Pages

Tuesday 21 April 2009

Serviceberry Question and the Kitchen Sink

I really do have a Serviceberry question for those out there that have had experience with the two cultivars I am considering. But first I have to make you go through the angst of the back garden yet again .. OK .. I'm not that cranky any more about it all ..
Hubby and I are watching the weather and it is supposed to be fantastic starting Thursday through Sunday .. so the clock will TICK !!
Mean while the rain is VERY good for the garden as many of my garden pals have reminded me ? : )
Syringa vulgaris ' Mme Lemoine Lilac ' is packed full of buds .. and I learned a hard lesson last year on how drastically I had been pruning it .. we had a pro come in and prune our trees and he kindly explained the "birds' and bees" to me .. "use the FORCE Joy" !!! meaning stop cutting it back so badly and hey .. some luvin with the fertilizer and good soil will go far !
Dave has been pondering his situation with his good buddy snail .. thinking when the "H" double hockey sticks (he is Canadian eh !) are we getting back up on a deck ???? I must keep calm !!
The Gold Mock Orange is beginning to leaf up very nicely and I can't wait to see if this is finally the year it will flower .. talk about stubborn ??
The border looks bare but plants are busy waking up .. and good grief .. I am SO over the wheel thing .. why is it still there ??

This is the dark and scary side of gardening .. are you alone when reading this ? .. have you got the lights on ? .. is there some one else in the house ?
Some vines have a MIND of their own .. some of them have come from very far away places (about 10 miles probably) but where were they before they were there ????
VP .... is you are reading this (I'm sure you won't be .. you are very busy) but below is a picture of the next Dr. Who villain ... it is incognito right in my very back garden !!!! I think his name is something like "Root Devil" .. very scary stuff !

Are you still enthralled by the creepy picture ?

Now for the next session ... I am trying to pin down one Serviceberry .. I love the look of Amelanchier x grandiflora "Autumn Brilliance" and "Princess Diana" Full sun location .. I will prune and train as a small tree .. they both have wonderful characteristics .. so any opinions on which one is the best would be appreciated .. I'm in zone 5b so the zone isn't an issue .. but hot humid summers might be ? Either way I love them both !

16 comments:

Bren Haas said...

Hello to sweet Molly ( I just adore that picture of the calico!) you are being very constructive this spring. Can't wait to see how that all turns out. Happy Spring to yoU!

Gail said...

Those scary roots look exactly like the bush honeysuckle I continue to dig out! Talk about monsters and villains!

Joy, I have your basic Amelanchier canadensis. It's wonderfu;l and hads sweet fall color. I love the looks of Autumn Brilliance...I googled them both and it's my favorite...I am swayed by the name; being a big fan of autumn!

May I share with you my brilliant purchase...are you ready, really? You already know, because you are great guesser! But I got a Sumac "Tigereye Bailtiger"! I had to, even if there is a possibility he might be invasive! The more the merrier! Well, did you guess?

Gail

CiNdEe's GaRdEn said...

Hi,
Sorry I don't know anything about Service Berrys but someone just got one not long ago. Let me think who it was. It was another blogger so maybe they will post on this. Before that I had never heard of a Serviceberry!(-:

Jill-O said...

I'm in zone 5b and my mom's got a 30+ year old serviceberry that does just fine thru our cold snowy winters and our hot humid summers. We don't know what cultivar it is. It has lovely flowers, cedar waxwing birds visit us every year in June just to eat the berries and it is one of the first trees to color in the fall. It has become one of my favorite native trees.

Cathy S. said...

I would go with the Princess Diana. That root does look almost as scary as all the amount of weeds I have in the garden.

Linda Lunda said...

LOL! Thanks for fun reading...... LOL!!
Love the snail!
Linda

Tessa at Blunders with shoots, blossoms 'n roots said...

Well Joy, I have no advice about Serviceberry- I'm not even sure what it looks like, but I do have some general advice...get both! I love watching the progression of your yard and can't wait to see the outcome! Happy decking to you :)

VP said...

Hi Joy - I think you need to slap a patent on that Dr Who monster immediately, it'll make your fortune! ;)

Looks like you're about to have a very busy time garden wise - fingers crossed that good weather turns up. Yesterday I wore SHORTS for the first time this year :)

CanadianGardenJoy said...

Hello Bren .. Molly was an exceptional little being .. we were so lucky to have had her .. and Lucy too !
Bren ... I can't wait to see how it all turns out either girl ! LOL

Gail .. this is my beautiful ivy that made the "green walls" but when it is stubborn .. it is scary !! .. I'm hoping to find out if I can order the Serviceberry.
I am convinced that I should also have your new purchase too girl ! Tiger Eye has been pulling at me for a couple of years .. the problem is space again ? LOL

Cindee .. girl that is what I thought too ! Some one out here talked about them .. a memory is a terrible thing to fog up just when you need it !

Hello there Jill ! .. I have read so much and narrowed it down to these two .. I really really am smitten with them .. and since they live a long time that makes me happy : )
Thanks for letting me know girl ! : )

Cathy ... that is where I am leaning .. I hope I can find one fairly quickly so we can get it in and settled ! .. YES ...... SCARY root alert !! LOL

Hey Linda ! .. that snail is cast iron and one of my (and Dave's) favorites ! LOL

Tessa .. my god did you over here me saying that to my hubby ? that is too funny ! I said we should because "they" need homes and I would be a good tree mom ! LOL
I want to speed up the progression so badly girl : )

VP .. Thanks girl !
I hate to tell you this .. but you know how Canadians are anyways .. people have been wearing shorts here too .. even when it lightly snowed one day .. we are CANADIAN EH ! hahaha
YES ... I should be protecting my interests here with my root monster ! LOL

Randy said...

Joy, I love the wheel! I would mount it between two 4x4 posts, more toward the top of them and make a trellis out of it. I think it would be fabulous! It would look great in the center of the two post with fancy post caps on them too.

tina said...

I researched them both when looking for my serviceberry. I settled on 'Princess Diana' simply because I am a big fan of hers. 'Autumn Brilliance' is a bit more common in the trade (at least in my neck of the woods), so I would for sure go for 'Diana'. Both are similar. I wound up with 'Trazam'-ha-try finding info on that cultivar. I am so thrilled with it. One trunk tree that can be mistaken for a Bradford pear. Wonderful smooth bark. And tons of small berries already! Can't wait to see what you chose. The berries taste so good to me.

tina said...

P.S. I did post about my 'Trazam' serviceberry. I know how it is forgetting about who posted what. Memory!

Anonymous said...

I don't have any advice about serviceberries, but I'm anxious to hear the answer, because I am considering one for my garden. But will it drop berries onto my deck? Maybe I better plan to put it out further.

CanadianGardenJoy said...

Jamie ? Randy ? boys ? .. You have an EXCELLENT imagination !!! .. as soon as you said what to do , I could see it in my minds eye .. I would paint the posts white or at least a white wash .. and it would be a perfect trellis ! .. now .. can you come up here and help me do that please ?? and bring some plants with you too ?? : )

Tina girl .. if you saw me in action today you would have laughed .. god knows where my head is because it isn't on my neck .. I ended up with a big Autumn Brilliance .. they didn't carry Diana .. but here is the kicker .. on the receipt (I got 10% off for hort club membership too !) .. it came up as Princess Diana .. now how strange is that .. the tree ID tag is for Autumn Brilliance but who knows what might have happened .. as if a switch a roo never happened before ?
It is a nice big tree with fat buds (remember we are behind in weather here) .. and I am so excited .. it is like Xmas to me !!
I saw another cultivar there called Spring Flurry but it is much larger and I had no idea about it since I didn't run across it while researching .. have you heard of that one ?
In any case .. I brought my baby home and I'm dedicating it to Earth Day : )

Robin .. My favorite two were Autumn Brilliance and Princess Diana .. if you just read what I posted to Tina you will see that this could be a switched tree .. but in any case I read for two days on them and finally came down to the crunch .. we will be planting as soon as possible and YES !!! you should get one too ! We can form a club girl : )

tina said...

Nope, never came across Spring Flurry, but did see a 'Snow Cloud'. Merry Christmas! :)

CanadianGardenJoy said...

Hey Tina .. I thought that was pretty funny too .. how many strange and wonderful names can they come up with ?? : )