Mary Fleming Rhodi, closely planted with Pajohla's daughter rhodi, Yako princess and elf mountain laurel in the higher ground. Even if it doesn't seem special to some, my heart beats a little faster when I remember that when we bought the house in 1989, this section was just a lot of stray pipes, cement riprap and a falling-down cement block wall held up by huge wires. Just a few more plants to tweak it, and then a stone bench... or better yet, a sunroom AND a bench outside it! Anything is possible for this cinderella.

Annoying news-- Jersey Knight ilex opaca arrived today, frozen solid and the leaves falling off. I am hoping the nursery will acknowledge their mistake in treating us like we're the south.

Among the three ilex opacas planted in fall, Satyr Hill is clearly superior in cold tolerance--nary a lost leaf. The other two look OK on 2/3 of the plant, even as they are in the more wind protected areas. I consider a hilltop to be zone 5 here.

Patti - I can't believe you already ordered maples from Diana - If she was sold out then that was from last year I bet. I will have to contact her tomorrow!!

Rosemary, you've done quite a bit of work on your property! The rhodos are very nice selections.....can't believe they shipped a holly to you in this weather!

Or shipped any plant at this time. After all the cold is reaching to Texas.

Ilex shipped when the whole country is having the coldest weather ever. Who were these people so I can avoid them like the plague. Hope they do right by you. Today we are putting the Christmas world to bed, so not much time for plant catalog playing. However I am going to take a look at that Kiki's Broom dwarf magnolia. Patti

I'll give this carolina mail order nursery a few more days to respond, and if they don't, DG will know about it! Their site said they ship to colder areas in late March so the plants are still dormant in the mail, but this was ridiculous.

The buyer at Weston Nurseries wrote back that they have my Gingerbread maple, 8feet tall, in their growing field. Pretty expensive, so more questions went back about them planting it and the size of the roots. They buyer and management are usually fun to talk to in person because they clearly love plants.

That's a good sized tree, Rosemary......it should be professionally planted....

This is the reply to my second email to Woodlanders asking them to replace the two frozen plants. It's a little better than their first reply but I'm not so sure I like being designated as part of a problem state. Nor do I want to tell a neighbor or anyone to stay at their home just in case my plants come.


"Although we have been shipping rare plants to a worldwide clientele for over 30 years, it is rare that we have the kind of problems we experienced with your order. Massachusetts has been disproportionately represented where problems have occurred. We thought we had agreed that you would take delivery ASAP to guarantee availability and avoid problems with delay in charging the credit card. Nevertheless we made a mistake in shipping the order on the eve of an unusually cold event so will certainly plan to replace the plants at no cost. We will watch the forecast for your area and plan to ship these when danger freezing is minimal. Although we ship until the end of March, we already cautioned that we do not reserve plants and that our spring comes much earlier and plants coming into active growth in March are much more vulnerable to low temperatures when shipped north as compared with dormant plants. Hopefully you will be able to replant the plants in containers and provide a protected place to hold them until they can be planted outside. Also you might want to consider having them delivered to your work address or to a friend or neighbor who is at home. Robert B. McCartney,

Woodlanders, Inc.

Just checked some reviews about Woodlander Nursery and found the owners response to several problems quite appalling.

"We hate to loose (sp) a customer but one less Massachusetts yankee with attitude is not likely to make me loose (sp) any sleep."

and this gem " I said that was fine and to ship the replacements next March. They sent them in January with no prior notification and unfortunately I was away from home. When I called to ask them to send another replacement since it was their mistake they refused. When I asked why Bob McCartney, who I believe is the owner said "because I don't feel like it".

Now that is customer service! So Robert McCartney sounds like he should be avoided. Patti

That is just ghastly! I can't believe anyone who expects to remain in business would be so obnoxious about people who have mistakenly assumed he was a professional. Ick!

I got the Roots and Rhyzomes catalog today and I am drooling over some of their daylilies. As with the rest of you, we will have to check the survivor list before succumbing to too much temptation.

Big news....we have a contract on our Florida house and will move 3 weeks from today! Yikes! I hope we can get everything done in time. We will not come north right away because of the weather up there. Instead we will drive 2 cars and stay on the NC coast for 2 months before we meet the mover with our furniture sometime in April. I may not be online much as I continue to wrestle with bubble wrap and boxes. We really like the buyers...very sweet family with little boys. They love the house like we have, so that makes it easier to leave here. I have been playing and walking the streets of this neighborhood for 63 years, so it is bittersweet but smart.

Glad that you found a buyer.

The place which ships plants in the winter & then blames the buyer should be avoided at all costs.

it is amazing they are even in business - I would just contact my cc company and file a complaint, get a refund and be done with them.

congrats louise!!

Yes, that's really good news, Louise, but I'm sure it's hard to leave a home that was so loved.....staying on the NC coast sounds wonderful as well.......I still recall staying in the Outer Banks 14 years ago last October, & loving every minute! That holly seller sounds too independent to stay in business.....however, customer service seems to be disappearing .......

Hard to believe that seller's attitude! Sorry you had to experience that.

Woohoo, Louise!!!!!!!! Doing a happy dance for you. Was that the family you mentioned when I saw you in Dec.? They will make many happy memories there.

Yes, Jan, it is the same couple. They are just delightful and their littles are so cute and so nice. This couple reminds me of so many of my favorite law clerks over the years. He will make the third lawyer in a row to live here. Would you say the house is cursed or blessed?!!!? LOL

Thanks all for your nice thoughts! I am heading in for a "Family Nap" now after packing up framed pictures all morning. Hank says I do "overkill" because i bubblewrap each one instead of just throwing them all in a box together! Yes, there were a few words over that debate. 😄

agree with you on packing

Congrats, Louise.

Mr. McCartney wrote back to my last email that he will refund my money, so the frozen ilex episode is over. I have to find Jersey Knight somewhere else now, probably it will appear in a different catalog.

Saw Ilex o.Jersey knight on sylvan's list. Worth a drive down as it is an amazing place. Pretty close to Avant.

Louise, glad you are packing carefully. You and DH will be happy when all arrives safely. Of course if you are like us, you will wonder how 2 people can have so much"stuff". Time to listen to George Carlin's famous bit about Stuff.

This message was edited Jan 11, 2014 1:25 AM

Glad you are getting a refund, Rosemary.

The buyer's enthusiasm is infectious!!! Pack and nap, pack and nap, just repeat and rinse. Heehee

Hi everyone! Not sure when I was here last, but hope to pop in more often. Now to try to catch up.

Nice to hear from you Debi.

I will check out Sylvans. A drive to that area in spring sounds pretty nice.

RosemaryK et al:

I'd be remiss if I didn't recommend a visit to this link:

http://www.hollysocam.org/buy_holly.html

Heartwood and McLean are two from which I have plants, and I'd personally vouch for the quality.

Thanks VV. Very cool to see the Holly Hill orchard. Think I have to give everyone a chance to restock for now. It would be nice to get a well developed ilex opaca male.

Hey, Deb....been missing you! Would love to see some photos of Leah! Rosemary, glad your money has been returned.....Louise, hang in there! We just hired someone to clean out Mom's house, it was too overwhelming for us.....and it has given me a small shove to start getting rid of stuff in this place.....

Hi Rosemary and Robin.
Leah is just the sweetest, and we had a great Christmas. I'll post some pics soon.
I've started downsizing and organizing my kitchen, who needs 3 shelves full of coffee mugs?
It's nice to be back!

Hey Deb, good to see you back, have missed so many people here!
Must be that time of year, I've tossed so much stuff since Christmas.

Hi Deb!

Well spent the week in Colorado and alas there were no red rocks that joined the joining home. As usual too busy to stop and take a walk. did hear of an area where there is lots of rose quartz :)

Oooh, that sounds really nice, Bill!

Hopefully you will go back soon for rose quartz before long.

Looking at Sheepers Kitchen Garden catalog......think I will try some new things.....multicolor cauliflowers & red celery both sounded like fun.....

Those do sound fun, Marilyn! Today I gave away my herb garden in big ceramic pots to the friend who,served as my gardener while the house was on the market and we were up north. I am happy she will enjoy them, and all the plants she took. She kept this place from becoming a jungle so I owe her bigtime! I look forward to having time and energy to garden again. Soon now! I'm still perusing the garden catalogs and making wish lists at night. It is fun to get ideas from all of your lists!

I'm sure your neighbor will love the herb garden just like you have......looking at garden catalogs this time of year keeps me sane, although the weather has been very spring-like....had a flock of about 30 robins in the yard yesterday...unusual for mid-Jan.!

Would love to have robins. The winter ones arrived for a day a couple winters ago & cleared the crabapple tree.

We get mass arrivals of male Robins in Nantucket too for the crab apples, but so far it has just been the regulars hang out throughout the winter. Weather has been strange. We are in Vt this week and it has been rather mild and lots of rain and fog, but today it was sunny, so DH hit the slopes. I lunched with friends and cruised through some antique shops. Tomorrow I will spend the day at the pottery studio which will be fun no matter the weather. Patti

Sounds like folks are keeping entertained. I have to find out how to tell a crabapple from a viburnum prunifolium, cause there are some beautiful small fruitful trees on some streets.

I have started the ball rolling on garden projects here. Tree guy is coming over to give a quote. it is harder to get through to a local nursery to inquire about them planting the big hybrid maple I want and maybe having them extend the bed it's going into. DH and I have agreed about how to extend a roof to cover a woodpile for the trees we fell.

Latest plant of interest to me is fagus grandiflora 'Cameron'-- a weeping dwarf American beech. There's got to be space in the yard for a small beech tree. This weekend, will be a major measuring day for plotting out the intended wall, steps patio and waterfall.

Ooh! Ooh! Call on me, call on me!

How exciting, Rosemary! Take lots of photos when the project gets going......Have fun in the studio, Patti....I'm heading to art class this afternoon, working on a painting of a hellebore....

VV you would have the answer.

I planted Viburnum prunifolium Ovation a couple of years ago in Nantucket, but it is still quite small. It has some nice spring pinkish leaves before turning green. I am hoping it is as narrow as advertised 4'x10'.

Here are out 2 crabs in Nantucket, Malus Donald Wyman and Malus sargentii, both planted in 1983. Years of joy for us and the birds.

Robindog, would love to see your Hellebore painting when it is done. Our H.foetidus in Nantucket are all strutting their stuff especially the cultivar Wester Flisk, but the other couple varieties are not far behind. Not much happening up here in Vt except a gray crappy day and very icy. DH got a great day of skiing in yesterday, but bagged today. Patti