My Half Acre of Paradise

Yesterday, I pruned my nectarine tree, the three butterfly bushes, and did some tinkering with the apple and cherry trees.

The butterfly bushes (buddleia or sometimes called buddleja) are easy — you just chop ‘em down to about 12″ high. They’re just a clump of old stubs now. But soon, new stalks will rise from the clump, and they’ll quickly get six feet tall in summer. Last year, I waited too long, and I think the sap had risen through all the old branches, and I lost a lot of the plants’ energy by chopping off those branches. They seemed like they weren’t going to come back for a while.

The nectarine tree needs serious pruning every year. It’s just like a peach tree — you’re supposed to keep the center of the tree open for sunlight penetration to the fruit, and you need to cut out about a third of last year’s growth to promote more new growth this year. They only flower and fruit on last year’s growth, so you can’t overdo this thinning of new twigs. I cut some of the height back, but I don’t butcher my tree like a lot of peach growers do around here. I like finding the balance between an attractive shade tree and a good fruit producer. I think I have the balance pretty well. But if I let it grow much taller than it is, I’d start only getting new wood in the top canopy and only getting fruit up high. By taking the height down some, I will promote new growth in the lower canopy this year to produce next year’s fruit. I think it came out well. I should take a photo and post it here.

On the apples and cherries, I don’t need to work with such precision, because they flower on old wood, so it’s not a concern to constantly be taking out some of last year’s growth. I removed some branches crossing other branches or going throught the center of the trees. I also removed some “hangers” — branches that grow downward and then curve back up. I headed back some of the long upright branches to control the height, too. It’s not always good to just cut those back to the height you want, because a bunch of branches will grow out just below where you cut. So you have to be careful and think about where you want to promote more branching. I’m not sure I have it all done right, but like I said, these trees are more forgiving because they flower on old wood.

After months of doubt my three clematis cuttings have proven they’re alive! I’m really excited about this! These are the ones I put in a cup of water last summer, and they eventually sprouted roots in the water. Last fall, I planted them in little pots, and they quickly went dormant. I was worried that I either gave them too much or too little water, but I kept hoping that they were just going dormant for the winter.

So yesterday, I took one of the pots and pushed the dirt out into my hand and slowly started crumbling away the dirt to look at the roots. I found a few live roots, and then I found a tiny little sprout that was working its way up to the surface alongside the old dried up stem. I very carefully put it back in the pot without breaking up its rootball. I am so stoked! These clematis vines are a real gem — the variety is Ville de Lyon, with these wonderful, large, magenta flowers. The parent vines are not growing all that well where they are, because they’re getting a lot of root competition from trees. But I plan to plant these somewhere were they can do better.

I was looking at my clematis vines out front today, and I cracked one of the branches, so I brought it in and made new cuttings from it. I have about six of them in a jar with water now. Also, I noticed some new growth coming out of the ground from the clematis on the shady side of the front arbor.

I hope the old clematis cuttings that I put in pots are doing OK. They went dormant for the winter, but I wonder if they had enough roots to handle the change from water to soil and being dormant for so long.

About three days ago, I started some cuttings from a pink geranium (pelargonium) that we had in a pot on the back deck last summer. It was a plant Emma’s primary teacher at church gave her. The plant has been in the basement all winter, and it keeps flowering. Doing quite well. So, I made some stem cuttings and put them in two six packs under a humidity cover and fluorescent light. I also put a heating pad under the tray holding the six packs. Some of these cuttings were very small and might not work, but I’ll give it the old college try.

Yeah! This is really a sad statement about life in Utah, but today the temp got up to 44 degrees, and it felt great!!! The forecast is for mid-40s all week, and I am so stoked about that! Bring on the spring, that’s all I have to say.

Maybe if the ground thaws a little, I’ll take a soil sample by my chlorotic maple and send it in to USU’s soil lab for testing. I’m trying to find out if it’s iron chlorosis, manganese deficiency, or something else wrong with that tree. Once I know, I’ll order some tree implants that will put nutrients right into the sap as it rises this spring.

Today, I moved the maple seeds I’d been soaking into the refrigerator to stratify. I’m hoping most of the Japanese Maples will sprout sooner than 90 days, since they chilled outside for half the winter, but I have a hunch that chilling on the tree branches doesn’t help as much as chilling in moist soil. I’ll check on them frequently and see if little tails start sprouting out of the seeds.

I meant to do this in December, but I’ve finally gotten around to stratifying some maple seeds. I have Japanese, Amur, Rocky Mountain (or maybe Bigtooth), and some normal green maples that get golden leaves in the fall. I collected the Japanese maple seeds from my tree in front of the house, and they were hanging on the branches until early January. Hopefully, they’re good seeds. The others were collected from street or parking lot trees and even some bushes (Amur maples) at an amusement park!

Today’s step is to soak them in water for two days. Then I’ll put them in a ziploc with moist peat moss in the fridge. I’m following directions from this earlier post.