Since I am having trouble uploading pictures of the vacation I will have to come back to that later. Right now I have sad news for the gardener. I lost my big globe willow tree this week. It had been struck by lightening a few years ago, and was damaged. However, willow trees are amazingly resilient and it continued to live and grow. It was nearly 50 feet high, and beautiful. It gave fabulous shade to the house and was a joy to sit under. There has been a lot of wind here lately, and the winter was very cold. I picked up fallen branches as usual (willows trim themselves) and noticed that more large branches up in the tree were dead. Then Tuesday while taking our walk, I noticed that the nice round top was opened up. We walked over and looked and found the trunk was splitting three ways. Sweet C said I had better get it down before it fell on the neighbors vehicles, shed, and our fence. I called for a couple of estimates but before the second had even made it out the split down had increased by 3 more feet. I called the gentleman I had decided to have remove the tree and told him the problem and by the time he came to look a hour later, the split had opened another 4 inches in width. Both of us were concerned it would come down that night and so even though it was raining, blowing and lightening flashing, he came back with a helper and took down the dangerous parts that night. The next morning he came back and cut down the rest of the tree. It was huge, took him two large trailer loads to haul the brush away, and my neighbors took the firewood. So by Thursday night the whole things was gone. I am very sad. I hate having to lose trees ever, and this was such nice shade tree. My neighbors are also very sad to lose this tree as it gave them good afternoon shade. Sigh. I will need to figure out what I want to replace it with. I may want to build a deck on that side of the house and wait to plant a tree until after that is done. Do I want another willow? Do I want another tall tree? It feels so bare there!
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3 comments:
I think you should go for something less common. There are SO many trees that people so rarely plant that are hardy in your zone. You probably want something that will provide shade fast, but all the trees with the most character take the longest to mature.
here's one suggestion from me,
atlantic cedar with a couple of redbuds for understory trees.
I love the old trees. It is sad to see them go. It is interesting how many memories I have associated with different trees. I am sure you will find something wonderful to replace it with. Call me and I will help you with the photos.
have you ever heard of a Katsura tree? You should ask someone at thanksgiving point if they have one. I've only seen it one time, at an arboretum here in sac. I've never seen one in utah but they are supposedly hardy there. Anyway the common variety gets about 30 feet, but there are all sorts of cultivars ranging from dwarf to weeping.
It'd make a great specimen tree that nobody else has.
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